quote:

Originally posted by Incarnadine:

Cryptozoic so far has had a very good feel for production numbers too, they produce a bit less than there is demand for rather than trying to meet demand exactly and risking oversupply. Someone mentioned Game of Thrones, a perfect example of overproducing a popular license. It has a huge signers list and they were all varying degrees of "limited" and the license is insanely popular, if it would have remained 6000 boxes with the original signers list it would have been absorbed quickly and demand would have remained high, but adding duplicate autographs (same signers in a different format) and upping production 50% the release became bloated. Sure, you have a few cards selling well, but you have a lot that sell very cheap.

I can respect your argument based on your buying habits. A person who can afford cases sees products differently than a person who only buys boxes. A dealer doing business views product differently than his customers. Crptozoic has gotten some great titles and is a force in the industry that will make other manufacturers rethink how they are getting and using new licenses. Having said that I have not been satisfied with what I personally got from their 1st three products or how much of it I could get, and won't even touch Fringe. That is how it looks from my view.

But where I do disagree with you is in your assessment of GOT. Why knock RA to boost Cryptozoic's formula? Provided that you are a fan of GOT, its a terrific set for a collector. The cards are attractive, there is a huge autograph list, every major actor has some number of autographs, and just a few are in the higher ranges.

This product is not overproduced in my opinion. So what if common autographs are actually carrying common prices? So what if the whole supply of GOT has not been wiped out in the first month? Isn't this what card collectors want, the chance to build something challenging over time that won't require you to take out a second mortgage? Sure you want cards that hold value and even increase in value, but you need to be able to buy them first.

I saw first hand what ruined the sports card market, long time collectors who began to feel like second hand citizens because they couldn't keep up with the best products, yet they wanted them. So they got disgusted and cut way back on what they bought or stopped collecting cards altogether. How many sport card manufacturers are there left now? Lucky if you can name more than Topps.

This non-sport hobby has to be affordable to be fun, not overproduced, just reasonably affordable. If that's going to become a criticism for card sets we are in trouble.

I agree with Raven. I'm just starting my GOT collection and the fact that the majority of autos are still available to find at reasonable prices is one great incentive to begin the set. There will still be at least 4 cards Dinklage, Bean, Headey, Clarke that are going to cost over $120 each to purchase, so I wouldn't say it's a very cheap set to complete at all.

Cryptozoic are doing something different and it is making some collectors happy, but like most things, you can't please everyone. I do think multiple case buyers and dealers are going to have a different point of view. Particularly when boxes of TBBT and TWD were selling for very high prices. Obviously the demand was high for these licences, just like it was for Inkworks Twilight set. They didn't do anything particularly special, but so many people wanted the cards and demand far outreached supply in that case.

Hi everyone,
here's my opinion about Cryptozoic.
Great licenses, card design, lineup
Bad ratio

Since Inkworks gone i didn't purchase any box. When Crypto comes, i said "ok why not". When BBT cames out i searched for get some boxes without luck. No official distribution in France... Ok then i looked after the autos on e-... and shock ! WTF with the prices ? So i came here and read about ratios and understand, a little ...

I'm ok with a 100E/150$ auto price but double or triple no it's not for me.

I thought "it's the first release don't be afraid for Smallville and Fringe"
I found a US reseller who was fair with prices and get some boxes.

And rebang the same thing 1 or 2 main cast per case. Simple to calculate case = X$ main auto = 1/2 of case price at least. Get one in box was as difficult as win the lottery...

Buying case ? Not rentable for me in France, i've experienced that. Can't refund.

In conclusion i think Cryptozoic need to find the correct balance with autos by case. Not too much not too less. I prefer a lower lineup with better ratio.

We can imagine this : first release 50autos of each main caracter. Second same thing.
I prefer half main caracter with 100 per release.

But i'm addict and i'll buy cards again and again...

My only knock on CZE is that their collation remains terrible even after 5 or 6 releases now. I think it is very unacceptable to have state odds at 1:24 for something, and then to have 1:4 boxes not have autos (as I had in Fringe). I understand that some of those autos get made up with multiple autos in another box, but that doesn't always happen, and it especially doesn't happen if you only break a box or two.

The only product that has any close to good collation has been The Guild, and that's probably because they had 24 autos in the product.

Smallville seemed to get the ratios mostly right, but they only had 14 autos on the checklist and there were far too many dups pulled in a case. This should not happen especially since they had three seasons worth of characters to choose from.

I opened one case of The Walking Dead and was shorted two autos in it.

In three cases of Fringe I ended up shorted 5 autos (almost short 2 per case).

In three cases of Smallville I think I ended up shorted only an auto or two, but more than half my pulls were of Cain, Blue, and Witwer.

The Guild was the only case where I didn't pull any dup autos, and got more autos that the stated ratio.

I didn't break any of The Big Bang Theory, and I've only broken about 6 boxes of The Vampire Diaries, but they had similar issues looking at everyone elses breaks.

I'm actually curious as to why the collation issue hasn't been solved yet. I understand the quality and printing issues somewhat (although this doesn't seem to be getting any better which is surprising). There may be limitations set by the companies who give the license which I guess could make the collation issue reasonable, but it's hard to believe that this would be the cause on every release.

Some of the continuing collation problems may have to do with the fact that they switched printers several times. I'm not sure exactly the details of how the pack out process works but it seems like some of that would be on the printer. Hopefully once they find a printer they are happy with they can work out these other problems.

I had an email conversation with a Crypto customer service rep concerning the collation issues in the Fringe release. She was exceedingly pleasant to deal with and seemed genuinely concerned in what I had to say. I'm betting that they will do better with future releases and I for one think that especially when you consider that they are the new kid on the block they are doing a heck of a good job.

Dave