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Chase Utley has a Hall-of-Fame resume. There, I said it. I’m not even sure – is this controversial? Let’s go through his case:
- Best player at his position for a decade (2000’s).
- Best player on a World Series-winning team (2008 Phillies).
- A career WAR equivalent to Craig Biggio, another (mostly) second baseman who is not too controversial of a pick (elected on his third year on the ballot btw).
2025 was Utley’s second year on the ballot and he received about 40% of the vote (remember, you need 75% to get elected). I’m pretty sure he’ll get in eventually, but perhaps not in 2026.
What does this have to do with autographs? A lot, actually, because many of you like to buy cards low and sell them high. If Utley gets elected, his prices will go up so you might as well buy now.
Or…..you could just buy them now because he was a slick-fielding, smooth-swinging, good old-fashioned baseball player that you enjoyed watching. I’m a buy and hold guy, so that’s my plan.
Here’s a look at the ten best Chase Utley autographed cards released during his playing career:
#10 – 2005 Fleer Showcase – Autographed Legacy
This card goes for it and sort of delivers. It has TWO photos on its front – a portrait and a nice action shot. The lightly grayed portrait does look a little like a picture you might see in a funeral home, so that’s a little strange. Also, do we need a HUGE jersey number reminder and all this overlaid text that is hard to read?
There are also orientation issues. People tend not to like horizontal cards as much, but they can sure fit an autograph…oh wait, this card has a vertically-oriented autograph. Very odd and disorienting. Stranger, the back is vertically-oriented:
The back gets points for having stats and biographical information, as well as a serial-number. There are 450 of these babies, so attainable but not likely to find a huge selection to buy online. One recently sold in June 2025 for $51:
Shop 2005 Fleer Showcase – Autographed Legacy on eBay
#9 – 2006 Flair Showcase – Autographics
The best thing about the 2006 Flair Showcase Autographics Chase Utley card is the image of Chase. It shows him getting ready to hit, right as he’s starting to lock in. Other than that, the card has some flaws.
The vertically-oriented autograph running down the side of the card? Some will think it’s cool – I really don’t know what to think. Its positive is that it’s impossible to miss – this isn’t an autograph that gets lost on the image it’s sitting on. It IS somewhat easy to lose the sticker on this background, so I suppose that makes the sticker autograph a bit easier to swallow.
As far as negatives, the “AUTOGRAPHICS” section on the front of the card is quite ugly. The back is one of the worst designs you’ll see – even for an autographed card. The soulless font selected for the authenticity statement is also sized too small – it leaves plenty of empty space on the back. Space that even an awkwardly-aligned Phillies logo can’t fill.
This Chase Utley card is short-printed in this set, so only 100 copies of this card exist. Due in part to their scarcity, I can’t find any recent online sales.
Shop 2006 Flair Showcase – Autographics on eBay
#8 – 2005 Upper Deck Trilogy Generation Future Signatures
This Upper Deck card is similar to the Flair card, but has a better design – Utley is centered well on the card. The sticker autograph does stand out well on the card’s background. Again, the sticker is harder to detect on these cards.
This is another rare card; there are three parallels of this insert card: Bronze (pictured here – SN/35), Silver (SN/50), and Gold (SN/15). That adds up to 100 copies total of this card.
The back is a typical boring Upper Deck authenticity statement, but at least the statement takes up the entire back of the card.
Shop 2005 Upper Deck Trilogy Generation Future Signatures on eBay
#7 – 2011 Topps Tribute – Autograph Relics
This 2011 Topps Tribute card is somehow the cleanest front on this list so far, despite being the first relic card on the list. It somehow manages to get a large image of Utley, a bat relic, and an autograph on the front without things seeming claustrophobic.
The card gets major demerits for not having an on-card autograph, but otherwise it’s pretty solid. The light blue background does wash out the Phillies uniform a little bit, though.
The back is fairly boring, but it does have Two sentences about Chase’s career, in addition to the authenticity statement.
The card pictured here is the “base” version of this insert and it is serial-numbered to 99. There are also “Black” (SN/5), “Gold” (SN/20), “Green” (SN/75), and “Red” (SN/1). That makes a total of 200 copies of this design.
Despite their relative scarcity, they can be had for reasonable prices. Two of the /99 sold recently for an average price of $48.50:
Shop 2011 Topps Tribute – Autographs Relics on eBay
#6 – 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter – Framed Mini Autographs
As much as I love mini framed Allen Ginter cards, I can’t get fully down with this one. Look how tiny the space is to autograph this card! Chase did pretty well to mostly keep his auto in the allotted space, but his signature (and anyone else’s) spilled over. The image Topps picked, a portrait, is probably not the best decision given the cramped autograph box. Overall, the front looks too busy.
Still, it’s not a bad looking card that I wouldn’t mind having. The back has just an authenticity statement, but it retains that cigarette-style card backing that Allen & Ginter fans love.
The print run for this particular card is unknown. Topps did release print runs for some cards in this set and the announced runs were typically 50-200. This likely (but certainly doesn’t guarantee) means that this card’s print run is higher than 200.
I can’t find any recent online sales data, but there are usually some listed on eBay:
Shop 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter – Framed Mini Autographs on eBay
#5 – 2002 Bowman – Autographs
There’s a lot of pressure (I place on myself) to rank “1st Bowman autos” high on my lists, but I’m ranking this one only fifth. I love the on-card autograph, but the image leaves something to be desired. It looks like Chase might be wearing a Phillies uniform, but what is that black helmet? I’m sure Phillies fans can set me straight on this card, but as a casual fan of Utley’s I’m confused. Also, seeing only a tiny sliver of his face takes away some of the appeal of this on-card autograph.
The card lacking the “1st Bowman” delineation, which makes us all salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs, keeps this card from ranking higher (history lesson – Bowman didn’t put “1st Bowman” on autographed cards back in 2002).
I found some older sales of this card and it’s interesting to see the price difference (5x) a decade apart:
Shop 2002 Bowman – Autographs on eBay
#4 – 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter – Framed Mini Autographs
By 2011, Allen & Ginter designers figured out that they should devote more real estate to the “signature box” on their mini framed autograph cards. Everything works on this card. Chase signed a nicely-sized autograph and the image is still big enough to be attractive. The darker frame really helps to highlight the lighter colors on the card.
While this card isn’t numbered, it does come in a “red ink” variety which is serial-numbered to 10. I’m betting that there’s not many of the non-numbered cards, either, because they don’t seem to come up for auction very much.
Shop 2011 Allen & Ginter – Framed Mini Autographs on eBay
#3 – 2011 Topps – Diamond Anniversary Autographs
In 2011, Topps was celebrating their “diamond anniversary” so they came up with the “fairly dumb in concept but actually kind of cool in practice” idea of having some of the game’s best players write them a congratulatory note on some cards.
It is cool to see what players write when given the opportunity to do more than sign their name. I think I’ve seen a couple of these cards and Chase wrote “Congrats!” on both of them.
These cards are serial-numbered to 60, so if you are enamored with them there is a scarcity thing going on.
I love the on-card auto and inscription, as well as the fun action shot they picked of Utley. It does match the frivolity of the card concept, so I think everything works together well.
There haven’t been any recent sales of this card, but I have seen copies on eBay.
Shop 2011 Topps – Diamond Anniversary Autographs on eBay
#2 – 2005 UD Origins – Signatures
If you’ve been reading this blog, you may have picked up that I like nice clean, simple designs. This card has the old-timey baseball feel and it doesn’t clutter itself up. There’s a nice picture of Chase swinging where the picture framing leads your eye through the entire card effortlessly.
The downside of the front design is the huge white box that abruptly cuts off the player image. A better design may have faded into the white box. However, the huge white box affords a big signature and Chase will take the space if given it. This allows for an autograph that jumps off the card.
The back is not terrible as it has biographic information and a fact about Utley. The rest of the back maintains the old-school card design.
While the design pictured above is not serial-numbered, there is a “bronze border” version of this card that is serial-numbered to 5 copies.
A graded “9” version of this card sold in 2021 for only $23:
Shop 2005 UD Origins – Signatures on eBay
#1 – 2002 Topps Traded & Rookies – Signature Moves
Is this Chase Utley’s best-looking autographed card or was I seduced by this being his earliest autograph? Probably more the latter, but it does have some good points. First, the on-card autograph on a white background. Second, the image clearly shows his face.
However, there are some downsides. The “Topps certified auto” mark is on a white square, which detracts from the cohesiveness of the card. In fact, there are these weird blocks on this card: The random Phillies logo coming into Utley’s strike zone and the big block that contains his signature is kinda messy – notice how it doesn’t quite stretch to the border of the card, leaving a jagged edge.
So the card is not without its flaws. However, it looks and smells like a rookie/1st-year card and it is. That does give it major points, regardless of design flaws.
People seem to be holding onto their copies, too, as I can’t find any online sales. You can scope eBay for them, though:
Shop 2002 Topps Traded & Rookies – Signature Moves on eBay
So there you have it: The Top Ten best Chase Utley autographed cards that were released during his playing career. I hope this post helps you discover some cards you didn’t know about. Good luck adding to your collection!