Picked up some jumbo retail packs at WM.
The pack contains 30 cards. I pulled a dual costume card, 2 stickers, and the commons. Not bad for $4.98.

Got 1 box today.
Need help with artist id.

Got three retail jumbo rack packs...

6 stickers S1,9,14,19,26,29
3 dual-relics AD1,13,22
69 commons (68 singles, 1 dupe)

Overall B
Pros: stickers and relics.
Cons: base set...TOO BIG.

The Ironman head shot Is I believe artist Cory Hamscher. I know his sig.

No, I checked other sketch's of his and he signs his last name.
Thanks though for some help.

quote:

Originally posted by scott12:
Got 1 box today.
Need help with artist id.

Hi, is the Iron Man Sketch for sale or trade? PLMK, very interested, thanx!

Results from my Avengers Assemble case, happy with my results:




The Scarlet Witch is an AP but all others were pulled from my case. A fun product to break!

If you decide to trade that Crystal puzzle sketch, you can find me in Allentown...

Nice Case.

Ed

I picked up 3 boxes for not too much more than retail, which was pretty high on these, about $80 I think. Worth it? Let's see....

They are 24 pack boxes and with the three boxes I was able to make one full base set of 176 cards. I was 40 cards short of a 2nd set even though I had about 80 triples left over, but all in all, I'm glad I got at least the one set. You have to get a minimum of two boxes to make the base set yourself since there aren't enough base cards in one box to make a set.

At 176 cards, this is a pretty large set for non-sports, but this is really two sets in one. Cards 1-90 cover the 5 previous Marvel movies leading into the upcoming Avengers movie: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man 2, and the most recent Hulk are featured. While there are no new cards of Natalie Portman or Gwyneth Paltrow in this set, there are 3 new cards of Scarlett Johansson in the Iron Man 2 subset. The movies each get about 20 cards for a full synopsis with the exception of the Hulk which only gets 6 cards, and while they do show villains Tim Roth and William Hurt, the star of that film Edward Norton is conspicuously absent from the subset, no doubt since he was replaced by Mark Ruffalo for the Avengers movie. There are cards of other notable co-stars like Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, and Hugo Weaving in this new compilation set, so it of interest for fans of any of those earlier movies and/or those actors.

The second set-within-the-base set are the cards numbered 91-176, basically an 86 card set for the new Avengers movies which seems to tell the entire story, well in advance of the release of the film! Not wanting to spoil any surprises for myself I just flipped through these quickly, but kept a count and there are 10 new cards featuring the Black Widow for you ScarJo fans out there.

The inserts are Evolution Holofoil, Avengers Comic Covers, and Film Concept Art.

The Evolution set is 60 cards in all with the hologram-esque backgrounds that link to the other cards making (I think) one giant 54 card puzzle of the various Avenger members along with a smaller 6 card puzzle featuring the villain Loki. These look great and are found in every other pack, 12 per box.
The complete set is 60 cards, so you would need 5 boxes with no doubles to make a set. In other words, decidedly more than five boxes! I got 36 total, but only 30 different, so exactly half the set from 3 boxes.

The Comic Covers have been done in many recent comic sets, and these focus on famous issues of the Avengers Marvel comic from through the years. They fall about 9 or 10 per box and are a 36 card set in all, so it takes at least 4 boxes to complete this set, but again, that's only with perfect luck. I got 21 of the 36. I could've come a lot closer to a set but I got 7 doubles of these.

The Concept Cards is a 9 card set and these are found only 2-3 per box, so it should take at least 4 boxes and perfect luck to make this set. I got 8 cards, but only 6 different, so two-thirds of a set from the 3 boxes.

The Concept cards are only slightly more commonly found than the Costume Memorabilia cards which are 1 per 12 packs, or 2 per box.

These are a combination of 1,2,3, and 4 piece combo cards, with lots of character combinations making for a huge set of these extra-thick cards. I did get six of those as expected, with no 4-pieces, and only one 1-piece, so not too shabby.



Autographs, Printing Plates and Cut Comic Panel cards are tougher to find, as I found out, not getting any of those in my boxes. So I will say the odds on finding any of those are higher than winning the Mega Millions Lottery, based solely upon my own results (realizing that may not be the most scientifically sound way to determine the odds of finding those particular kinds of cards!)

Sketches are one per box and I was very happy with my epxected three. They are by Jocasta by Remi Dousset, Thanos by Optic Nerve (probably not his real name), and the Rhino by an unknown artist, possibly new to sketch cards, and with the (maybe) initials "TTN"








Now, to answer the question, are they worth it (the $80+ dollars a box that is)?
Well, in the glory years of the mid 90's, we used to pay about $40 for a box of deluxe cards with no chance of receiving autographs, sketches, printing plates, or pieces of clothing worn in superhero related films. Now that they are included and can be sold to recoup some of the money (not really a possibility in the old days), that kind of brings the price down on them to a much more manageable number where I am concerned, and definitely to a number that is worth risking for a chance to pull some of the many excellent cards to be found in this release.

That's always been my point of view on it, and it works fine as long as the base set is well done, because even if one is able to sell off the majority of their "hits" for some or even all of the money spent to buy the cards, but is left with a lousy, and hastily devised base card set, what was the point of buying the cards in the first place? I understand the "hits" are driving the hobby these days, but that's no reason the regular cards should be an afterthought. Topps has never forgotten the importance of base cards and it continues to show in their releases such as its instant classic modern Star Wars Galaxy sets, 4 and counting.

With this well made and comprehensive "Avenger Assemble" set, it seems like Upper Deck is taking a step in that same direction. Lets hope it continues with further releases, which should be many since there are a lot more Marvel films to come in the near and far future. (I heard the actor playing Captain America signed a 19 film contract to appear as the character in pretty much every Marvel film from now on!)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chesspieceface,

Fantastic and accurate review. Not that I am any fan of the way UD has conducted themselves as a business, but they have really done well with this set as well as Beginnings...and I can't wait to see series 2 of that.

Let me know what you are missing for the base and chase and I will see what I can do.

quote:

Originally posted by scott12:
Got 1 box today.
Need help with artist id.

Cruddie Torian

Rian just did an Artist spotlight on website ---> http://sketchcardsaloon.wordpress.com/

Thanks.

Opened my first box a couple days ago and got some nice stuff. BIG fan of Tom Hiddleston, so I can say that this was particularly nice. And I LOVE the sketch, but I have no idea who drew it or how much its worth. oh, well.

Actually, I should be putting a better image of the sketch if I want some help with identification, right? lol Here ya go and thanks in advance!

I could have sworn I posted this over here but a few days back I visited the local card/comic shop to buy a few supplies and saw they had open boxes of Big Bang Theory and UD Avengers. I ended up buying 8 packs of each and got an autograph from both, a really good autograph from both sets.

From Avengers I pulled:

Chris Hemsworth as Thor autograph

I remember you posting this somewhere, but in the post you also showed your Jim Parsons auto. So yeah, you're not losing your mind, you did post it.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
I picked up 3 boxes for not too much more than retail, which was pretty high on these, about $80 I think. Worth it? Let's see....

They are 24 pack boxes and with the three boxes I was able to make one full base set of 176 cards. I was 40 cards short of a 2nd set even though I had about 80 triples left over, but all in all, I'm glad I got at least the one set. You have to get a minimum of two boxes to make the base set yourself since there aren't enough base cards in one box to make a set.

These are a combination of 1,2,3, and 4 piece combo cards, with lots of character combinations making for a huge set of these extra-thick cards. I did get six of those as expected, with no 4-pieces, and only one 1-piece, so not too shabby.


Autographs, Printing Plates and Cut Comic Panel cards are tougher to find, as I found out, not getting any of those in my boxes. So I will say the odds on finding any of those are higher than winning the Mega Millions Lottery, based solely upon my own results (realizing that may not be the most scientifically sound way to determine the odds of finding those particular kinds of cards!)

Sketches are one per box and I was very happy with my epxected three. They are by Jocasta by Remi Dousset, Thanos by Optic Nerve (probably not his real name), and the Rhino by an unknown artist, possibly new to sketch cards, and with the (maybe) initials "TTN"


Now, to answer the question, are they worth it (the $80+ dollars a box that is)?
Well, in the glory years of the mid 90's, we used to pay about $40 for a box of deluxe cards with no chance of receiving autographs, sketches, printing plates, or pieces of clothing worn in superhero related films. Now that they are included and can be sold to recoup some of the money (not really a possibility in the old days), that kind of brings the price down on them to a much more manageable number where I am concerned, and definitely to a number that is worth risking for a chance to pull some of the many excellent cards to be found in this release.

With this well made and comprehensive "Avenger Assemble" set, it seems like Upper Deck is taking a step in that same direction. Lets hope it continues with further releases, which should be many since there are a lot more Marvel films to come in the near and far future. (I heard the actor playing Captain America signed a 19 film contract to appear as the character in pretty much every Marvel film from now on!)

While this is a box break thread, you took a great deal of time and effort to post your overview of the value of your breaks and I have to respond here. I applaud you for doing it and I think that like minded collectors may well agree with your assessment.

I don't because my collecting priorties are not the same. Consquently I would not want to pay $240 for the cards you pulled. I am not trying to belittle the cards, I am just saying that your assessment is not mine.

First of all, to judge value you have to add up the pieces. How much does one full base set cost if bought from a dealer? Its a big set so it's not going to go for $7.99 like many of them, but maybe someone knows what it does cost right now. The doubles and triples you got are extra and have value, but you must trade or sell them. As a collector I don't do that, I may want one set, but the rest collect dust until I find someone to give them to for free.

The chase cards and subsets certainly have value, but you will not complete these in 3 boxes. I probably wouldn't buy anymore to do so.

Now the sketches, nice but not of any of the main Avengers. And the costume cards, which is something that I personally don't care for that much, well they are all over that auction site. The material cards are the primary hits being pulled and they are basically one color swatches. I don't see that they will hold their current value as the supply keeps expanding. Even so, what is their current value, since that is part of the $240 spent?

I mention all this just because your post seemed to be about reaffirming the value of this formula used by UD because you are happy that your results were worth what you paid. But the only way to know that is to also provide the market prices, which are at their highest right now due to the newness of the release, and than take into consideration what you intend to turn around on sales.

You may well make money on it, but as a collector who keeps everything I would simply be spending $240 with no terrific hit to show for it. For the record I must disclose that I won't be picking up any of these boxes because I like to focus on autographs first and the odds of getting any of them here are as you said worthy of a lottery.

Actually, I would expect the costumes and such to do better once the movie is released. The overall prices for this set (while good) have been severely hurt by Marvel Greatest Heroes that dropped a week before.

Thanks for the breakdown of my breakdown, Raven. Glad to know some folks read the boring text in addition to looking at the pretty pictures!

The day I posted the breakdown, I actually had the day off from work from work. So from the time I opened my boxes, sorted the cards, researched how many cards were in each insert set, made scans of the "hits: and posted my breakdown on this board, only a few hours had passed. It was quite a whirlwind, but fun, for sure.

I probably should have stated in my original/breakdown review that anyone who just wants the regular cards and doesn't care about the more fancy ones should not buy a box of these. You would be much better off purchasing one of the "mini-master" hand collated sets now widely availalble.

With this (and virtually every other modern release), as long as the sketch/autos/memorabilias aren't your focus, it really is a buyer's market as one can usually get a master set of all of the other cards for about the cost of one box of the cards, or less. So really, the only reason to buy boxes is if you are going for the bigger hits.
These boxes are pretty expensive, so it is something to consider (buying a hand collated set from the aftermarket) if your main interest is a base set and regular chase cards.

I would consider myself a generic "card collector" first, but out of the the big hits categories, the autograph cards are far and away my favorites to pull, and the cards I am most likely to keep. What I do like about the sketches and memorabilia often found along side the autographs cards though, is that those kinds of cards have many collectors, so I can usually buy more of a given product than I would normally be able to knowing that I can flip most of the sketches/costumes that I get. Even better, I pretty want to do that, and rarely regret having sold or traded a sketch or costume card, not having much interest in those kinds of cards (there are exceptions certainly, as I must have 100+ sketch cards in my collection, despite my "not collecting" them, haha).

This Avenger set is unusual in that the autographs and costumes really do seem to be driving it despite the presence of overall excellent quality sketch cards. Prices have really stabilized on those in general, and some of the very best sketches from this set (and other recents ones) can usually be had for less than the price of a single box, not so on the best autographs in this Avengers set, certainly.

I agree with Igman that the costume and autographs could take a jump once the movie actually comes out...as long as it's any good. A bad movie (or the perception that it is a bad movie) will kill these, although many of the actors depicted on the signature and costume cards have their own built-in fan bases (particulalry Scarlett J.), so that could buffer their value somewhat even if the movie is underwhelming.

I just think this is a fun set, a lot to choose from and many different ways to collect, and every box you open is an adventure. The base set is well done and the subsets are decent, especially the "Heroes Evolve" set. I don't concern myself much with potential value, I generally just trade my extras rather than try to sell them, and just keep what I like, it's a hobby, after all.