Anyone see any BW promos or con exclusives in 2014 ? I thought I saw a flyer which said an upcoming set would have 2 promos

Seems like they really slowed down with the promos and con exclusives. I haven't seen anything new since the first half of 2013. There was really very little last year, for the first time ever (to my knowledge)

The past 2-3 years they started doing all of those National (NSCC) and Summit Trade Show exclusives, but those were not promos or giveaways, but full blown card sets in exclusive packs and boxes

Looks like there were a bunch of new cards at a Hollywood show on Jan 4, 2014:

Lisa Gleave
Brandy Grace
Malorie Mackey
Candace Kita
Miriam Gonzalez
Sara Underwood

There must be more, as the back of one says # 7

Will probably try to pickup these Hollywood 2014 "promos"

Def like that they are in the same mold as the earlier show event cards that the BW models handed out individually.

Looks like there is another one, Michelle Baena, which is # 6.

From what I've heard, cards 1-9 were given away at the Hollywood show in January, and then cards 10-35 came in packs given away at a subsequent show in April. I think Jeff Allendar lists these on his website.

Toronto show this past weekend had a 12 card set. Additionally if you bought a box you could get one of 2 different triple auto promo's, or a dealer marked triple auto promo. And then it gets weird... they had a couple of models (told it would be different people each day) signing promo's which were parallel's of actual cards. The cards had been previously signed, so the one's I have are pre-signed with a different coloured inscription, or double signed in a different colour. Strange, but they were also being given away in some cases blank and unsigned. I guess there are 6 of them. (?) Just as weird, there is a box of cards #'d/125, and a dealer told me he heard not all of the base card numbers made it into the boxes. Who knows...) --Chris

Here are the BW girls holding 4 of the promos they were giving out (believe these are numbers 5-8).

As for the autographed promos, in the display case here you can see 4 autographs at the front. The girl in the purple shirt was signing that card for people.


According to this instagram post, this girl was signing one of the other days.

Here is a better picture of those 4 and one of another from the set.

This is what I don't understand about the Hollywood packs, as well as those National (NSCC) and Summit packs that were exclusive to the respective shows the past 2-3 years

Were these sold or given out for free ? If sold, then arguably they were not true promos. They were con exclusive cards for purchase

With the Toronto cards, they were just given away. My solution to the promo(s) per day problem was just to explain that I wasn't coming the other days, and to politely ask for a complete set. They seemed happy to oblige... They even gave me a couple of extra auto's for others. That was before I had bought anything, and before they had even tried to sell me anything. Really, they just seemed happy that people were expressing interest in their product.

I did end up picking up a couple of boxes, and got box serial #001/125, so I figure I'll just keep it sealed. Not really sure what to do with the stuff from the other one. Cards are nice quality, I'm just not sure I'm the target audience. --Chris

Chris, do you have an extra set or know of anyone willing to part with theirs ? How many cards do you have extras on

(tried to e-mail you Tommy C but couldn't figure out how). Everyone quit laughing! --Chris

Chris, my friend just sent you an email on my behalf

Tommy

Looks like there is a 10 card 2014 Grand Prix set. There was a 9 card set in 2012, an 8 card set in 2013

Looks like there is a 12 card BW Soccer set that came out sometime over the past few months. All cards say PROMO across the fronts

The Toronto sports card and memorabilia expo this past weekend had another 12 card Benchwarmer promo set (also stuffed into the bottom of the boxes of the show box "TO"). Boxes were #'d /299.

There was also a model at the booth signing copies of her card.

Happy hunting!
--Chris

What sports were these ? Hockey ? Soccer ?

I'm trying to keep track, but it's tough. I started checklist pages for every year for (1) "Bench Warmer Promo Sets" and (2) "Commemorative Autograph Sets." Any could have been distributed only as promos, or they can show up as box-cutout-incentives or included in boxes of later sets.

http://nslists.com/bench14p.htm http://nslists.com/bench14z.htm

Sometimes "preview" sets will be listed with the mainstream releases that they preview, like the World Cup Preview promos from 2014 National tie to the final 2014 Soccer release, and Toronto Hockey Preview cards tie in to the 2014 Hockey hobby set. Sets like Hollywood get complicated because there were two strings of promo-style releases and then a full hobby release.

Sometimes I begin to wonder where the boundaries of promos end and of pack-pulls begin. There's plenty of the Children of the Night and Racer Girls promos in the latest Hockey boxes.

I define the promos as the ones which say PROMO on them, or which say on the backs that they were given out at a particular event

I don't consider the "holiday" cards, which BW has sent to dealers for years (Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Christmas) to be promos, as they don't promote a particular set, but that is just me


I also don't consider the "con exclusive" cards they have been doing the past 2-3 years with the Industry Summit and NSCC stamps on them to be promos, but unique card sets, as there aren't 10-12 promos in these sets, but hundreds!

Jeff, one BW promo I have never seen, which someone posted a scan of here on Card Talk many years ago. On one of the sets from 2003 or 04, there was a common promo #1 with, I believe, a blue or yellow back. A Card Talker posted a scan in the General Promo section of the promo with a variant back, different color with different text, but the SAME front, and it still said promo 1. Are you familiar with this one ? I forget if the regular back was blue and the variant yellow, or whether it was vice versa

Tommy C, that describes pretty much the width of the issues. The other big one is that there are Promos marked for specific shows and events, which continue to be inserted in packs of unrelated or related series.

I tend to consider the "con exclusive" cards to be a separate set when they get large enough. For the smaller sets, I split them into unsigned and signed sets. Usually the unsigned sets are promos with an event marked, usually with the PROMO marking. I call the signed sets "commemorative autograph sets" even if they were originally exclusive to a con. "Preview" sets can get tricky, because they might include both promos and signed cards. I hope that the set they preview is released.

With signed cards, there's always the issue of how they were issued. Most of them may have been handed out at a con, but others show up only later in packs, or as box-cutout 'exclusives.'

At least most of the unsigned Promo sets are numbered and you can usually be sure that they were all available at the beginning. They don't have to wait for every gal to stop by and sign; with the auto cards, a "missing" signer might show up a year later.