New Pack Formats Leading to a Fundamental Change in Non-Sports

The winds of change are blowing and it's leading to a fundamental change in non-sport collecting. More and more releases are coming out strictly in pack form that offers at least one premium card and only a couple of base cards. The movement is a controversial one that is bound to divide collectors, depending on their collecting goals.

Last summer 5finity emerged as a player in sketch cards based on niche licenses. They started with Archie and The Greatest American Hero. Both sets had no base cards, just sketch cards. Autographs and prizes added a chase element to the releases, but it all revolved around packs that guaranteed at least one sketch card. Both 5fininty and Sad Littles have continued with this trend using sketch cards to drive releases, with the latter having a small base card presence. Breygent recently jumped into the mix with similarly styled releases for Cartoon Sketch Cards and Golden Age of Comics. Again, cards were released in packs only, each of which guaranteed a sketch card. Breygent also introduced Metallogloss inserts in Cartoon Sketch Cards and inserted them one per pack. There were also 40 reproduction sketch cards in Golden Age of Comics that made up a sort of base set.

But now Breygent is moving beyond sketch cards for the pack-only format to release some smaller sets based on current films and television shows. First up is Paranormal Activity. For about $30 collectors will get five base cards, two basic chase cards and two premium chase cards (autographs, costumes and/or film cell cards). Breygent is going to follow suit with similar releases for their latest Classic Vintage Movie Posters series, Woodstock Generation Rock Posters and The Tudors.

Non-sport collecting has long revolved around the base set, I'd argue more so than any other type of cards except maybe the annual Topps Baseball set. Sure, chase cards have been trickling in at an ever-increasing rate. But even still, most manufacturers marketed base sets very prominently offering guarantees in boxes. But a funny thing has happened in the past decade. Despite some stunning sets being put out, you can pick up these base sets for less than the price of a couple packs of cards. I regularly buy the ones I want now for a couple of dollars. The problem with the box format is that they lead to a glut of base sets floating around. Supply is far greater than demand. I'd regularly get two complete sets and almost a third from a box of Inkworks cards. As much as I love the look of many of these sets, I simply don't need that many. The real draw for many sets became the hits. Who was signing? became the question that drove box and case purchases.

With the pack-only format, base sets should hold some value again. By their very nature, they should be much more limited. Still, I don't expect base sets to be too expensive. A quick scan of eBay shows one dealer selling a Paranormal Activity set for under $25. It's far higher than the $2-3 that I'm used to spending but nobody's going to be tripping over excess cards either. The biggest change for base set fans will likely be the transition from ripping boxes to tracking down an already-made set. Sure, it's not as fun but, for me, neither is nine extra sets of Lord of the Rings Evolution.
 
In the realm of sports cards, it's been this way for years. It's just phrased a little differently. Instead of being sold individually as packs, sets like Upper Deck Exquisite and Upper Deck Ultimate offered one-pack boxes. If this is the way things are headed, this format way of packaging has some advantages over simply sending out packs.

Boxes, no matter how small, can prevent some searching as there's an outside layer around the cards. With products offering costume cards, sketches, autographs and other hits, I doubt it'd be very hard to feel the pack up and figure out what the big card of the pack is. With boxes, it's awfully hard to do the same without mangling the box. I can think of a couple other ways that some might try to get around this, but I'm not going to get into that as I don't want to offer any ideas.

The spin-off of this for dealers could be good. If cards stay in pack form then it's going to be essential for collectors to fund dealers that they trust so they know their packs aren't being searched. There are lots of them out there (on and off eBay), but it just takes one shady experience to turn someone off of the hobby altogether.

Another nice thing about boxes is that they offer added protection when being shipped through the post. There's lots of folks out there who simply don't know how to properly ship things. I don't want to chance $25-30 on a  pack of cards only to find they tossed it into a bubble mailer loose and slapped some stamps on it only to find a side bashed in by the time it arrives.

The biggest knock against boxes and additional packaging is the cost. I'm guessing a big reason why manufacturers are moving toward this new format is that it cuts expenses and allows them to try out licenses that might not have otherwise been released. I'm not privy to the behind-the-scenes stuff when it comes to licensing but there is something worth noting that a small company can manage to put out sets - no matter how small a print run - for TV's The Tudors, yet Topps is forced to cancel their planned Avatar release.

I suspect that the pack-only trend is something we're going to see more of. It'll likely take on different forms as manufacturers try out different things and approaches. For collectors, it's going to take some time to change. For some, they're beloved hobby is changing. Things aren't the way they used to be. Autographs and premium chase cards drive the hobby today. They did five years ago, but I think a lot were in denial. Don't get me wrong, I love the base set and believe it needs to be the cornerstone of the hobby. But at the same time, fewer base cards not only make them hold some value, but it lowers the overhead of manufacturers as they're not printing a bunch of extra filler that sits in inventories for years, gets sold for almost nothing or simply gets tossed out.

Personally, I don't know what to think of this new format. On the one hand, I love the impulse possibilities of grabbing a pack of cards from the store for a few dollars. But when you're looking at $20 or $30, the impulse element disappears. On the other hand, these packs offer far better value. Plus, you're guaranteed to get some cool premium cards. Ideally, I'd love some mix that offers the best of both - something like the recent Ringside Boxing set that had two levels of releases, one for the more casual collector with a budget and one for those that can afford to drop a few hundred on a handful of cards.

As with any case of change and transition, I'm willing to give it some time and be flexible with my collecting. I learned a long time ago that this is the only way one can stick with cards and be happy in doing so.

Card Swag from the 2010 San Diego Comic Con

Another Comic Con has come and gone. But like every year, there were loads of random goodies to be had, including some unique cards. While this is unlikely to be a complete list of what was available last week in San Diego (both free and for purchase), I'll see what I can do.

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.

Heroes Archvies CP1 (Wednesday)

Warehouse 13: Season One CP1 (Thursday)

Stargate Universe: Season One CP1 (Friday)

Marvel: Heroes and Villains CP1 (Saturday)

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:

Dorothy of Oz - Nine-card set promoting an upcoming 3D feature film.

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.

Replacement Report Card: Dexter: Premier Edition Costume Cards

About a month ago I got a couple of costume cards from Breygent's Dexter: Premier Edition that had an entire edge lifting due to some bad glue. This is a very common problem that Breygent has been very quick to correct for those requesting replacements.

The cards I sent back were DC2, a shirt worn by Astor, and DC8, a uniform shirt from Debra Morgan. They looked something like this:

Here's the exact two cards I received as replacements:

The Debra card is something of a non-issue. But look at poor Astor. The once full costume swatch has been replaced by a swatch the size of a Chicklet and pretty much destroys the ascetics of the card's otherwise cool design. Am I missing something here? Is this some sort of trim variant? The card does have an overlay that I don't think my damaged full-swatch card had so I guess to that end it is something of a variant.

On the plus side, Breygent did graciously include a couple of extras, which I always appreciate when sending replacements considering the effort and cost - even if it is menial - when you're expecting something in good condition. Inside the package were two packs of Ghost Whisperer: Seasons One and Two and a Promo 1 card for the upcoming Ghost Whisperer: Seasons Three and Four set.

Would You Let Your Daughter Go Out In This?

As nearly perfect as much of The Sopranos is itself (Yes, I like "the ending". A lot.), another thing I'm thankful for is the fact that it brought TV shows on DVD to the masses. I don't know if it was the first show put out in the format but it, along with Band of Brothers, seem to have kicked things into high gear. Without it I would have never caught on to Rescue Me starring Dennis Leary.

I only got into the show less than a year ago. I had a lot of catchup to do as it's now on Season Five. So I started renting the first couple of seasons and got a deal on a couple more. Brilliant stuff.

There's not a whole lot of cards connected to the show. Leary has an autograph in the old Donruss Fans of the Game stuff, but it's out of my price range. But in the new Donruss Americana set there was this:

That'd be Diane Farr. She was only on the show for a couple of seasons playing the only female firefighter in the testosterone-fuelled New York firehouse in which the show is set.

The card itself is all right. Donruss went overboard with the foil. It worked with the old design to a better extent because most of the photos had backgrounds. The new design has the subject placed in a silver background. The stickers - well, I tolerate them. I'm not a big fan but when you're chasing B-list celebrity autograph cards there's not many options.

When I picked up the card, the waredrobe swatch was a bonus. I like costume cards but the Americana sets are pretty much all things from the actor's closet that I have absolutely no connection to. Let's do a little zoom in on the material:

The picture doesn't get the point across very well so I'll try to describe it. The white that you see is the backside of the card. That would mean that the clothing part is tiny little strings that if put together to make an outfit would look something like, well, close your eyes and imagine because I'm doing my best to keep the blog clean.

I get the point of having a nice, sexy outfit, but when it'd leave nothing to the imagination, what's the point? Of course, it could be a part of a dress/shirt/skirt that has more to it but that's part of the problem with these generic Americana material swatches - there's no point of reference so it's all up to the imagination.

In Case You Were Wondering What Happened to the Rest of Inkworks' Stock

Since non-sport manufacturer Inkworks closed up shop a few months ago, much has been speculated about their remaining inventory. There was a noticeable upturn in the number of eBay listings, particularly from a couple of sellers. Then there was Razor's grab bag release Ink Archives that had one random Inkworks autograph per pack.

Factory Entertainment has now launched InkworksArchives.com, which should answer a lot of questions about the leftovers, particularly autographs, Pieceworks costume cards and sketch cards. There's also a lot of promo cards and uncut press sheets, which were an Inkworks staple.

I've only done a quick browse through what's available but it should give an indication as to what there was lots leftover on. For example, there's lots of Golden Compass cards, but very little for either of the Alien vs. Predator set. Of course, this could change if more items are listed on the site, but it's a good first look.

Some New Chrome Goodness to Kick of the New Year

This is one of my favourite non-sport promos in recent times:

The set you ask?

It's probably one of the most clever things I've seen as far as industry promotional tools. This card was given out at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and is readily available. So while it was a good way to announce Topps was going to be making the set for the new Terminator movie, it looks like the brand's launch is going to be a little bit sooner.

Terminator Chrome is slated for a January release and looks like it will be the first set to include cards of the original film. Inserts will include all the usual Chrome suspects: Refractors (1:6), X-Fractors (1:12) and Super Fractors (#'d/50). Box hits will be any one of autographs, memorabilia cards or sketch cards. Boxes will consist of 24 packs of five cards. Terminator: Salvation preview cards will be included as box toppers.

From the looks of it, Topps is following the same template they did this year with the Indiana Jones brand. Like Indy, there was a franchise relaunch in the winter (for Indy it was the more appropriate Heritage line) and a movie set in the summer. This could very well lead into another set around the time of the inevitable Terminator: Salvation DVD release in the fall, much like the art-based Indiana Jones: Masterpieces, which will be coming out next month.

Chrome seems like a good choice for the set, given the franchise. The dark color pallette of the films might not lend to the best images, though. We shall have to see. Personally, I'm stoked for cards of the original Terminator. On the "hits" end of things, Ah-nuld and all the other major players in all the second and third films have signed cards before except for Claire Danes. Here's hoping that trend can continue.