backstory: i struck a deal with the seller for this card thursday night after soliciting advices here. friday morning he shipped.
feeling uneasy about buyback in general i called UD to verify the COA. they weren't able to, no big deal it happens. then i started digging around and came upon the image below in worthpoint. you can't click into the auction anymore (maybe they were shut down), but the 2 cards below look to be an exact match to the card i bought, except it didn't have the "1/3".
i also did some googling and could not find the jordan sticker as part of the buyback that year. receiving the card in hand today it seems to me that the signature is embedded with the card, while the "1/3" seems to be above the card's surface
. any scientific way to know for sure? of course i've opened up a paypal dispute.