Have they closed shop? I went to their site and it just shows their past releases and an email address for sales contact.

See the recent post in the News section. They are doing toys now instead of cards.

Alot of card companies have been quiet of late. What happened to Cult Stuff, the UK company ? They last did a limited pin up mini set in January 2017, about 50 made. There was supposed to be another Sherlock Holmes set (Hound of the Baskervilles) in February, but it has yet to come out, and no news from/about them at all, with regard to ANY card sets

They're just like me! I've pretty much quit collecting. I can't complete the sets, so why even bother trying? Also, I can't afford it any more. I think I've spent less than a hundred dollars on cards in the last 6 or 7 months.

They're still on the exhibitor list for ComicConInternational for this year.

Non-sports business isn't anywhere close to what it used to be and is fading yearly. Fortunately sports cards are still strong and show no signs of diminishing.

Have been collecting more sport than non-sport, was a shift from a few years ago, as non-sport has been very over priced for awhile now! Sit on a non-sport set for awhile, you see the value of it degrade pretty quickly, as even the hot insert that was highly valued has dropped as well!

quote:

Originally posted by mistermagdealer:
They're still on the exhibitor list for ComicConInternational for this year.

According to Tom, He will not be at SDCC this year. They are not working on any card set only their toy line.

Can't say I am surprised. Breygent had some quality titles and some really great autographs, but you need a flagship or two to stay afloat.

I am curious what is going to happen with Cryptozoic now that Walking Dead has been delivered to less than capable hands?

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Can't say I am surprised. Breygent had some quality titles and some really great autographs, but you need a flagship or two to stay afloat.

I am curious what is going to happen with Cryptozoic now that Walking Dead has been delivered to less than capable hands?

They should be OK now that Outlander has hit big. Hopefully not too much negative publicity from the autograph insertion problem.

None of the few companies remaining seem to be acquiring as many licenses as they used to though. Cryptozoic seems to be down to the DC comics shows and Outlander. Rittenhouse used to produce 15-20 sets a year, now they're down to under 10. Upper Deck covers Marvel and a few other titles here and there (to mixed results), like Alien, Clerks, and Firefly. And Topps has Walking Dead, Star Wars, Doctor Who and not much else. Topps seems to only go after licenses where they feel they can squeeze about a dozen sets a year out of.

quote:

Originally posted by Triple-Frog:
They should be OK now that Outlander has hit big. Hopefully not too much negative publicity from the autograph insertion problem.

As a whole I am not too worried about them as they seem well diversified. Maybe that will hold their trading card business up until they can land some bigger fish. I did not realize that Outlander was a big deal.

quote:

Originally posted by Triple-Frog:

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Can't say I am surprised. Breygent had some quality titles and some really great autographs, but you need a flagship or two to stay afloat.

I am curious what is going to happen with Cryptozoic now that Walking Dead has been delivered to less than capable hands?

They should be OK now that Outlander has hit big. Hopefully not too much negative publicity from the autograph insertion problem.

Not being privy to the production end of the card industry, I often wonder how much more profit a card manufacturer really makes from a successful product, as opposed to any old release.

Even the more or less average titles are coming out with limited production these days. Some titles are made so short, sometimes with seemingly so little confidence, that they sell out almost immediately. If the manufacturer does have a runaway success, it has to start allocating orders. Once product is sold out from the manufacturer, any price increases due to great demand goes to pad the profits of the distributor or dealer who ordered the product.

So when you say Outlander hit big, that's true. How much it may help CZE I don't know. Maybe in the next set more, if they make more or set the price higher to begin with.

I always remember that in its waning days, which no one knew about at the time, Inkworks released Twilight with no autographs, only costume cards. It was not supposed to be a big deal, many people passed on the boxes when no autographs were announced.

So we all know that the Twilight boxes blew out and were selling for insane prices. Did it help Inkworks? Not one bit. It helped whoever else bought the boxes from Inkworks and were selling the cards.

If Inkworks had enough time and was able to mine that title again, who knows what might have changed. Maybe everything, maybe nothing. The manufacturer doesn't profit from secondary market values unless they are still holding the product. If it has sold out, somebody else makes the money if its good, or gets stuck with the cards if its bad.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
Cryptozoic seems to be down to the DC comics shows and Outlander.

Which is odd that no one is picking up on the DC film franchise. Seems like a mountain of missed opportunity there. Maybe the license costs aren't worth the risk?

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
If Inkworks had enough time and was able to mine that title again, who knows what might have changed. Maybe everything, maybe nothing. The manufacturer doesn't profit from secondary market values unless they are still holding the product. If it has sold out, somebody else makes the money if its good, or gets stuck with the cards if its bad.

Sure! Artbox had the Harry Potter license and they made good quality cards. In the end they didn't have much else to keep the presses turning.

It was noted above that Rittenhouse does about 10 sets a year. So far this year, 2017, I count:

Star Trek 50th (Jan)

Buffy Series 2 (Feb)

Game of Thrones 6 (April)

James Bond 2017 (May)

Women of Star Trek (July)

Game of Thrones Valyrian Steel (Oct)

Buffy Series 3 (Nov)


So 7 sets total, and the 2 Buffys are really factory sets, so in actuality RA only had 5 traditional sets this year.

And with no more Bond, I guess they will just have Star Trek, Game of Thrones and Buffy ?

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
It was noted above that Rittenhouse does about 10 sets a year. So far this year, 2017, I count:

Star Trek 50th (Jan)

Buffy Series 2 (Feb)

Game of Thrones 6 (April)

James Bond 2017 (May)

Women of Star Trek (July)

Game of Thrones Valyrian Steel (Oct)

Buffy Series 3 (Nov)


So 7 sets total, and the 2 Buffys are really factory sets, so in actuality RA only had 5 traditional sets this year.

And with no more Bond, I guess they will just have Star Trek, Game of Thrones and Buffy ?

And last year they released only 6 sets and that's including the Star Trek 50 for 50 Factory Set. The five traditional releases had two from Trek, two from Bond, and one from Game of Thrones.

They claim that in 2018 they will have Lost in Space and American Gods, but how great will the demand be for those sets ?

Seems like 2018 will be mostly more Star Trek (at least 3 sets) and more Game of Thrones

American Gods kind of begs the question if you are going to do an "R" rated show, shouldn't you produce an "R" rated card set? I don't collect GoT but I am assuming the base set images are tame by comparison to the show.

Are kids really collecting these sets in the first place?

The few stores that carry cards may not carry R rated card sets, so as not to get in trouble. Not worth the risk.

Wasn't Inkworks' Sopranos set watered down to a PG ? No profanity on the cards.

But isn't Outlander also "R" rated ? From what I understand, the show has a good deal of nudity and adult situations

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
American Gods kind of begs the question if you are going to do an "R" rated show, shouldn't you produce an "R" rated card set? I don't collect GoT but I am assuming the base set images are tame by comparison to the show.

Are kids really collecting these sets in the first place?

GoT base sets are mainly comprised of portrait cards for every character that appeared at least a few times in that season. The text is really pretty good by way of explaining who they are and how the plot is running. I can't recall seeing anything really objectionable about any GoT card.

Walking Dead on the other hand has so much gore on the cards that I would never show them to a kid for fear their parents would want to kill me.

To answer your question, kids are not collecting cards from R-rated shows. They are marketed and priced for adult collectors anyway. However even with an R-rated title, what you get on TV and movie cards is gore. You can find nudity and adult situations on cards if you really try, but these are not the mainstream products.