You know, I am totally baffled at how companies can insert Autograph cards in packs and cases at a consistent rate.

For example the last Rittenhouse release had 2 autographs per box, and 4 VL per case.

Does anyone of a video showing the process of cards being sorted and inserted in to packs?

lol i ve wandered that,especially as my chase ratio is usually 50% of the time wrong

I cant speak for anyone else but we use trained rats and child labour.

quote:

Originally posted by Sci-FiPlanet:
I cant speak for anyone else but we use trained rats and child labour.

. . . I had my money on a sorting hat. . .

Wolfie does it by the light of the full moon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (While he moon's everyone).

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by Sci-FiPlanet:
I cant speak for anyone else but we use trained rats and child labour.

. . . I had my money on a sorting hat. . .

Nope Rats are the way to go. This is Humphrey, he's in charge of collation and quality control.

It looks like he's sleeping on the job!

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
It looks like he's sleeping on the job!

No no that's Union regulated break. You should see Tom from our customer services department... he bites.

If all common packs were produced in one batch, then all packs containing an autograph packaged in a second batch etc. then putting a box together from the various batches would be another collation step. The trick to this method would be 'how to ensure at least one base set per box' unless the common packs were sufficient to make a base set.

This is just a wild guess based upon one series of cards distributed to Card Talk members at a Philly breakfast where the manufacturer knew that there would not be any premium chase in the packs. That, and the fact that I never received a premium chase card from all of the packs sent to me from Inkworks with my press releases.

Harris had a video of a small card company processing cards . Don't where it is .
sumo

A lot of the mid-sized companies use an outside printer who will also wrap the cards in foil and crimp the edges. Assuring a set in a box is down to printing style and overlap, if you print on say a B1 board which will take between 107 and 118 cards (depending on boarders/full bleed, cut style and spacing) you will have a set+ more per sheet. If each sheet is a box then you have your answer to the basic set.

Chase and premium cards are as Bill says packed later and then often inserted into boxes later, or in the case of Strictly Inks Hammer Horror series 1 NOT inserted, as Cartamundi "forgot" to include all the foil chase cards in the boxes. Thats the only time I can remember something like that happening with a chase card. Dynamic Forces famously forgot to insert a BASIC card into the Army of Darkness set as well.

It's a fairly common but not often discussed fact that the autographs and costume cards appear in roughly the same place in every box for many products. This was particularly true of inkworks packs which were very easy to identify.

This fact (I think) is what most accounts for the falling individual pack sales and the advent of the sealed box becoming the most common way to buy non sports cards.

Here is a video Panini did of how their hits are sorted into packs.

http://paniniamerica.wordpress...llar-hits/#more-1637

That was good , thanks for posting that.

What it didn't show was the packs going into boxes, probably for obvious reasons, but if that is also that regimented it would explain why some people say the big hit is allways in the same place in the box.

Interesting, thanks for the link!

That was interesting, well worth watching.

glim, thank you for posting that
it was really cool !

After seeing all the cards go through, it makes a high grade card just a little more impressive. Amazing how gentle those machines can be with the cards.

Thanks for that, it was really interesting.

Ed

Many years ago at a Sports Card fair held in London I remember talking with some Sales guys from Topps Ireland about a promotion they were doing in a UK Soccer set in which prize cards were to be found in the packs. The prizes varied from winning a base set to an all expenses paid visit to an English Soocer match of the winners choice. It was explained to me that they were able to insert the Top Prize card into a pack/ box/ case of their choosing and that they could keep track of it in such a way that they could even identify the retailer that sold the pack. The reason for this was explained as being to ensure that they could then limit the amount of expenses being paid out by picking what parts of the country the card went to(for example a winner say from Manchester was likely to pick a "local" soccer club rather than one from London)and ensure that such winning cards were distributed around the country. What they said sounded plausible to me although they would not go into more detail. I have always suspected that these cards were manually introduced into the packing process.

This was long before chase cards as we know them were being issued so if it was possible in the eighties to "cherry pick" where the cards went it most be even more possible now we are in the 21st Century.

I have been on a visit to a factory making die-cast model cars and they were able to demonstrate quite clearly how easy it was to introduce variables in the process. Not quite the same as making cards but the principle is very similar

I really liked the look of those football autograph and piecework cards !!
- maybe I will start collecting sports cards again

I always felt (perhaps wrongly!) that card manufacturers maintain an air of mystery about how they collate and pack their cards. I do like an air of mystery, but some manufacturers do tend to hide behind this when collation goes wrong.

Seeing this video is great and a breath of fresh air; I've always been fascinated by this, and think it's a technical marvel (when done right, of course!).