Review of 2004 - Cards that is!

[Guest]

[Geek Boy]

I don't know if you do this sort of thing on the forum but would anyone like to comment on last years card releases - best and worst?  Harry Potter was the best for me, great quality and some really nice prop and costume cards.  The worst was Star Wars Heritage.  The base set was so cheap and as for the sketches, well even I could have done better than some of those guys.  So much scope in all of the films and yet a lot of the artists just went for the same old characters.  And as for the autos, what was the point of doing Carrie Fisher and James Earl Jones - again?

[sketchqueen]

Personal Best- Conan : Art of the Hyborian Age by Rittenhouse (okay - this was my favorite set because I was the lead on the project

Best Concept, Worst Follow Through - Upper Deck's US History - over a year late and still they had errors on the cards

Most fun to collect? SW: Heritage - I'm BIG into sketch cards (really? yup!) and I chose one topic to focus on - EWOKS (really? YUP!) !!!! and have amassed quite a cute tribe of them

[olly]

Harry Potter was probably the best release as it was something fresh and different. But they ruined it by over producing Update and completely screwing up the insertion (UK cases anyway).

Clone Wars was a complete surprise and I think was better than Heritage which I think dissappointed a lot of collectors. It obviously sold and made money for Topps as they have decided to only have sketches in the Episode 3 releases this year (no autographs )

I think all the Rittenhouse releases were the strongest they have ever been and they keep things fresh all the time.

In comparison I was disappointed with every Inkworks release and their overall releases were very weak. Same old stuff again and again.
Maybe 2005 will be better for them and have less sets that will bomb.  

And I only figured out that the companies that produce the best sets and have the best customer service are exclusive to Non Sport cards. Rittenhouse and Inkworks (on normal form) as the two top companies. Whereas Topps have a lot of other interest in Sports cards. Artbox and Comic images are owned by other companies which have other publishing interests. So if any company stands a chance at being top dog then they need specialise on non-sport cards only. It would be nice to have more than two top notch manufacturers.

It was an interesting year and as a dealer a very hard year, so I am hoping 2005 will be better

 

[sketchqueen]

And I only figured out that the companies that produce the best sets and have the best customer service are exclusive to Non Sport cards.

I thought you always knew I was the best

[olly]

True  

But I see modesty has nothing do with any of your new year resolutions.  

[sketchqueen]

I have *plenty* of resolutions devoted to work - modesty is not one of them. Shameless self-promotion, however, is

I find that if I'm not proud of my work, noone else will be.

[Boggle]

It was an interesting year and as a dealer a very hard year, so I am hoping 2005 will be better

 

  What, even with all the money i spent with you!!!!

[olly]

 

Now you know you need to spend even more this year  

[Geek Boy]

Only sketches in episode 3?  Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I need auto's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree about Harry Potter update and you can see it bombed by looking at ebay - nowhere near the interest of the first release

Actually I forgot to mention Cards Inc Thunderbirds - I really liked this set and the sketches were pretty cool.  Well Martineck's, Czop's and Bleathman's at any rate    And seeing as I have probably the single biggest collection of them  

Inkworks Smallville Season 3 was a big disappointment - where were all the big hitters in the auto department?  Hellboy was good though.

As for being a hard year for dealers, I do wonder sometimes how you can make any real money from this.  I bought 3 cases of Harry Potter off ebay and 3 1/2 cases of Heritage in an attempt to stop getting ripped off on ebay - not all that many I agree but never again.  A costly mistake and not the right thing for a collector to do especially if the cases don't break the way you want them too.  Do you collect as well Olly, or is it strictly business?

[olly]

I do collect every now and again but small bits and pieces.
I try not to for financial reasons  

What I find the biggest hurdle at the moment is constantly finding cards cheaper on eBay.com (US) than what it cost me to break from cases.  

Plus the UK is oversaturated with cards and card dealers.
We really don't need half the print run of certain sets in the UK.  

[Boggle]

Now you know you need to spend even more this year  

I'll do my best, i need a new credit card anyway......  

[Roz]

Actually I forgot to mention Cards Inc Thunderbirds - I really liked this set and the sketches were pretty cool.  Well Martineck's, Czop's and Bleathman's at any rate  

Definitely - that was a really good set. Not one I collected but I do like it - had there not been so MANY money draining (dare I say it HP??) sets around this year I probably would have done to be honest, the sketches of the thunderbirds ships rocked (I am not so big on the face sketches)... It's where I first saw Martineck's work and loved it - although I won't say too much as he does come on this forum

A set that sneaked up on us was Trilogy - very cheap to collect and pretty innovative in it's Chrome-ness. Sala Baker finally got a Sauron auto and Proudfoot was a cute touch, although new signers were definitely needed.

[savage727]

I was very pleased with the Topps Trilogy Chrome set as well.  I am a fan and collector of LOTR's cards from both Topps and Decipher and have been especially pleased with Decipher's products this past year.  Topps needs to reevaluate what they are doing with the LOTR's franchise as they have had way too many repeat Auto & Clothing Cards from the same players.

I liked the Van Helsing and Spiderman 2 card sets this past year as well.

[Geek Boy]

Martinecks work is great - I don't know if you are aware but he's done sketch work for some of the Rittenhouse Star Trek sets (Voyager Profiles and Women Of Voyager) and also Farscape Season 3 (another Rittenhouse licence).  Actually, at Memo I was lucky enough to be given a one-off Martineck Thunderbirds sketch from Darren at Cards Inc.  I think he was impressed by the size of my collection    He had one or two others I rather liked the look of as well!

I think repeat auto's and clothing is a common problem across most card sets at the moment.  It devalues the previous releases IMHO and you never know whether they signed more for the first release, less for the update etc.  I only collected the auto's from the various LOTR sets but I didn't bother with chrome because they weren't in the same style as the others.

Oh and Farscape Through the Wormhole was a good release - loads of auto's but sadly no costumes and only 1 sketch by Wayne Pygram (Scorpius)

[Eve]

I thought the Harry Potter update set was great, even though it was overproduced. I loved the prop cards and the Dawn French autograph most.  I LOVED LOTR CHROME- an overall Gorgeous set and the new design on the costume cards is a welcome change.  I thought BUFFY WOMEN OF SUNNYDALE had a great autograph lineup(sans Alyson Hannigan though ), although the base cards kinda stunk, too blurry.  ANGEL Season 5 had a great costume card lineup  . Xena Art & Images was a good addition to RA's Xena line.  I liked the Conan set and thought it was well done, but hated the sketches from one of the sketch card artists(whom I won't mention).  I wasn't too crazy about Star Wars Heritage or Quotable Star Trek(I didn't care for the chase cards mostly, it had a good autograph lineup though).  That's just my two cents.

[Roz]

Martinecks work is great - I don't know if you are aware but he's done sketch work for some of the Rittenhouse Star Trek sets (Voyager Profiles and Women Of Voyager)

Yep that's true, although I didn't know that until I flicked through his folder at Memo

He has done some phenomenal sets, and he'll be in on this ROBOTS set too - I wonder if the film's going to be good enough to support a good card set?? I hope so. OOPS I am moving on to 2005  

[olly]

OOPS I am moving on to 2005  

How about we do that as well?

http://www.theyakshack.co.uk/forum/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=1267