The Yak Shack Forum

Well, it's that time again for panic. The convention hotel deals start 18th March 09.00 Pacific time. Show tickets are on their way to being sold out. Only 3% left for Thursday and 23% Sunday.
If you book your hotel through the convention site, you have to give a choice of 12 hotels. I don't know if this is normal, but it seems an awful lot of work. If I go, I'll be booking from home as it's cheaper by about £500 with flight combined. The only downside to this is I can't have someone share the room to cut costs (the site I use doesn't allow it). The weird thing is, the Pound is worth two brussel sprouts to the Dollar at the moment, but the trip is going down in price on the site. I'll wait until they pay me to go  :rofl:

Luckily you have the pound and not the euro....or the trip would be a lot more expensive.

I had no clue about the 12 hotel thing until I just read your post...that sort of sucks. I have stayed in one of two hotels for the past 5 years and it would stink to be moved anywhere else.

Ooh good, I just rushed out & planted some brussel sprouts, I hadn't realised they were in such demand in the US... I will be RICH when I visit :rofl:

Speaking of odd but lovely veg, I understand that peeps don't have parsnips in the US...?? Amazing!! What makes a Sunday roast a real treat without roast parsnips?

I met up with an old University friend recently who grew up & was educated in the UK but is in fact American (not that he sounds it), and he now lives in San Diego. I promised I'd visit and he gave me a long list of his favourite foods to take with me when I go and see him. Sadly there are many I can't export :(

hi all

Hope you all have a fantastic time at  the comic con

Thank you!

Check this thread (or I will make a new one) for pictures of any Artbox Potter Exclusives at this years con. I will post as many as I can after wednesdays preview night!

lol cool will check it out although this year the only thing i would really want is charlene harris auto lol

I saw these this morning. I think I would like to get the three card set, but I'll wait a bit till prices come down, as they always do.  There are also some more crystal card and metal sets that they made. I actually like the metal ones this time.

Surprised there's a SDCC Neville auto as that makes two issued of him in as many weeks!  :o

I don't think this is the first time they did that either.

Bryan, are they doing auctions again this year?

A Fleur Costume Card limited to 30 Cards (this is 04/30) appeared on ebay. It was found in a Goodie Bag and not in an auction (but maybe they'll do auctions too).

What would be great is to have the price the exclusives were sold at the con in order to know how much to pay for them on Ebay at a fair price.

I'm all for getting a good deal.  Just keep in mind that most of the people who are selling SDCC items have incurred considerable expenses to attend the show, including airfare, hotel, and admission.

The 01/30 of that fleur card is up on eBay...$795 bucks.  I was gonna buy it for the wife, but can't afford that.  Hopefully another number will surface for much less.

I'll be at comicon tomorrow. First place I'm going is the Artbox booth. Hopefully I can get more info on the goodie bags and special cards.

It's odd that artbox used last years card design with costume material from Goblet of Fire. Last years was a Potter Stinks button from GOF numbered to 33. The auctioned cards last year were also GOB generated materials. Hopefully if they have auctioned cards this year they will be from a different movie. Makes me wonder if these SDCC exclusives were not produced last year and held over.

There's another give away. If you buy a goodie bag, you spin a bingo wheel and if you get numbers 1-10 you get an exclusive card. Not sure what the numbers are. I heard from someone who won it, its a glove of some sort?

I have never had any problems getting the goodie bags and costume cards until this year. Since theres only 50 they sell out really quick. Even the crystal cards are selling quick.

According to the auction for the 14/30 fleur card, that is her glove from that costume.

Another exclusive card, now a Prop Card, appeared on ebay.
Durmstrang Staff Head, limited to 14 cards. Still all rare exclusives are GOF cards with last year's design.

sold for $900

I would not have paid 900 for that thing...it was a very odd looking card to me, didn't seem as well done as the others.  We do like the Fleur Glove card though, though we wouldn't pay what people are asking for it either, haha. 

There's a #/10 fleur card up now, it's the logo/emblem from the task costume.

Special items so far from artbox:

Fleur Patch from back of First Task costume (bingo raffle when you buy bags)
Fleur Leather Glove (in bags)
Durmstrung Staff Card (bingo raffle when you buy bags)
Cedric Diggory Nameplate from First Task Costume (auction)
Cedric Diggory Nameplate from 3rd Task Costume (auction)
Ron Weasley Nameplate from Quidditch Costume (auction)

I have one of the Cedric first task letters, and I will post a photo tomorrow evening. I think there might be a couple more things, and I will report again tomorrow once I find out.

And he just so happens to being wearing a Harry Potter t-shirt......

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/25/comic.con.pen.stabbing/?hpt=T2

Here is the link to the Durmstrang Staff Head.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-SDCC-ARTBOX-HARRY-POTTER-PROP-CARD-RARE-CARD-14-/150471650575?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2308cf2d0f

Also just found this, limited to only 10 pieces.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-SDCC-Comic-Con-EXCLUSIVE-Artbox-HARRY-POTTER-9-10-/280538928969?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41516c5749

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/Bryanjs14/IMG_1035.jpg)
Durmstrang Staff Head # 05/14



(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/Bryanjs14/IMG_1033.jpg)
Cedric House Patch Relic Card #d 02/04



(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/Bryanjs14/IMG_1030.jpg)
Cedric 1st Task Nameplate #s 02/07

the staff card is horrible lol :rofl:

the rest look good

Always wanted a Potter Stinks badge /33

#/7 Krum costume is up...they look like the hooks to button his cloak thing maybe?  Kinda like this one.

So let me try a new summary, thanks Bryan so far and for the pictures:

Fleur Patch from back of First Task costume x/10 (bingo raffle when you buy bags)
Fleur Leather Glove x/30 (in bags)
Durmstrung Staff Card x/14 (bingo raffle when you buy bags)
Cedric Diggory Nameplate from First Task Costume x/7 (auction)
Cedric Diggory Nameplate from 3rd Task Costume x/7 (auction)
Ron Weasley Nameplate from Quidditch Costume x/7 (auction)
Cedric Diggory House Patch Relic Costume x/4
Ron Weasley House Patch Costume x/6
Viktor Krum Claw-Hooks (?) Costume x/7

And after the summary I have to tell you what I don't like. At first I don't like that Artbox doesn't know the Potter books and movies. Otherwise this one more mistake wouldn't have happened. The Ron Weasley House Patch card shows a picture of Ron playing Quidditch in the Half-Blood Prince movie. And Ron is definately only playing Quidditch in HBP and not before. So how can they list at the back of the card that the costume ist from the Goblet of Fire? I didn't see the nameplate card yet, but I guess we'll see this mistake there again.
And I don't like the not perfect numbering of the nameplate cards last year and this year. Is it so complicated to give the Diggory-card with the D numer 1 and so on? Seems so. The card with R has number 5 and not 6, we saw this all mixed up last year. In the right order all would be nicer.
And not to talk about all this rare stuff. I was right when I said last year that we'll see so much more cards like these this year. Way too much for collectors. They could have made some more nice variants in the regular sets.

My view is these cards are not generally available to the public and will not form part of my collection.
To issue cards in this way at one exhibition is grossly unfair to the majority of dealers and collectors who are unable to get to San Diego, including many who buy and sell thousand of dollars worth of these cards, and are good customers of Artbox. Does their loyalty count for nothing?
Artbox have a website they could offer goodie bags on there and have a raffle to pick the lucky buyers, as no doubt this would be greatly over-subscribed. At least everyone would have an equal chance where ever they were in the world.
As for the number of types of these cards issued I would imagine Artbox are in danger of killing the golden goose, way too many this year.

Seeing as more than half (Fleur glove, Fleur Patch, Claw Button, Staff) were given out for FREE to people who were going to buy the mystery bags anyways, I think it is more than fair what they do.

They more than likely will not be doing them anymore is what a little birdy told me, so next year you won't have to complain about them  ;)

I love those Cedric cards. Shame I will never own one.... :'(

Bryan, the thing is...a lot of the people who get these bags are not the real collectors or fans. They are just people out to make some money with these items because they know they sell. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, and I understand why they do it. However, I agree with the raffle on their website idea. It would be nice for Artbox to offer these types of items to people who can not make the show or don't even live in the US. I understand they want SDCC exclusives, and that is fine but with the large amount of them they made this year, they could have held back and put 1 or 2 on their website to offer to individuals who could not make the show.

Artbox has attended the Philadelphia card show a few times, but never sells, auctions or raffles anything at that show. They only have a display set up. When asked why....the response was that they are located in California and are therefore able to sell at SDCC, which is also in California. They are not able to sell at a show in another state.


This will be interesting to see. Since the last movie will hit theaters shortly before Comic Con, I will be shocked if they really don't offer anything.

Oh, and I agree with Thomas as well on the numbering thing. They really should be able to put the letters in order with numbers....as well as know what movie the costumes are really from. LOL

That means they'd have to, you know, update the website first, haha.  Though I did notice they put up a little 'sdcc 2010' flyer...right under the ootp announcement, haha.  Id love to see something like that though, goodie bags on the net for those of us who cant get out there.  I'm not as upset that they offer these limited cards, while we'd love to have one of the Cedric letters, or the glove, we'll never own any , unless I have a rich uncle dying that I don't know about.  But anyhow, I see the pain of you guys that have lots of master sets, and this kinda screws that up (We're still working on building just one master set!, haha)

Alan

Yeah selling anywhere else requires them to get a tax id/license in that state.

Well for them to do something on their website, they have to have a working website lol. I would say the line to buy bags is 70% collectors / 30% dealers & sellers. I fall in the middle, I am keeping on of my exclusive costume sets (the 3 card set) I am keeping 1 of my 5x2 costume sets, I bought a metal card set and the crystal card sets for myself, and I got some great cards in the bag that filled up many holes in my master sets. However the big cards are to expensive for me to own, I just cannot justify owning something worth THAT much. I will never own the pear tree leaf, or any of the wands, or the platform ticket and I am fine with that. I have my own idea of what a master set is and when I reach it I am happy. The expensive cards help offset the fact that I bought 16 bags over this trip trying to get all the exclusives in the bags, I bought the costume sets, the metal set, the crystal cards.

Also just to touch on the master set thing...I do not know how you can consider any of these high end exclusives part of a master set. The design does not fall in line with any of the sets, and just because it is from a movie doesn't mean it should go with that set.

The Cedric goblet letters could go with GOF, GOFU, or any of the filler sets that he could have been put into. I view this as just high end centerpiece of collection type of cards. They don't belong to any particular set (other than maybe the Artbox Harry Potter Exclusive Collection set...just include anything ever at comic con in it)

Aren't the bags limited to one per person and per day? How did you get 16? Just curious.

I had my little brother there with me, so over 5 days that is 10 bags, and I got BACK in line three times and was able to purchase 2 more on three different days

Hasbro has SDCC-exclusive merchandise, but most of it can be found for sale on the company's website.  There's no reason why Artbox couldn't do the same or sell a limited amount of items through its distributors.  The only times I've been able to get a goodie bag was when Tom Breyer sold some leftover bags the first year Artbox had them or when a friend went to the show and picked up one for me.

Artbox could easily get around needing a license for the Philly show.  Just sell the items to dealers who have the necessary paperwork, with the stipulation that the cards be offered first at the show.

Cindy, I like how you think. It would be nice for Artbox to find a way to sell at other shows. Not that they attend them much. It was nice the one time they brought items before they got cut up, like the Daily Prophet for me to see. They just didn't allow any photos to be taken of them....

I agree with Bryan. I too have my own image of a master set. I have all the inserts from GOFU, all 3 case toppers and I think one of the case incentive cards. Yet, I figure I have a master set....as master as it is going to be. I don't chase the case incentives as I see them as an incentive to dealers and not something a collector really gets from opening boxes. Like Bryan, I will never own the Platform ticket (as much as I want it), Pear Tree Leaves or wands because I can't afford them. I do have a Whomping Willow, but only because I got very lucky on eBay one night. And the only reason I have all those cards from GOFU is because of getting a hot box in my one and only case I ever purchased for myself. These SDCC cards are really not part of any set and I don't think anyone should feel the need to own them to make a master set of any kind.

I also understand not wanting to put any of their #'d to 10 cards on their website....but some goodie bags would be nice. I also agree they need a working website for this.


At the Philly shows, there are dealers who have the metal cards, crystal cards and costume sets, so I am able to purchase them (and usually very close to cost) if I wanted, but for once, I would love the chance to be able to get one of those awesome rare cards. Bryan, I would say you did great this year getting all those bags and winning an auction or two. How do those auctions work? Is it a silent auction that just goes to the high bidder?

Completely different every single night (which ticked me off)

First night straight auction, $1000 start you bid till no one wants to outbid you
Second Night silent auction, hidden reserve, if the reserve is not met then no one wins
Third night silent auction, hidden reserve HOWEVER there was a MAX price you could pay, the max price was $3000, we bid $3400 for the set that night. How stupid is that, we bid HIGHER than anyone else, and didn't win because we went over
Fourth night silent auction, hidden reserve

LOL. You didn't follow the instructions.  :P That sucks though.

But if two people bid $3000, then I guess the person who bid first would get it?

Yeah well you didn't know what the max bid was until after the auction. If two people both bid the same max then I think each person would put in one more silent bid. Also, once your silent bid was in you could not change it at all or make another silent bid of a higher amount

bryan are the photos you posted some of the cards you were lucky enough to get? if so well done.
                                                                                                                   dave

yes, those three photos are cards I purchased

On Saturday I managed to get the lucky bingo for the staff. I have number 14/14. The other cards, not so lucky. I only got 3 bags while I was there though.   :-\

Here's what 14 looks like.

(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a261/prettyinsterofan/card001.jpg)

(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a261/prettyinsterofan/card002.jpg)

Great card, congrats! :)


Can you tell me more about that please. Why not?

No idea, that is literally all I heard. Don't know if it is true, and if it is true have no idea why.

I hope they still do them, to be honest all the mystery bag stuff is why I even buy the mystery bags. I didn't get lucky and win a single one this year from the mystery bags, but I will continue to buy them if they keep doing the 1/1 stuff

I can kind of understand why they might not want to do mystery bags next year. Out of the 3 bags I got, only 1 was worth while. I got really lame stuff in the other 2 bags. 1 bag I got a half blood prince set, a sealed tin, magnet, sdcc costume cards and the 2 binders. I didn't even get that extra container with the auto/prop/costume cards.

I did hear something about it being really difficult for them getting stuff this year. Maybe that's why there were more rare exclusives and not enough of the costume cards.   :-\

I think I found another exclusive: Claws.....
http://cgi.ebay.com/HARRY-POTTER-Comic-Con-2010-COSTUME-CLAW-CARD-7-Made-/320567310306?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa34cf7e2 (http://cgi.ebay.com/HARRY-POTTER-Comic-Con-2010-COSTUME-CLAW-CARD-7-Made-/320567310306?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa34cf7e2)

I think it's very true that the value of the goodie bags has gone down.  There were a couple of years when they had individual cards, two sealed hobby boxes, plus a couple of binders and other items.

Central_park, when you realized that the plastic case with the auto, costume and prop was missing, you should have gone back to the booth and told them.  They might have been able to give you the missing items.

We've been hearing for quite a while that Artbox has been having problems getting items from and getting the cards approved by Warner Bros.  WB has stopped awarding new trading card licenses, so the issue is definitely with that company and not Artbox.  It's probably a good thing that there are only two movies left.  If we were at the beginning of the series with the current attitudes at WB, we might not have had any cards at all.

I would have gone back to see about the missing pack if I noticed it in time.  :(

To add to what kbmum said, I imagine the actors are getting tired of signing all the cards too.  :-\
It doesn't help that they created all the update/3d/memorable moments/villians. I kind of feel like they are just trying to cash in on it all. I enjoy many of the sets they have created but some are not necessary.

I agree. Artbox should have stuck with just the movies and not individual sets, but it is a money maker for them and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy them myself.

I like the claw button card....

And look at this. Now, for only 6 made, couldn't Artbox have at least put it right side up?

http://cgi.ebay.com/HARRY-POTTER-WEASLY-SDCC-2010-COSTUME-CARD-ONLY-6-MADE-/110565853765?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19be3d0a45
Why don't you try emailing or calling them. Kay is really nice and maybe should would understand. It's worth a shot anyway.

Well, Artbox definitely messed up with the Ron card.  Since it had a low-numbered print run, there's no excuse that the printers didn't pay attention to which way the swatch should have been set in the card.

How can he have all 8? Are there two different Cedric cards like this? Because Tom and Bryan each have one.

Yep, this is what happens when Artbox decides to screw with the way bidding is done. Instead of 7 people each winning one card, one person wins all 8 (and he won an 8 card weasley set too, so 16 cards for this guy)

For the record, he won this set for $3000. Pretty insane that Artbox wouldn't let us just flat out bid against him. We were prepared to pay double what it sold for. Preeeeety sketchy

So the entire set was sold together....or individually and they guy just won all 8 cards?  And wow, knowing what he paid for the full set, he is asking a bit much for just the one card.

The whole set was sold together

So now I get why the guy has the entire sets. However, Artbox could have made more money selling them individually, AND more collectors would have a chance at owning them. If I got that entire set, I would have kept the entire set. Yes, even if I had paid $3000 for it.

Well, this is a trading card forum.  We talk, and sometimes bitch, about cards.  There are plenty of other forums where people discuss the chaos the world is in.

I believe the cards are manufactured in China.  Still, they had the whole patch and should be able to tell from the image which way is up.  This swatch isn't upside down:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HARRY-POTTER-WEASLY-SDCC-2010-COSTUME-CARD-ONLY-6-MADE-/230503812391?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35ab190d27

The top two pieces of the weasley patch (as well as the name which has not been seen, one card says wea, other card says sley) are all the right way, the bottom two pieces are upside down

Yes, artbox could have made a LOT more money selling them individually and I sure wish they would have. One person ending up with 16 cards is a little ridiculous. (not to mention all the cards the same person won in the mystery bags/bingo game)

I am angry at the way artbox changed how the auction was done every night. One person should not end up with 16 cards, it all just seemed shady to me is all. There is absolutely no reason on the planet to put a MAX on a silent auction, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

I think Artbox could have made it so that if you won an auction, you were not allowed to win another. A max on a silent auction is strange. I wonder why they did that.....

Rns I have spent days pondering that and I have not come up with a single answer that makes any kind of sense.

maybe it is just that they want certain people to win

Bingo. Only reason I can think of but didn't want to say it.

Artbox knows what these cards get on eBay. Why would they want to sell a set for $3000 max knowing that a single card can bring that in?

The cartel you speak of means 7 different people all get 1 card. 4 people in the cartel are collectors and the cards will never see the light of day.

This is no small time collector. This guy bought 8+ bags every day (he had 3 friends with him and went through the line multiple times each day) purchased some of the master set auctions, and won two whole sets which he is selling all for himself. What is small time collector about that? I am more small time collector than him, I just joined up with other collectors to have a better chance at getting 1 of something that I could never afford as a set. This guy was there for the same reason as almost everyone else. If you get lucky and win some stuff or win some auctions you will most definitely end up a happy person should you decide to sell. All I am saying is putting such a low max price on a silent auction looks very questionable to me. If the max was like 5k or 6k I would understand.

Let me put it this way. The night before when we won the Cedric letter cards we paid more per card than the max price put on the other diggory set. Why would you make your Mac price LESS than the previous nights selling price unless you wanted a certain person to win

How did each of the auctions run, Bryan? Last year, the silent auction was a clipboard where you wrote your bid (a silent auction in this country is where you post your bid in a box and at closing, the highest wins). Kay told me it would be different this year, but didn't say how.

I mentioned how it was run a page or so back. Run differently every night.

Ooops. Sorry  :-[

Well there was a group of us buying the cards. In that group 3 or 4 people were collectors, who would never sell the cards, and the other couple are the people you see with the cards on eBay. We all wanted the set, but realized that buying it and bidding huge against each other would be stupid, and all agreed we would be happy with one card.

We still had people bidding against us, and we lost two nights to the same person, but that wasn't because our bid wasn't high enough it was because of the stupid way Artbox decided to do the auction those two nights that made it seem like they had an agenda and wanted the other single bidder to win. Our outlook is it is better for 7 people to win one card each rather than one person win sets of 7 or 8 and be reselling them all, which is exactly what happened. If anyone here ends up wanting part of the diggory or weasley set this one person won, you can deal with him and him alone. If you can't come to terms with him, then you prob won't get a card from those sets. If you wanted a diggory letter or Cedric patch from the sets we won, there are 3 or 4 different people selling those cards for you to try and deal with. It just doesn't seem right that one person controls the market for two whole sets

I think they want certain people to win the auctions. I was talking to one of the volunteers there and she kind of gave me the impression that certain info was given out to certain card buyers. She also told me that whatever they had in their case was promised to certain buyers so when I tried to buy some sets in the case I told I couldn't. It should be first come first serve, no holdings.  ::)

I agree. There should be no holding and no "special" info given out to anyone. I wonder if this person who won the two sets knows someone a Atbox. How he/she managed to get 8 bags a day amazes me. The rule was supposed to be 1 bag per person per day as it was in the past. If they had that many extra bags, they could have given them to Tom like they did one year in the past to sell off to people who could not make SDCC.

Well the rule WAS enforced. The guy had 3 friends there with him, so he was able to get 4, and then he would get back in line (which I did two times as well) and got 4 more IF he made it through the line again before they ran out of bags.

The first set he won, he won for $100 over the minimum sale price, and the second set he won he happened to guess the exact maximum amount you could bid. We all bid HIGHER than the maximum amount.

Does Artbox start selling the bags a soon as doors open, or do they start at a specific time of day? I ask because if Artbox starts selling first thing, then they should not allow anyone to get back in line so that people coming later in the day could still have a chance. Of course, with all the people, Artbox might not remember who they already sold to. It worked out for you to get extra either way, and had I been there, I would have done the same thing :P.

Does Artbox tell everyone there what the winning bid amount actually is?

The doors open at 9:30am to let everyone in(every year I have gone they let us in about 10min early). Artobox will not sell to anyone until 10am. You have to jump in line and wait. All the people in the front of the line are usually exhibitors, they can be in and out of the convention center before and after hours.  Which sucks! Also about 5-10 minutes before 10am all the extra friends show up and jump in line.  >:()   All the goody bags are sold in the morning! Throughout the day the booth gets people asking questions or buying whatever sets/binders/magnets they have in the case.
It is very easy to say most of the business for Artbox is done between 10-11am.

correct. the doors actually open a little earlier, and artbox makes you just stand around and wait for them. They are 100% ready to start selling the minute the doors open, but they make you stand around for 45 minutes+ for no good reason.

It sucks when you go to the convention for the panels, and you have to sacrifice going to one just to wait on artbox to sell to you. But everyone has a fair chance to get in line and get one, most of the time there are 80 or so people in line, and at the end there are always a couple bags left and people jump back in line and buy more

it would be nice if artbox used those extra bags and had a international competiton so that people who have no chance in heck to get one ( unless from ebay ) can win or purchases them ....

I can't believe this person is selling EACH card for more than he paid for the entire SET. 833% profit margin = Wow! :o

And IF they really were a "preferred buyer", well, that's a bit rich!

I notice he lowered his price. He also declined an offer, which was probably really reasonable considering what he paid. Say the person offered $1000, and he got that much for all 8 cards ($8000), he would still make a ton of money on the deal. But still, I wouldn't buy from him since I know what he paid for the full set. He really is trying to make a ton of money.....which makes me wonder. I think he must have known someone.

I agree that the extra bags should be used for a competition on their website or given to a dealer to sell to those who can not make it. I know by 11am, there may be some left for people to get back in line...but they could also hold on to those bags for people who don't make it in the door at 9:30. Someone should be able to buy a bag at 1pm if there are any left rather than sell them to someone who already got their bag for the day. Again, if i were there, I too would end up back in line. I am only saying what is the actual fair thing to do. As for the line cutting, someone should also be watching the line to make sure that can't happen because that is not fair at all.

Bryan, you didn't answer on how you know what everyone paid for their winning auctions. Did Artbox announce the winning amounts?

On both nights the single bidder won, I just asked the guy what offer he put in after he won. For SOME reason, Kay would not show us the actual bids so I had to ask the guy (which, again, was a little sketchy. there is no reason not to know the winning bid). I know what the minimum/maximums where on the silent auction because those WERE announced after each auction was done.

I would be MORE than happy to get anyone a bag any year, I just hate shipping international on something that size/weight. It always gives me a headache.

not sure where to post this question, but i hope someone knows the answer.

has artbox indicated how many neville longbotton autos they printed?

How would you prevent someone from buying more than one bag per day?  Per transaction, yes, but the logistics of keeping track of who bought a bag that day would be too difficult for the staff manning the booth.

Not difficult at all actually. Have a stamp made up for each day, and stamp the persons attendee badge. Lots of companies actually do exactly that.

I would guess there are 150-200 Neville autos.

Hi,
I've got two of the Potter Stinks on ebay at the moment.  If either of them takes your fancy, get in touch and let's see if we can work out a private deal at a better price.

Maybe you are talking about me, "just for fun" I placed a bid of exactly $1000, being sure to be declined. And so it was a few seconds later, it happened automatically. I think, he requires a lot more.

I think you've hit a system to get cheaper cards, Thomas. You offered $1000 and got turned down, and hey presto, the BIN price has dropped by $1000. Keep doing that and they may drop to a price us mere mortals can afford.

If the seller had listed the cards one by one, and spread them out he would have done so much better selling them.

Thomas, I didn't realize it was you who made the offer and I only guessed the price. LOL. I can't belive he would not take $1000 on the card when he knows he is making a profit by selling it for that price. Ridiculous.

Bogleg -  :rofl: I love how you think.

I agree with Bryan. If you have all 8 cards, list one and wait for it to sell....then, list another and so on. Having them all up at one time qwill make someone want to own them all, but not want to pay $20,000+ for them. I think it also distracts others from bidding on them. They appear more "rare" if you list them further a part. Of course, maybe he should have listed them as a set with a BIN of $10,000. He would still make a ton of money and someone might be willing to pay that kind of money for them together. Not me, but maybe someone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there just one set of the seven cards for Cedric's name sold at the SDCC?  I ask this because the above dealer says he bought the entire set.  If that's true, how do you explain tomunique having the letter D card for sale on his Ebay site?  You can find the listing here: http://cgi.ebay.com/SDCC-Harry-Potter-Exclusive-Cedric-Nameplate-3-7-/140432877017?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b273a5d9
I think I'd be careful when it comes to buying one of these cards from that dealer.  I trust Tom more than I do him. 

There were two different sets, one set of 8, one with 7.

Alan

Yes, that's true, these are two different sets, so no reason not to trust the seller.

But it's still way too expensive for me. The first card (letter D) has been sold now for $2000, the first offer he accepted. But I can't imagine he can sell all the rest for the same price. The prices must drop more, if he wants to sell every card (but maybe he is very patient and can wait a long time until someone pays that much, we'll see).

Yeah, this guy can afford to be patient since $2000 is more than half of what he paid for the set to begin with. Too bad the full set has been broken up now though :(

Has anyone looked at all the stuff hes selling? He has a couple exclusives for ridiculous prices and tons of other auto/costume/prop cards for 3 times the amount you can normally get them for on eBay.  ::)

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy worked for Artbox and this is the way they make extra profit.

Does anyone know who the seller is?

Yes I met him at comic con.

According to Artbox he is a regular and a big collector. I'm not going to accuse anyone of anything, but him bidding the MINIMUM one night, and then bidding the exact maximum the second night is fishy. We bid higher than this guy. It makes NO sense to put a max on your auctions. We wanted to pay a company more for their items than someone else and they refused to sell it because we wanted to pay TOO much lol.

The set sells for $3000 at the vconvention. Artbox knows these cards sell for $2000-$2500 on eBay. They also know on one at the convention will pay that much. Just saying...

I'll point something else out.

On the last day they did the "bingo" for the claw button cards. There were a total of 7 (or was it 9?). The two freebies you COULD win were the fleur leather glove card (with an instant win card in the bag) or the claw button card by spinning the bingo thing and getting numbers 1-7 (or 9?) The people that just so happened to win the TWO 8 card sets pulled one of the instant win cards in their bag, Kay walked over, congratulated them and went in the back to get their Fleur leather glove card. Only thing is... she gave them one of the Claw buttons. Two of us noticed this and said something, and she went out to them and collected the claw button card and gave them the right card. It was still a little suspicious that artbox made that "mistake" with the same collectors that just so happened to also know the exact maximum of one of the 8 card sets, and the exact minimum of the other 8 card set that were auctioned. I didn't see them make that mistake with any other collectors that were buying bags.

All of this is just a little weird to me. Maybe it is just me and maybe I am still jealous that ONE person won 16 cards instead of 8 people all getting 1 card from each set...but if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....

Also, look, Artbox saw at the convention that one of the Fleur back patches sold for almost $2400. One of the people that worked there said can you believe it sold for that. If one person knew, they all knew. And This was a goody bag bonus card that you could win at Bingo. Artbox didn't auction those they didn't make any extra money off those at all. Seeing the price that fetched they had to know that the letter sets could get $10k EASILY on eBay. Not to mention they knew what those Potter letters got last year. They also knew that the highest an auction has gone AT THE CONVENTION isn't even half of that. If I knew I could sell something for $10k, why in the WORLD would I put a maximum sale (bid) price of $3k on it? There is just NO logical explanation other than something a little sinister, which other companies have been caught doing as well.

Why would Artbox single out this one person for special treatment?  I know I've never bought anything from the seller.  I can't recall ever seeing that eBay ID selling HP cards before now.  It just seems so out-of-the-blue.  I'm not discounting the fact that this all does look fishy, but it's also odd.

Has anyone asked Artbox for an explanation for their behaviour, or has this already come up and I've missed it ???

Yeah, it all seems a bit fishy to me too. It almost seems as if someone knows someone and gave them the info needed to get the cards. Artbox is a small company, so I am sure they hire "extras" or volunteers to help them at the booth. It is possible that someone had something to do with this behind Artbox's back to make money for themselves on the side on eBay. This is all speculation and may not be anything at all, but just a thought.

Marlon - no one asked Artbox, but would you honestly expect an honest answer from them if they were doing something they shouldn't?

Be interesting if the Japanese parent company found out!

Please, let's all step back and take a deep breath.  We need to be careful about making accusations with the limited amount of facts we have.

Now, where did I put that smilie?

Oh yeah, here it is...

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v451/kbmum/smilies/raspberry01.gif)

You have to understand that I'm currently in referee mode.  My kids have done nothing but fight, fight, fight all summer long.  That's my reward for having twins.  I'm at my wit's end and still have another 27 days before they go back to school.  Not that I'm counting...

I think we need a referee on here anyway :P

I wanted to add some points. I think we all need to remember how this works for a moment. Artbox makes a product and sells it to distributors for a set price. Once they are sold, it is out of Artbox's hands. The distributors get the product and sell to us, the consumer, for a small profit. Once we get the item in our hands, we open them and keep or sell. Some of the cards are rare (and we know this because Artbox numbers their cards, which I love) and can be sold for sometimes more than a box (or even case in the rare occasion). Artbox makes no profit off of the cards being sold on eBay. Once they sell their cases, they got the money they needed or wanted for them and are done.

When it comes to SDCC, Artbox was probably expecting a certain amount of money for the cards and were happy with just that. This is why I don't think Artbox has any involvement directly with this seller. Had Artbox really needed more money, then yes, they know what these cards can sell for and would probably have sold each card separately if they really needed the money. Although I think that putting a max on an auction is weird, my guess is that they did this to hopefully give someone who couldn't afford as much as some others a chance. Do I think it is odd that this guy bid the exact max? Yes, but again, he may have figured this out some other way. I know one person at Artbox and have had many conversations with this person in the past. There is no way I think this person would be involved with some sort of scam. Bryan - since you were there, how many people work at their booth?

As for the wrong card being given to him....this could have been a simple mistake. They were all in boxes. Although you could see through the top, there is a chance she just went in and grabbed a box from the correct pile, but somehow, the wrong card was put in this pile. Simple mistake. Yes, it happened to be this same seller again, and I bet he was pissed when people called them on this and had to get the card exchanged.

Of course, I was not there so I don't know what really went down. I do know that Bryan said this guy told him what his winning bids were, but he may not have been completely truthful either. You never know. In the end, this may have just been all fair and legit and we are just all jealous so need to find a way to make it "wrong". I just know I am jealous because I will never have the chance to own just one of these cards, let alone 16 or so.

I would have liked to see all the cards in the goodie bags instead of auctions though, but I see why they do it. It brings people to their booth and adds excitement, causing passerby's to stop and see what it is all about and hopefully find some people who didn't know these cards existed and get some new buyers.

Will any of this stop me from buying future sets? Heck No! I can't wait for the next one already . lol.

Sorry for the long rant.  ::)

Having read all of the above, it really surprises me that a lot of what came out of the show was a surprise.

One person won a lot - same as last year.
A group of collectors/dealers got together to beat or collude with the big winner - same as last year.
The group that got together was the same as last year.
The individual with an ordinary sized wallet doesn't stand a chance - same as every year.

Has anyone that got a limited show card actually kept it for their collection? I know that if I had got a set, it would stay at home. If, in the future, it had to be sold, it would be sold as a set. All this bull about having to sell the card(s) to fund the trip means they shouldn't have been there in the first place. Can't afford it - don't go! Splitting the set so more people can get a piece of the action - divide the amount of cards by the price paid and sell each of them for that. You've got a card you want and have helped the "little people" - this would never happen as it seems a sale is not a sale unless there's a profit in it.

Anything I've got at the show in the past has been by request, of which I pass on at cost, or if it's a freebie, give away. There are a very small group of us card collectors that appreciate the hobby and try to help each other. I think we are a happier group than the dealers/opportunists.

Well said!


This is what kills me most. It seems that the people getting this stuff is out to make a profit. I would just want the cards to be part of my own collection, but I am the little person with the ordinary sized wallet who never stands that chance.  You pinned the tail on the donkey with that one!

I can't even afford to get out to SDCC right now, but if I ever did, I wouldn't try to find ways to fund my trip because that's just it...it is a trip. If I went on a cruise or something, I wouldn't be looking for ways to get my money back. Same as this.

Well...

If Artbox really wanted the average collector to have a shot at these cards, there would be a drawing or raffle on its website.  I'm sure the people at Artbox think that most of the cards will eventually end up in the general population.  After all, sellers can try to get as much money as possible for a card, but it's up to the marketplace to determine any item's worth.  Sooner or later, these sellers will bring their prices down to a more reasonable level.  Granted, most of the "reasonable" prices are still far more than the average collector can afford.

Card dealers aren't the only ones who make a profit from SDCC merchandise and freebies.  A quick search on eBay for "SDCC 2010" will bring up tons of items.