Hey everyone! For anyone looking for a checklist, we have the most complete one posted at beckett.com (link below).

2023 Stranger Things Season 4 Checklist (so far)


The autographs are really hitting! Although they are tough to get, here are the signers we've spotted so far in either single or dual autographs:

Millie Bobby Brown
Finn Wolfhard
Noah Schnapp
Caleb McLaughlin
Natalia Dyer
Charlie Heaton
Joe Keery
Joseph Quinn
Jamie Campbell Bower
David Harbour
Grace Van Dien
Mason Dye
Tom Wlaschiha

Yet to be seen:
Maya Hawke
Sadie Sink
Winona Ryder
Paul Reiser
Cara Buono
Robert Englund
Matthew Modine
Brett Gelman
Eduardo Franco

These things have been slowly but surely surfacing so it's anyone's guess who is left in the autographs. On a personal note, those Cassette Tape Autos are straight

Zerocool's inability to provide a detailed checklist has officially put me in the "I don't care" category.

Shop owner friend of mine busted a case and pulled one dual and one single autograph card. Eddie/Dustin and Eleven. At least it looks like Quinn went back to his traditional sig.

I have no idea if Zerocool/Fanatics knows what it's doing with their card licenses or not. I have no idea if they are making money, losing money or not making enough money. I have no idea if they really believe people will spend this kind of money to get a box without even a common autograph card.

The only thing I do know is that this is a title I would buy a lot of and I'm not going to be buying anything. Zerocool has been one big Zero so far for me and their Topps division cards haven't been doing much better. If they are making any money, it's not coming from me.

If the list on CBC is correct, this looks to be the autograph contributors.

Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
David Harbour as Jim Hopper
Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
Grace Van Dien as Chrissy Cunningham
Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven
Mason Dye as Jason Carver
Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson
Tom Wlaschiha as Dmitri Antonov
Noah Schnapp and Joe Kerry look to be on dual cards only.

Solo Sigs 1:190 Hobby packs
Dual Sigs 1:445 Hobby packs
Metal Sigs Serial numbered #/86. 1:1,250 Hobby packs w\parallels
Metal Dual Sigs Serial numbered #/100. 1:1,599 Hobby packs. w\parallels
Running Up that Hill Sigs Serial numbered #/86. 1:1,608 Hobby packs. w\parallels
6 cards per pack, 22 packs per box, 10 boxes per case 220 packs per case.
So roughly 1 to 2 sigs per case is it.

For those collecting this title since the first release I would say the two biggest draws are Heaton and Dyer. Also first ST for Quinn, McLaughlin and Campbell while having signed for other sets. If prices on those are too stupid then it would be an easy pass for me.

I did pick up a really cool Natalie Dyer as her and Heaton are my only interest. Once the hype machine gets bored I will scoop up a base set and possibly some numbered stuff.

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

quote:

Originally posted by BeckettBible24:

Yet to be seen:

Winona Ryder

Do you think she will sign? She hasn't so far, and she doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by BeckettBible24:

Yet to be seen:

Winona Ryder

Do you think she will sign? She hasn't so far, and she doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would.

I doubt it. Her career has been going very well of late and, if she talks to any of her castmates, she must know they have been doing autograph cards. If she wanted in, she probably would have done it already.

However in the someday timeframe, someday she won't be working so much. Someday she will write a book. Someday she could use more money. Someday she is likely to be signing something. Very few celebrities never do paid autographs their whole life. I can only name about 4 or 5, and 2 of them passed away not long ago.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by BeckettBible24:

Yet to be seen:

Winona Ryder

Do you think she will sign? She hasn't so far, and she doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would.

She's a notoriously difficult signature to get in any situation. I can't imagine she'll ever sign, but with all the private signings of damn near everyone in existence lately, who knows?

On the bright side this auction just got dropped down to $99,910.00!! Need to jump on this one quick!!!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16629...tkp%3ABk9SR4bx9L_RYg

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Very few celebrities never do paid autographs their whole life. I can only name about 4 or 5, and 2 of them passed away not long ago.

Only 4 or 5? I think you are way underestimating the number of stars who don't sign.

For example, of the last 10 Best Actress Oscar winners, only two have signed -- Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. Nothing for Julianne Moore, Brie Larson, Emma Stone, Frances McDormand, Olivia Colman, Renee Zellweger, Jessica Chastain. (only nine because McDormand won twice).

Similar stats for Best Actor -- Brendan Fraser and Gary Oldman have signed, but Will Smith, Anthony Hopkins, Joaquin Phoenix, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Eddie Redmayne have not.

And I didn't do a detailed check on Best Supporting Actor and Actress, but most of them haven't signed either (in fact, a fair amount of them don't even have cards). And if you look at the nominees in these categories who didn't win, most of them haven't signed.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Very few celebrities never do paid autographs their whole life. I can only name about 4 or 5, and 2 of them passed away not long ago.

Only 4 or 5? I think you are way underestimating the number of stars who don't sign.

Haven't signed yet, there lives are not over.

Understandably the bigger the star, the more expensive they are to contract, and some may be of no mood to ever sign commissioned autographs. But isn't that exactly what everyone said about Harrison Ford up to a few years ago. That handful of Indy cards was going to be his only certified autograph cards ever. Well he changed his mind, didn't he? So can anyone else and that's the thing you have to remember when an autograph signer is called rare. Unless they are dead, it may only be a temporary condition.

For paid autographs or private signings, that could be anything. They could write books, make recordings, contribute to charity auctions, sign art prints, guest at Cons, you name it. Any material could be signed for either a fee, or if there is some other promotional benefit to them.

When it comes to licensed cards it gets harder because there must be a produced title or else it's a Pop Century generic set. I doubt that Frances McDormand will ever be in a project that has cards made and it doesn't seem like Leaf would even ask. So no, she probably won't appear on a certified card, but don't bet on Larson, or Stone, or Colman, or Phoenix, or Malek, or Affleck or any of the others named besides DiCaprio, who is unlikely to be bothered. Yes, even Will Smith may turn up someday when he needs good publicity.

My point is, a certified autograph card has two parts, the signature and the card. The card can be very limited. It could even be a 1/1, but the autograph shows up based on the behavior and needs of the signer and that can change at any time up to death.

It also seems that once certain celebrities begin to realize the stupid price people are willing to pay, a few signing sessions begin to look like solid financial planning.

With things like SWAU and Official Pix it appears to be a lot less hassle than attending a convention.

So I saw these cards in hand today and I have to say, I was really surprised at the lack of quality. If these cards came from some Kickstarter or some independent printer I would say, OK not a lot of money, maybe they will get better. Zerocool has the money. The boxes are expensive. The cards are not good, forget about premium quality.

The cardstock is on the thin side, with low sheen and fairly light-colored borders. I like light borders, but the photos are very dark. Cards with character portraits are done in the normal vertical presentation. After card #30 (it's a 100-card set), the photos become scenes and all the card fronts go horizontal. All backs are the same, with the text and a smaller reprint of the front photo above the writing. Oddly enough, all back photos are vertical, even for the 70 cards that have horizontal fronts. I find this layout confusing, and it won't be uniform in the binder. The worst part though is the poor quality of the photos. Many of the scenes are so dark, you have to look at the photo on the back just to try to make out what it is.

The insert hits and framed cards are just as bad. I had to get a flashlight to make out the pictures in the frames. Same thing with the lenticulars and they don't move well when you do get them to change. You can read the quote cards, but again photos are dim. Only the "Hail Lord Vecna" inserts stand out in their silver foil.

Just check out the dark scans on eBay. Usually cards will look better in hand than in a scan. With this product, all those poor black scans you see is what you will get in hand. I don't know who approved this design or photo selection but they didn't ask a collector. Better hope you pull an autograph. Just my opinion of course but get out your flashlights.

Assume you are referring to the base set, the Butcher Billy series also had consistency problems and the lenticular technology was bad. Although as a set it was a bit more uniform.

With even basic photo editing software you can make dark images look decent, I wonder if Zerocool knows this?

Gotta love it when you see slab remorse.

yYAAOSwhdllCJcw&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAABAPPXoOc%2BOmaLdQ0Zsx8dDP2yB6mdqb1CIYehrBYXAk1HY3cF2W0hrqb5BVndTH9UCbh2vKg50SPvrxKLFh%2FxSxZZH7OeAdTDYIqthxMkFlRz%2Bwr0fdbbBdgirbcpNwEox2BvdTPsGN9zTMQRL09vzMsx1TztbNADq%2BtqMcK%2FBN7vU819CsuH%2FgJU5BLGbVxbLwKiVRkawKK1T1dwN%2Fr3HSUhiq9aRJwAgjmGpxB0%2FgVKNlGQF1QDBOUgmJI%2BqKS3bJnr1wTz80Z1ump85Pp2%2BXB2DDKwQrrXjJNJ4OLFszgvBdu0p4D8tMf13phDXim7hqEUAE%2BGgxLYKS901Z9nQcQ%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7Lju6vbYg" target="_blank">https://www.ebay.com/itm/27605...tkp%3ABk9SR7Lju6vbYg

https://www.ebay.com/itm/27605...tkp%3ABk9SR7Lju6vbYg

https://www.ebay.com/itm/27605...tkp%3ABk9SR7Lju6vbYg

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Gotta love it when you see slab remorse.

That's the current "grade everything" mentality at its finest. I feel bad for people jumping into the hobby being told that every single card needs to be graded - they're spending more money on acrylic than actual cards and just throwing money away.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Assume you are referring to the base set, the Butcher Billy series also had consistency problems and the lenticular technology was bad. Although as a set it was a bit more uniform.

I never understood the whole Butcher Billy thing. Never got any of it. I am referring to the cards coming from opening a just released Stranger Things Season 4 hobby box. Both the base cards and the inserts have a majority of dark photos, a few so black you have to look hard to even make out the image.

Another thing that I noticed on the wrapper back is something I can't recall seeing before. Prominently among the Zerocool and Netflix logos is the line "made in Mexico". Maybe I just haven't registered it before, but is this normal for trading card production now? Fanatics is a USA company based I think in Florida, but of course its merchandise is global.

As regards grading, I don't know how these scenic cards can grade high when you can't see the photos. Does the grader give them a 10 because they are all like that? I don't think that would be right. They never did it with offcuts or other sets prone to defects. We shall see.

Well you know Zerocool is in trouble when you read the posts coming from the perennial card hypers on Blowout. These are the flippers and the sports card guys and they pump up everything, but the tone has changed.

Why? Because they are getting no incentives, no discounts, no breaks from Fanatics to support trying to resell this stuff and they're not pulling enough good cards from it to make the profit they need. Card collectors have laid off the sealed boxes, so bulk buyers are stuck with them too.

Good, it's about time. We aren't going to get value from new cards until this overpriced garbage stops selling out. Outright failure has been overdue for a long time but Zerocool, and now even Leaf, may be putting the final nails in the coffin. The prices of new card products are unsustainable to the better than average card collector and one or the other is going to stop.