The Fallout of Inkworks' Vault Being Pillaged

If you're a non-sport collector, particularly autographs, you've probably noticed the chaos in the prices for almost every Inkworks card. When the company went under in the spring, Razor and a couple of other groups bought out their leftover stock and have been releasing it to the masses en mass.

Razor's approach has been to pack out the cards in two different releases: Ink Archives, which gave collectors one autograph per pack and Ink Vault, which offered three autographs and a sealed box (almost always from Inkworks). Ink Archives put almost 20,000 autographs into the marketplace while Ink Vault's 499 cases has resulted in another 29,940 Inkworks autographs (plus whatever's in the boxes) hitting a somewhat small corner of the hobby. That's almost 50,000 autographs that have already been released going into circulation in a matter of months. The result has been a flooded market, which is both good and bad.

From a collecting perspective, it's been great. In just the past two weeks I've received three cards that were always priced higher than I could afford until now. The first was a Robert "Freddy Kreuger" Englund card from a Charmed series. A few months ago it sold consistently for about $50-60. I was able to trigger a 'Buy It Now' for $30.

Next up was an autograph from an underappreciated movie, Hellboy. Lead actor Ron Perlman isn't a huge Hollywood star but the guy has had some memorable roles over the years, most recently in the awesome FX series Sons of Anarchy. In Hellboy he plays the main character. Before Inkworks went under: $50. I got it for half.

My final find was a bit of luck. It was a 'Buy It Now' that was just posted when I came across it. This one comes from the Hellboy set once again. It's of director Guillermo Del Toro who has since rocketed to fame with Pan's Labyrinth and is pegged to tackle The Hobbit if it ever gets going. Not long ago, this card sold for $100-200. This one was just $40. I did luck into an all-time low for the card I think though, as ensuing copies have crept back up into the $80-100 range. A once tough card, Ink Vault seems to be bringing a steady stream of them now.

The fact that the market being flooded with Inkworks autographs isn't the only reason prices are so soft. It also has to do with who's selling the cards. Razor's clients are mostly sports card dealers. In my experiences with both sides of the hobby, non-sport dealers are much more patient as a whole when it comes to holding onto their inventory. It's been more stable than the performance-driven sports side. As a result sports dealers look at moving their inventory as quickly as possible, which often results in undercutting the competition. Plus, if you're bread and butter normally revolves around names like Albert Pujols, Michael Jordan and Lebron James, you might not recognize the value in the director of a moderately successful film.

A lot of the cards I've been picking up have been coming from dealers who carry a lot of sports cards, which makes me believe that's their primary area of focus. Even at the deflated prices, Ink Vault is offering everyone tremendous value and a pretty easy way to make a few dollars. That is for everyone except those non-sport dealers who have been with the hobby for the long haul and have seen the value of their inventory shrink with each ensuing week.

It's in situations like these where I'm glad I'm not a dealer. I know I'd have a tough time marking a once $200 card that I pulled from a $60 box of cards down to $50 just so I can move it. Even moving $10 cards down to $5 is tough when margins weren't great even when the hobby was rolling at full steam. If sports collectors are worried about the number of dealers in their neck of the woods, non-sport collectors should be petrified. When times were good there were only a handful of dealers to pick from. I suspect the fallout from Inkworks' closing is going to make that handful even smaller when you consider the double-whammy of fewer products being released and the severely lowered value coming from almost 50,000 autographs coming into the hobby all at once.

"I Don't Care If You're Not Ready For Your Close-up!"

A handful of singles from 1972 Topps Baseball recently landed in my mailbox. Flipping through them, they all shared one thing in common: an awkward photo. I haven't had a ton of cards from this set in the past so I'm not sure if this is the same with most of the set or just some cardboard coincidence. Either way, here's some awkward mugs put to a classic art deco design.

175. Tom Haller, Detroit Tigers

Forget looking into the camera. Haller is looking all deep and intellectual as he ponders the meaning of life, why the sky is blue and something so terrible it makes him wince just a little bit.

181. Ed Kranepool, New York Mets

Of the lot, this one shows someone who was at least ready for the shutter. Too bad his forced smile was channelled from his Grade 9 class photo.

196. Mel Queen, California Angels

Queen's expression of surprise seems more suited for a guy walking to the curb in his flannel housecoat for the morning paper and being ambushed by some creeper with a camera hiding in the shrubs.

 201. Phil Roof, Minnesota Twins

Another one of those staring off into nowhere photos. Add to that either a windy day or the tragedy known as picture before a haircut and you've got a card that's tipping toward "awkward" on the "Awkward or Not Awkward" Scale of Baseball Card Photographs.

 

202. Scipio Spinks, Houston Astros

Unlike Tom and Phil, Scipio (for his sake I hope it wasn't pronounced 'Skippy-o') is watching a bird circle overhead, hoping that he doesn't decide to drop a birdy bomb on his shoulder.

 

210. Denny McLain, Texas Rangers

Finally, we have Denny McLain who looks like he's had a rough night on the town and is ready to go off on anybody who gives him the chance.

Box Break: Razor Ink Vault (Part 1)

The demise of Inkworks has meant deals (or softer prices, depending on how you look at it) for collectors as their excess stock hits the market. A couple of dealers on eBay have a lot of the stock as well as Razor, who bought up a bunch of autographs and, guessing from their Ink Vault release, a lot of unopened material as well.

Ink Vault marks Razor's second release heavily featuring Inkworks autographs. The first, Ink Archives, offered collectors one random autograph per pack in an encapsulated holder. As tempting as it was, I stayed away largely because of the $15-20 price tag per pack and some uncertainty over the level of autographs found inside, especially after it was discovered a partner of Razor's was selling singles of some of the best cards Inkworks made over the years.

Ink Archives went over well and Razor upped the ante with Ink Vault, which offers a box-within-a-box gimmick. First off, each sealed box contains three random Inkworks autographs placed in a top loader with a Razor seal. The box also contains an unopened non-sport box, most likely of which will contain further "hits." At first I figured this would be a way to get rid of a lot of junk and even at $50 per box, it would be something of a letdown.

But then I started looking at the breaks. The boxes, which I figured would be mostly old Inkworks retail boxes like Tomb Raider and Godzilla turned out to be fairly solid. Razor also emphasized that not all of the boxes were from Inkworks. I've seen others such as Batman Archives from Rittenhouse and Star Wars and Indiana Jones boxes from Topps.

As for the autographs, the breaks seemed to be yielding better results than Ink Archives. Of the three autographs, there appeared to be at least one that I wouldn't lump in as a "common." Combine the good liklihood of a solid box and at least one autograph worth getting excited about and I decided to give a box a try.

Here's what I landed:

First the autographs:

Alien vs. Predator

A6. Ian Whyte as Scar (the Predator)

This is a set I've been planning on tackling. I love the Alien series (although I do not acknowledge the existance of Alien Resurrection) and there's not a lot of pricey cards in the set. I'm very pleased with this one.

Small Soldiers

S4. Stan Winston

Outside of Ray Harryhausen, Winston was probably one of the best known special effects artists in history. He sadly passed away in June, 2008. I already had a Winston autograph from Terminator 3 but I like this one much better. Plus I already have the Kirsten Dunst from the set so I might have to track down the couple of others that I'm missing one day.

 

 Smallville: Season Three

A17. Camille Mitchell as Sheriff Nancy Adams

I made it through half a season of Smallville and couldn't take any more. Of the three autographs in the box, this one definitely goes onto the trade list if anybody is interested. 

With those three autographs, I'd be fairly happy. But there's still the box inside the box. So no matter what it is, I consider it a bonus in this case. And it's a good thing too because here's my box:

 The Seeker: The Dark is Rising

There is one card in this set that I want but the rest I would love to avoid as much as possible. The box does promise an additional autograph (no redemptions here) and a Pieceworks costume card.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my Razor Ink Vault box break. 

My Favorite Cards of 2009

There's still a few months left in the year but I'm starting to think about my highlights of the year. Honestly, baseball hasn't caught much of my attention this year. There's some bright spots, but by and large it has been much of the same old stuff. A couple of weeks ago I received an insert set in the mail that contains my favorite cards of 2009 and they're from a subject I don't really consider myself to be a fan of. These scans do not do the cards justice:

The cards come from Press Pass' KISS 360. They're a six-card insert set titled Transformation, which uses lenticular technology to show band mates go from  their regular selves and into their rock n' roll personas.

I'm a sucker for lenticular cards but Press Pass truly hit it here. It's using the technology to enhance the subject matter rather than just using it as a gimmick. To top it off, the cropping of the matching photos is spot on for almost all of them. So when you tilt Gene Simmons, his head stays in the same spot and his make-up and tongue simply appear.

KISS scared me as a youngster and I haven't totally forgiven them yet. However these cards are a perfect example of how card companies can still use old technology to make something cool.

The Transformation cards aren't hard to come by, especially considering a lot of the dealers busting KISS 360 are busting lots in hopes of landing the autographs. I picked up the entire set for under $10, or roughly how much two or three packs would have cost me.

Can Someone Please Explain 2008 Stadium Club Baseball to Me?

All right, so I'm slowly plugging away at my 2008 Stadium Club Baseball set but there seems to be way too many weird things going on. Can someone please correct me if I'm wrong and clarify the base set to me.

Here's what I know:

• Cards divisible by 3 (3, 6, 9, 12, 45, 90, etc.) are #'d/999. Does this hold true for the RC's as well?
• First Day Issue parallels of cards divisible by 3 (3, 6, 9, 12, 45, 90, etc.) are much easier to come by than the rest.
• RCs (#101 - 150) have variations. Are they vertical and horizontal?

Seriously, this is the worst set up of a set I've ever seen. There should be no confusion building a simple base set. And who's stupid idea was it to shrot print every third card? It truly messes up the look when you try to put the cards in a binder.

Build Your Own Autograph Card Set: Jennifer's Body

So the opening weekend box office numbers are in and Jennifer's Body is about to be dubbed a flop. The horror/comedy stars Megan Fox, who until Friday morning was considered Hollywood's "It girl" du jour. I have actually read a couple of articles over the weekend that are now questioning its validity. I've been wondering it for a while now too. Sure, she's beautiful but sorry folks, it was the robots that sold Transformers, not Megan Fox's short shorts.

I haven't seen Jennifer's Body and probably won't until it lands on Blu-ray, but I do have to say it looks a little cheeky - definitely not like your average horror. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, if you checked out the movie over the weekend and want to build an autograph card set (sorry, nobody's going to be making a set for Jennifer's Body), here's a starting point.

Megan Fox - Jennifer Check
Transformers (Topps, 2007)

This is one of the biggies of the modern hobby. Honestly, I don't know why. The last two have sold on eBay for $404 and $550.

Amanda Seyfried - Needy Lesnicky
Veronica Mars: Season One (Inkworks, 2006)

After holding her own opposite Meryl Streep in last summer's ABBA musical Mama Mia!, Seyfried seems poised to be on the verge of mainstream stardom. Right now you can expect to spend about $20 for her only certified autograph card, however I suspect once the remnants of the Inkworks sell-off start to dry up you'll likely see this card creep up in value.

Kyle Gallner - Colin Gray

Smallville: Season Four (Inkworks, 2005)

Smallville: Season Six "Alliance for Justice" dual autograph with Justin Hartley (Inkworks, 2008)

Veronica Mars: Season Two (Inkworks, 2007)

Veronica Mars: Season Two Autographed Pieceworks (Inkworks, 2007)

 

 

Being a big Veronica Mars fan, I'll likely always remember Gallner as the central character of "Beaver" from the second season of the short-lived show. Gallner seems to be making the rounds as a supporting actor. If any of these cards hold any significant value, it's more because of their rarity than Gallner's star power.

J.K. Simmons - Mr. Wroblewski
Spider-man 3 (Rittenhouse Archives, 2007)
Spider-man 3 Autographed Costume Card (Rittenhouse Archives, 2007)

Simmons is another one of those actors that you seem to see almost everywhere. While I remember him from HBO's Oz, he's probably best recognized as newspaper mogul J. Jonah Jamieson in the Spider-man films, whom he is perfect as. If you're patient you can find the regular autograph for under $20. The autographed costume card was an incentive for dealers ordering two cases. If you shop around, you shouldn't expect to pay more than $50 for it.

Overall, there's not a lot of different signers for a Jennifer's Body set but the two headliners are there. Granted it's going to take about $500 to get one autograph from each of the four and I know I wouldn't spend that. But that's largely because I have a hard time spending several hundred dollars on an autograph of someone who's simply "hot."

Random Pack Break: 2009 The Greatest American Hero March of Dime Sketch Card Series

5finity has made quite the splash with their first couple of offerings. Both their Archie Comics and The Greatest American Hero sets went right to the chase with all sketch card sets. No base cards, just sketches. To add to that, both sets offer premiums such as multi-card packs, autographs and custom sketch card requests. To top it off, all of the proceeds from card sales go to the March of Dimes charity.

I've already busted two packs of the Archie Comics set and was pleased with the results. I figured that I'd opt for a pack of a somewhat short-lived show of my youth, The Greatest American Hero. The show was something of a spoof on the superhero model, opting for just as much comedy as it does action. Think of the scene from Spider-man where Peter Parker discovers his powers and goes out for the first time, give it a early-80's feel and you've essentially got The Greatest American Hero.

In anticipation of the pack I recently rented the first disc of the show from season one to reaquaint myself with it. After all these years I still vividly remember the opening theme and Ralph (the awkward main character, played by William Katt) crashing into a wall. Other than that, I remembered very little. After the first few episodes, I thought The Greatest American Hero was cute but hardly mind-blowing. Still nostalgia's worth a pack of cards.

Like the Archie Comics set, packs are oversized to fit the Ultra-Pro holders in. I would recommend buying these from trusted dealers because the packs are a folded over piece of cardboard. They're sealed so the card won't fall out but it's easy to peak inside and see if you have multiple sketches or something super-fancy.

Besides the guaranteed sketch card, packs offer the following chase elements:

• Autographed sketch cards from stars William Katt, Robert Culp, Connie Sellecca, Michael Pare and creator Stephen J. Cannell.
• Redemption cards for custom sketches
• "Greatest Packs" featuring more than one sketch card.

The overall odds of receiving a special pack are 1:11. With only 899 total packs released, that means there's very few autographs out there.



Strangely enough, if I were able to pick any of the autographs, I was really hoping for a Cannell. He defined TV for me as a youngster, producing such shows as The A-Team, Knight Rider and 21 Jump Street. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. Here is what I did pull:

Unknown character from an unknown artist. Playing detective I looked up the note on the bottom of the card. Apparently this character appeared in an episode called "Hog Wild," which turns out to be the fourth episode of the second season. Reading the episode synopsis, my guess is it's some biker.

Despite the mystery and my inability to identify who drew it, I like the sketch. It has the feel of a villain from Scooby-Doo or any other Hanna Barbera cartoon from the 60s and 70s.

If somebody can identify the artist, please let me know. I like to keep track of these sorts of things.

I'm not sure if I'll be getting any more of these cards. I've had my nostalgia kick and don't really feel the need to go deep into several packs at $15-20 a pop. For fans of the show, they're certainly worth it, especially when you factor in the charity aspect but I don't count myself among the core group of fans. I do want to check out "Hog Wild" now, though.

Update: I just checked 5finity's website and notice they've added sketch card samples from all of the artists (either that or I missed the link the last time I was there). It turns out the card above is from Dan Schoening, who did 24 cards for the set. And my Hanna Barbera observation appears to be correct as he is an animator.

Real Band of Brothers Celebrated in Upcoming Release

Growing up I was never much of a military history buff. In high school I remember my teacher drawing maps of the German Blitzkreig on the floor and thinking, "Man, the janitor's going to be ticked!" and not being drawn in much more than that. In fact, I remember listing Brady Bunch episodes with a substitute we had in that class almost as much as the regular teacher as he tended to his moonlighting career as mayor of the local munipality. Between myself and the substitute we managed to come up with 84 of the 117 episodes.

Most of my knowledge of the conflicts of the 20th century have come from the few tidbits that seeped in combined with a steady diet of Hollywood war films. The opening 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan I will never forget like I did the remaining two hours the second I walked out of the theatre. Apocolypse Now still haunts me with its creepiness. Letters From Iwo Jima is way better than Flags of Our Fathers.

But my favorite war film in recent years is the epic mini-series Band of Brothers. Despite being made for cable, Band of Brothers seems to be a benchmark in WWII films. It's consistently among the top sellers on Amazon despite having been out for years. I'm sure the ever-dropping price has something to do with it, but garbage doesn't sell in volume unless it's in a bin at Walmart marked "$1.89." As the title suggests, Band of Brothers is so powerful not because of the attention to costume details, sweeping scenery or massive battles. It's great because it looks at the human side of legendary Easy Company.

The real-life Band of Brothers will soon be immortalized on cardboard as part of Canadian manufacturer iCardz's upcoming dual series America at War: WWII. America at War: WWII will package two sets in one box, kind of like 2001 Topps Traded Baseball or 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Update Hockey. Band of Brothers is one focus, while D-Day is the other. Both will have similar designs but by breaking the sets in half iCardz will be able to tell separate stories.  This also enables iCardz to expand the Band of Brothers series in future sets that will focus on other aspects of WWII.

In total both sets will have 192 cards. Card fronts feature a mix of action and portrait photography as well as several artistic renditions. And although card backs are a somewhat neglected part of the hobby, iCardz prides itself on the informational possibilities of their cards. I know I'd rather learn about history sorting through cards that ploughing through another assigned reading from a bland textbook.

Each box of America at War: WWII promises complete base sets of both Band of Brothers and D-Day. There's also some extra goodies to chase. Each box will also have at least one autograph from a Band of Brothers veteran. A total of 2,000 cards have been signed for inclusion in packs. The autograph list includes:

William Guarnere
Forrest Guth
Amos "Buck" Taylor
Ed Tipper
Clancy Lyall
Edward Heffron
Donald Malarkey   
Lynn " Buck" Compton
Earl McClung

Other inserts include sketch cards from Ingrid Hardy and instant win cards for WWII memorabilia and limited edition prints from Valor Studios.

 

Please note that the above images provided by iCardz are prototypes. The Buck Compton pictured is not of his actual autograph as they are waiting upon the arrival of the actual cards, so the final autograph might look a different signature-wise.

Basement Treasures: Topps Company 2001 Annual Report

Digging in a box in the basement, I came across some forgotten treasures. Here is one of them.

It wasn't long ago that Topps was a publicly traded company that anybody with a few bucks could've owned a piece of. As such, each year they'd have to ready a financial report for stock holders and potential stock holders.

For whatever reason, I requested such a report sometime ago. A few weeks later, presumably after an online survey because I wouldn't have wasted a stamp on one, a glossy magazine with lots of numbers and jargon that didn't make a lot of sense to me showed up in the mailbox. So why keep it? Where else are you going to find Shaquille O'Neal clutching onto a Bottle Pop? Yes, it's the goofy cover that made me hold onto this wacky little piece of oddball hobby history.

2001 had Topps was celebrating its 50th anniversary in the baseball end of the hobby. The back of the report showcases the 50th Anniversary logo that was plastered everywhere that year. Lurking in the shadows is a gallery showcasing each of the main Topps designs over the years. The card choices seem a little random at times. The spotlight is put on some of the more memorable rookie cards from some sets (1974 Winfield, 1955 Clemente, 1975 Brett) and some picks featuring local favorites in the middle of their careers (1983 Joe Rudi, 1997 Denny Martinez, 1988 Bill Buckner).

Seeing as how I've got a few magazines kicking around, this little treasure will likely survive at least one more move. If I ever decide to crack out a ceipher, I might be able to see some genuine hobby numbers and track some historical business data just for kicks.

2009 Topps Triple Threads Baseball is the Latest Set to Have Kennedy Content

Topps announced this morning that a triple relic card featuring Kennedy brother John, Robert and Ted has been added to 2009 Topps Triple Threads Baseball.

Entitled "Camelot," the card is limited to five copies. It features a piece of a sweater worn by JFK and pieces of the Capital Building floor in the other two slots.

It seems that Topps is riding the Kennedy wave since the passing of Ted. Although there have been numerous JFK and Robert Kennedy cards released in the past couple of years, between this and Ted Kennedy's eTopps card from last week, it looks like the trend is on the rise.

Bob Barker's Comeback?

To continue on with their string of "celebrity" guest hosts, TV legend Bob Barker is hosting WWE Raw tonight. I sense a lot of really bad comedic sketches coming but I do hope that Barker's classic cameo from Happy Gilmore makes the cut as he knocks someone on their butt.

Now 85, Barker was the host of The Price is Right for 35 years before stepping down in 2007. The classic game show has continued on with Drew Carey taking up the duties of helping old ladies spin the big wheel and fending off their advances. But the couple of times that I've seen Carey just makes me long for Barker so I've stopped watching on my days off altogether.

Barker joins the likes of Shaquille O'Neal, Seth Green and Jeremy Piven as previous Raw guest hosts in WWE's attempts to gain more mainstream attention. So far the results have been mixed. Shaq was pretty awesome and Green wasn't too bad either. Piven, though, well he'll forever be linked with the term "Summerfest" amongst pro wrestling circles.

Here's a Price is Right custom I whipped up. I was going for a glittery 70s-looking border. It's all right but not exactly what I had in mind. As soon as I finished it I was reminded of 1991 Donruss Elite inserts.

 

Note to Topps: Consider looking into the logistics of getting a Raw guest host autograph lineup for an upcoming WWE set and get Bob Barker in there. 

Update:

I kept playing with the design after dinner and came up with a couple of "parallels":

T206 Honus Wagner Gets the Metallic Shine

Topps' online arm eTopps has released their T206 Tribute set. Available only for the week and initially as a complete set, it's a convergence of the old school hobby and new school technology. While I'm already pretty bored of the T206 design (I prefer the gold border T205 design), if these are anything like the eTopps Allen & Ginter cards as far as asthetics, they will be very nice.

The eTopps T206 Tribute set consists of 10 retired players. The photo selection is nice and the rainbow spin on the Wagner should be interesting. Sets are being offered for $69.99 and are limited to a maximum of 749 copies (I think it's a safe prediction that they're going to sell out). Cards are then placed in buyers' eTopps portfolios with an initial value of $7.00 each. If you just want a couple of singles you'll have to fight for them on eBay.

My guess is that a few of these will really take off. The T206 design is new to eTopps and the print run is quite low. The combination should keep most of these above their initial price offering (IPO). How much? I'm not sure. I do know I'm not willing to take the risk and will probably look for the Babe Ruth and the Nolan Ryan somewhere down the line on the secondary market.

Here's pictures of the complete set:

Here's the checklist:

1. Ernie Banks
2. Jackie Robinson
3. Babe Ruth
4. Lou Gehrig
5. Cy Young
6. Stan Musial
7. Mickey Mantle (who would have guessed he'd be #7)
8. Cal Ripken Jr.
9. Honus Wagner
10. Nolan Ryan