Breygent
Perhaps the biggest card-related splash at Comic Con came from Breygent who offered up Mystery Packs made specifically for the show. Two-card packs were selling for about $25 and included one promo card and one "hit" that was either a sketch card, autograph, costume card, prop card or autographed costume card spanning several licenses. Tons of goodies were found and I'm eagerly awaiting the one pack I ordered online. It seemed like a can't-lose proposition. If buying packs online, the one thing to watch for is that these can apparently be somewhat easy to cherry-pick because many of the costume and prop cards have a metal border, giving them a larger size and more weight.
Here's a checklist direct from Breygent of the premium cards available other than sketch cards in the Comic Con packs:
- 3 different Ghost Whisperer Metallogloss cards (costume and props)
- 4 different Dexter Metallogloss cards (costume and props)
- 1 Dexter Michael C. Hall autograph
- 1 Dexter Jimmiy Smits autograph
- 1 Ghost Whisperer Jennifer Love Hewitt autograph
- 1 Ghost Whisperer Jennifer Love Hewitt/Hilary Duff dual autograph
- 1 Dexter Camera Strap Prop Card
- 1 Dexter Crime Scene Marker Prop Card
- 1 Pananormal Activity Katie Featherston autographed costume card
- 1 Paranormal Activity Micah Sloat autographed costume card
- 1 Paranormal Activity Oren Peli autograph
- 1 Dexter 4-piece costume card
- 2 Dexter 8-piece costume cards (green front, black front)
- 1 Ghost Whisperer 9-piece costume card
- 1 Ghost Whisperer Sleeping Mask prop card
- 1 Ghost Whisperer Tooth Prop card
Breygent also offered a handful of over-sized Mystery Packs. These contained only sketch cards.
Artbox
In recent years, Artbox has gone from a major player in non-sport cards to the company that does Harry Potter and nothing else. Despite the limited number of licenses, they're still churning out some spectacular cards. They've been producing goodie bags at San Diego for years that include cards and binders from previous sets, but show-exclusive promos and cards as well.
This year's offerings include a three-card costume set limited to 550, a Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) autograph, a metal card set limited to 250 and a three-card crystal "card" set limited to 80 copies. I've also seen a trio of costume cards that are extremely rare. Two were of Fleur Delacour numbered to 30 and 10. This morning I also saw a Cedric Diggory costume card that was limited to four copies. Yup - four. As in count on one hand and you've still got your thumb left. I don't know if it'll make much of a difference as master Harry Potter collectors are going to want it no matter what, but Cedric was played by Robert Pattinson, who has since gone on to become the boy face of the Twilight franchise.
Artbox also debuted the first cards for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows in the form of a pair of promo cards.
Rittenhouse Archives
Although Rittenhouse doesn't have a history of offering up huge offerings at ComicCon like some of their competitors, they still have some nice promos floating around. As in past years, the company didn't have a booth in San Diego, but they had a different promo card available for each day of the show offered at nearly ten dealers' booths.
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| Heroes Archvies CP1 (Wednesday) |
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| Warehouse 13: Season One CP1 (Thursday) |
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| Stargate Universe: Season One CP1 (Friday) |
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| Marvel: Heroes and Villains CP1 (Saturday) |
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| The Green Hornet CP1 (Sunday) |
Factory Entertainment
UK-based Factory Entertainment is a relative newcomer to the non-sport scene. The company also specializes in replica props for several properties. This year at Comic Con, they offered a couple of special card sets, both focusing on the update spin on The Prisoner that aired earlier in the year.
The first package includes an exclusive 72-card base set, an autograph card from Ian McKellen, a foil facsimile autograph card of Patrick McGoohan from the original series, two promos and a sketch card. The package was limited to 400 copies.
Prop cards were the focus of the second exclusive. Limited to just 200 copies, the five-card set included prop pieces, all of which were from the new mini-series.
Factory Entertainment also had a few over-sized cards promoting their replica prop lines.
258 West Authentic
One of the licenses a lot of non-sport collectors are clamoring for is TV's True Blood. Various manufacturers have come straight out and said HBO isn't interested. But that hasn't stopped 258 West Authentic from working directly with some of the actors to produce celebrity autograph cards. Their line-up at San Diego also included cards from actors involved in Glee and Supernatural as well. Here's the autographs they had available (print runs are in brackets):
- Misha Collins - Castiel on Supernatural (400)
- Heather Morris - Brittany on Glee (258)
- Kristin Bauer - Pam on True Blood (500)
- Brit Morgan - Debbie Pelt on True Blood (500)
- Patrick Gallagher - Chow on True Blood, Coach Tanaka on Glee (500)
Miscellaneous Goodies
Card manufacturers are not only ones handing out cards at Comic Con. There's always a random and seemingly endless amount of stuff that pops up, sometimes for only limited amounts of time. Here's a couple things I've seen on eBay:
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| Dorothy of Oz - Nine-card set promoting an upcoming 3D feature film. |
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| Red - Six-card set promoting an upcoming action film that has Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman. |
Non-Sport Update's Card Talk forum has lists compiled from a couple of members who attended Comic Con that include some of the more random goodies they found walking the floors. The thread can be found here.
