Well, we are coming up to the end of the year. Time to wonder, what was your best break? What do you regret buying, or not buying? Any cool stories of the one(s) you landed, or that got away? If we had a hall of fame for N/S cards, what would your nominations for the class of 2013 be? Alternately, what cards would you like to see go away forever?

For me, I didn't break a lot this year. Not aimed at anyone in particular, but cards are getting harder to buy. On the bay, you risk paying $30 for shipping and then not getting a complete set out of a box. (Love that). At shows, it seems like the only new products I see are from easily stripped cases. Inexplicably, I never seem to pull anything from these boxes, lol. Buying cases of everything would be a solution, but I'm not a dealer, and I don't want to be. Please don't make me become a dealer...

Regret not buying: I'm not a sketch card person, but I did give serious thought to a couple sketch cards. 1) Spiderman wearing a Fantastic 4 uniform with a bag over his head. Don't know the set or who did it, but it was hilarious. 2) a nice one of Sabrina the Teenage Witch from some unknown sketch release. Most looked, well... not for me, but this one had Salem the cat and Sabrina at the beach and if you own it, congrats.

Stories: 1) I had hoped some Caprica costumes I was sniped on would re-appear either on the bay or in trading card form, but I haven't seen them if they did. I remember getting outbid on Buffy costumes after it was cancelled, and some of those items ended up as cards. How's that for rubbing salt in it? 2) Really just want to say thanks to the other board members who've been friendly traders over the past year. I mean it, thanks. This board is so important that we almost need a fire plan type back up meeting place in case something ever happens to this site. My collection wouldn't be the same without you all.

Cards I'd like to see disappear forever: If the swatch is a piece of a comic book page. Seriously, it's come to this? I can see someone putting out a set and having common Lincoln pennies as a "swatch" and expecting collectors to get excited over their big "hit". Note to manufacturers: If I pull that, I'm going to try and spend it as is. ****, can't. We don't have pennies in Canada anymore...

--Chris

My only interesting story is pulling the Roger Moore autograph from the second pack of James Bond 2013 Autographs and Relics set I opened.

I really didn't follow my plan for 2013. I thought I would do a lot more buying of individual cards, but I probably used eBay less than any other year since I started. I did connect with a couple of sellers that frequent Card Talk and they were great. You know who you are ladies.

The most underrated product that I really enjoyed was Castle. It didn't hurt that I pulled both the regular autograph and the auto/costume of Nathan himself.

I also really liked what I saw in Grimm.

My favorite set remains Game of Thrones, but that's because I love the show and really want to collect all the autographs, even from the minor characters.

I don't do much Bond, but got lucky pulling a Sophie Marceau autograph that I wanted.

I don't want to call out disappointments, so I won't. Let's just say that I personally have not gotten good value out of boxes bought this year on a couple of very popular titles.

I will end with a shout out to all card manufacturers who continue to make on-card autograph cards.

Its a little early for a year end wrap up, so the rest can wait.

Still have one month to pull it out.
This year I changed my plan a bit.
I got back onto ebay after a 5 year hiatus. I discovered the cheap auto section. I think I have ended up getting between 70 and 80 autograph cards I wanted for under 5 dollars each. That was a major win.

I have purchased several boxes this year. Biggest hit was a Patrick Stewart auto out of Star Trek Heroes and Villains from Rittenhouse that I got for 39 bucks! I now have 1 auto from Shatner, Stewart, Brooks and Mulgrew. Looks like I will need an Bacula as some point in time (not concerned with Pike).

I am going to keep my disappointments to myself which are few.

I am looking at next year and it will likely not be a big collecting year for me. Daily living costs are going up and my hobby budget is going to have to take a hit.

quote:

Time to wonder, what was your best break? What do you regret buying, or not buying? Any cool stories of the one(s) you landed, or that got away? If we had a hall of fame for N/S cards, what would your nominations for the class of 2013 be? Alternately, what cards would you like to see go away forever?

Best Breaks. . . There were a lot actually -- I think there were a ton of good products this year, and I'm certainly missing some, but:

Game of Thrones 2 (Dinklage auto).
Moonshine Missies (George Webber Sketches).
Island Dreams 3 (tons of awesome content).
Transformers (Nimoy auto, great sketches).
Dawn New Horizons (Linsner sketch).

Sets I regret Buying. . .
I think for the first time there are actually several sets on this list . . . And as much as I'd love to post them here, and as much as I think it's a disservice to the manufacturers to not post them here to let them know. . . I'm just going to keep my mouth shut.

Stuff I regret not buying. . .
None I can think of.

There is 1 set I deeply regret trying to buy.

Cool stories. . . I actually found a lot of good cards at Wizard World Chicago this year -- picked up some great stuff from Henry and Tony at really good prices.

Also a guy walked in to the Chicago NS show with a really nice collection of stuff he was trying to sell, unfortunately it wasn't really stuff I collected, but it was cool to see all of it -- lots of it was horror related, plus Wizard of Oz, Twin Peaks, etc.

Cards I'd like to see go away forever. . . 'commons' . . . I know a lot of people will hate my answer. . . My focus is really on autographs and sketches, so there are lot of cards I don't seek out, but I'm overrun with commons. I've tried to sell base sets on various sites, but when I tell people I want $5+shipping for most I normally never hear from them again. Most of my sets are in clear plastic boxes which currently cost me about $.75 each, Paypal is going to hit me for around $.50 so at $5 with those costs I wind up with $3.75 for a set . . . and most people aren't willing to pay that online. That doesn't even take into account the shipping supplies (which often include a cardboard trading card box that costs about $.50-.75. . . That doesn't even come close to what it costs me to acquire the set, and it takes a fair bit of time to package cards properly and go to the post office. So after all that I wind up with about $3 for a set and my time -- and most buyers think that at $5 asking price is ridiculous. As such I've donated tens of thousands of cards this year, and plan to drastically increase the number I'm donating next year once I get as many trades completed to fill sets in my want list as possible -- which is another problem. . . there aren't many people trading, and when you do get a trade the shipping costs can make completing sets entirely pointless when people are balking at paying $5 for a set. I tried selling bulk commons on Craigslist -- this is stuff that would sort into about 20-40 complete sets. . . I was asking $35 and no one was interested at all after posting them repeatedly.

That reminds me -- speaking of base sets. . . On Blowout when people started posting Mars Attacks Invasion sets for $20 people were speculating that the sellers would regret it because the base sets were harder to complete (less than 1 per box on average), etc, etc. . . Sets are selling for about $5 plus shipping, which is ridiculously low -- I bet it cost Topps more than that to make and ship the cards. Premium packs can help this a bit, but even premium pack sets tend to be really cheap.

Finally. . . a few things that are gnawing at me in 2013. . . I'm not sure if it's just me, or if I'm just less patient, but these things are bugging me:

Obviously these aren't true for all sets/manufacturers, but I don't want to call anyone out:

Release dates that are meaningless -- but only if I am expected to pay in advance.
Communication that is lacking or non existent (especially with sets that have missed their release dates).
Marketing seems to have diminished or disappeared -- sometimes you only see marketing if a set unexpectedly doesn't sell out.

And some really cool 2013 stuff:

Kickstarter has been fun -- just got my Luxura stuff in the mail.
Stuff coming out on time -- some manufacturers are awesome at it.
Better communication from manufacturers -- Crypto's new auto announcement policy is awesome.
Lots of cool new sketch artists.
More shows, and really fun shows.

I made the decision in 2013 to just focus on a few sets and spend all of my money on them, so I ended up buying 3 boxes each of Fringe season 3/4 and Parks and Recreation. Neither of those panned out, since I didn't get any decent pulls at all. I will be skipping Fringe season 5 since I have had terrible luck with the boxes I have picked up of the first two sets. I also bought 7 boxes of my main focus these days, Game of Thrones.

All of my great pulls came from these boxes -- I pulled the very limited autographs from Jack Gleeson, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Lena Headey, as well as Rose Leslie, and a few others I really wanted. I also had one box that had two of the same very common Susan Brown autograph, but you win some and you lose some. I also bought one of the preview packs of American Horror Story, and pulled the Dylan McDermott autograph that I wanted. Those are some great looking cards, and I think I will work on the set when it comes out next year. I was planning on getting 4+ boxes, but it looks like it will be too close to Game of Thrones season 3 (which I hope to make my first case).

My disappointments were the premium packs of Spartacus and Warehouse 13 that I picked up -- not Rittenhouse's fault since they are nice sets, but I only wanted a couple of cards from each so they were bound to let me down when I didn't pull them. I am also disappointed that The Hobbit was pushed to 2014. I already paid for a box with my comic store (I preorder from an online retailer, and you pay each month) so I was hoping to break it as my Xmas gift to myself.

Cool story for me -- I won the Rittenhouse Wantlist Wednesdays contest and got a Stephen Dillane autograph card (which I needed, and didn't want to shell out $ for since that guy's autograph is terrible).

I regret not buy any of the Blake's 7 set, since I am a huge fan but I am not doing well financially right now and couldn't afford it. I have been outbid on three Michael Keating autograph cards, too

Since I am done buying for the year, I can look forward to 2014. I will need to cut way back, but I want to use my tax return to get a case of Game of Thrones season 3. I will get at least one box of Star Trek Into Darkness (and a binder for each of those). I have a binder of American Horror Story and a box of The Hobbit already paid for at my comic store, so those are guarantees. I loved the Ender's Game movie, so I hope the set still comes out and I would pick up a box or two. And if anyone does cards for X-Men: Days of Future Past and has a guaranteed autograph in each box, I am in for a few.

Caleb J Thaggard who was Stilson in Ender's Game is a son of my former boss. He is a good kid and is on the list of signers with Cryptozoic for Ender's Game.

It's not been a bad year card-wise.
Although I'm primarily a sketch collector, the highlight for sets was the original art that Cryptozoic are producing for their DC base sets. Great to see something other than screen grabs.
Favourite sets this year, in no particular order, were:

Spellcasters (Perna Studios)
Superman: The Legend (Cryptozoic)
Women of Legend (Cryptozoic)
Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Leaf)

Special mention to Rittenhouse's Greatest Battles. The dual sketches were a mixed bag of which some artists revelled in the extra space while others showed their limitations. For the first time in ages (as a case buyer), I've had to seek out chase cards. Although these were parallels with a different boarder, it made a nice change, especially as they're numbered to 75.

Best pull of the year - maybe any year, was the 16 card masterpiece by Brian Kong in a box of Marvel 70th Anniversary. Nearly 4 years old, these are still up there with the best that Rittenhouse have ever produced.

Looking forward to Once Upon a Time (Cryptozoic). This is the only set on my radar at the moment for next year.

Wish list (that'll probably never happen): Legion of Super-Heroes sketch set.