I think its time to take a look at those premium hits that are labeled by the manufacturer as limited, very limited and extremely limited, because I'll be darned if I can understand some of the short printed cards in a few recent sets.

We all know that autograph cards of the major stars are going to be quite limited and carry a high price. No mystery there, they didn't sign very many and there is high demand.

What I don't understand is XL autograph cards from barely known actors that played in barely noticed roles. Same thing with those very common looking costume or relic cards of no particular importance, but they are short printed as well. Collectors need these cards if they want to complete the sets, so their value is based on the fact that they are hard to find due to the short supply. But why is there a short supply on these particular names and costumes/relics, when they would seem to be no better than commons? While we are at it, why are some multi-case incentives autographs from people you don't know.

Recently I have found myself bothered by this because there seem to be a lot more VL and XL cards than before and it is making the autograph sets in particular harder to put together. Collectors like to be challenged, but I have no incentive to spend $100 on what I really feel should be a $15 autograph.

I would like a manufacturer, or anyone else, to explain how they go about determining the print run on L - VL - XL cards when its not from someone or something that is obviously going to be limited. It is beginning to really turn me off.

I agree with everything you state. Sometimes Ex Limited signers can be found as common in other sets so they obviously are willing to sign plenty.

Also, some autographs that are stated as Ex Limited seem to turn up more regular than V Limited ones which seems strange?

It will depend on the print run. If someone has only signed 200 cards, but there have only been 200 cases made, they are going to be fairly easily found.

quote:

Originally posted by WOMBLE:
It will depend on the print run. If someone has only signed 200 cards, but there have only been 200 cases made, they are going to be fairly easily found.

Well I'm not sure that I would consider a card that is seeded one per case as easy to find, but most major titles are carrying anywhere between 3000 and 6000 boxes now, so 200 cases would be on the small side. Also many new products have 2 - 3 hits per box, the latest Star Trek Next Generation has 4 autographs per box.

Again I am not complaining about short printing the stars or main cast that won't sign many cards, I would expect them to be XL. So maybe you'll have 3 or 4 cards that are going to be tough. Its the other minor ones that seem to be limited for no good reason other than to expand the VL and XL catagories and make it just that more expensive to complete the set that bother me.

While I am not trying to justify the XL cards in any way, a lot of the recent XL cards we've seen seem to be that way because actors have signed as different characters within the same series.

James Horan, Michelle Forbes and Tricia O'Neil have signed as both of the characters they played on ST: TNG for example, so assuming they signed even amounts of cards for both roles, on a whole their autograph itself isn't as hard to get, but the particular character they are signing as is.

As far as the main cast members and the like, the autographs look to be spread out about the same, but in this case across different series of cards, so we'll have Gates McFadden signing three or four different cards to be spread out within three or four different card sets even if they are all signed at the same time.

That is my take on it anyway.

Val

Isn't it EL for 'extremely limited'? What does XL stand for?

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Its the other minor ones that seem to be limited for no good reason other than to expand the VL and XL catagories and make it just that more expensive to complete the set that bother me.

Well, we have a couple of choices.one is forced rarity by a company, the other by a star. The company wants a better valued product so it limits a lot or...the star doesn't want to sign a lot or can't sign a lot (health). I know one case where a star didn't want to sign too many as they feared it would decrease their value on the convention circuit. The original Spiner auto back in the 90's was really rare cause it was all they could afford to get from him! I doubt the company is going to offer up details on either side..whether it was them or the star, as they rarely talk about that sort of stuff.