Originally posted by chesspieceface:
quote:
Originally posted by Gst177:
Do I see any of the other non sport card companies hosting a party or even having a presence at SDCC? No.
This isn't strictly true, as Upper Deck had their little booth where they were selling Iron Man, Cap, Marvel Beginnings II, and Avengers card packs at a very reasonable price. They even had an deal for one of each pack plus a random sketch card for $15! Granted, it sold out immediately on preview night as did the lone hobby box of Avengers cards they brought. They also had the Avengers retail rack packs at a good price in the first place, and I saw a guy swinging a good deal for what they had left literally as the show was closing Sunday. Apparently those have a goodly number of costume cards in them, good luck to him, he's where I got the information on what happened with the sold out stuff on Wednesday, since I wasn't there Preview night.
Additionally, Panini was there with a classy little booth and while card-wise, they only had base cards from Studio Americana, Justin Beiber, and Michael Jackson to give out, they did so very politely, and gave out a TON of them as they had a good location for a lot of foot traffic. They even had a good reason for not having specially made promos for the show. They'd only secured their space on the floor just days before the convention and thought they wouldn't be able to go at all. Ironically, it might've been Artbox cancelling their booth that created the space for them. The friendly fellow at the Panini booth told me they'd be there next year in a big way with show specific promos and merchandise for sale. Beyond cards, they also gave out uncut Panini sticker sheets from Disney's Brave, among other cool items. Like I said, classy.
As for Cryptozoic, what they did for the collectors by even having a special event was a fantastic show of love for collectors so to hear it derided in any way does make me fearful it could make CZE hesitant to do something similar in the future. So I think a simple two words, "Thank You" from all 40 attendees is warranted on this board, maybe a description of what happened there, and not much more.
And how awesome to see a card shop in downtown San Diego! Being at the convention only Thursday and Sunday with LOTS to do, I didn't get to go to it, but I did get see it on the way home yesterday, and it looked great from the street.
Even so, there was one small snafu with Crytozoic cards at this convention and it was with the distribution of the SDCC1 Walking Dead promo at the AMC booth. For the first few days, people who actually came and asked for the card specifically seemed to have had a hard time getting one. That in and of itself is fine, if a card is tough to get, so be it, and all the better for the those who were willing to dress as a zombie or else just got lucky some other way and acqured one.
The rub is, that on Sunday, when I think the AMC booth workers saw how many they were going to have left over, towards the end of the show, they were handing them out in good numbers to passersby not even necessarily interested in The Walking Dead, either the TV show or the cards based on it. Indeed, once I spied this occurrence and had gotten my own card, I was able to, in the immediate area, simply bend down and pick up two more off the ground discarded by the people they'd just been handed to. While I rescued those cards before too many people had stepped on them, it does seem a bit sad that at least some of the others distibuted in that manner met a harsher fate on Sunday afternoon while interested collectors who specifically asked for them (therefore prospective or even worse, actual Cryptozoic customers) only days, if not hours before, had been refused them.
Even so, big thumbs up to Crytozoic, Panini, Upper Deck, and while I'm at it, also Topps and Breygent at this year's Comic Con.
Tom's mystery packs again offered an incredible combination of quality and value. I picked up 3 packs on Thursday and 3 more on Sunday, and had a blast opening them both days. The Topps Mars Attacks promotion had collectors walking nearly the entire floor for the puzzle set, and they made enough of them (I think 3,500 per card) so that anyone who really wanted them could get a set in less than an hour. Still, I wish there was a Topps booth like in the good ol' days. Fingers crossed for next year!
.
