I don't know if this has been discussed before, but could anyone tell me why the price surge in Twilight Zone autograph cards?
I understand some of the more famous people (Shatner, Nimoy) and the deceased (Rooney, Ebsen), but it seems like all of the "lesser know"
and "barely known" names have gone up as well. What used to be available for five dollars or less are now starting at ten to twelve dollars.
I used to pass on lots where the average price was more like three or four dollars a card. I wish I had known.

I don't know why this is happening but I'm very happy it is, I don't think any autograph should be sold for less than $10, I've allways thought it was sort of an insult to the actor to do so although I admit I did buy some.

Wolfie a lot charge more than that before its put into a pack. I can buy back autos for less than I paid the actor a lot of times.
Pretty sad.

I could come up with at least several reasons.

It could be that more card collectors in general, and more autograph card collectors in particular, are turning away from higher priced recent product and going back to filling holes in their collections. If the demand goes up, the available supply decreases and the prices increase. Typically it is not the star autographs that jump the most because they already may have flatlined in pricing, but its the minor stars and common autographs that rise the most by percentage. After all you need every autograph card to complete the set and where there may not have been much interest in a common signer before, now that card is seen as necessary.

Another reason might be simply that the cards are aging and many autographs are already sitting in collections that are not going to be traded or sold anytime soon. Why should they be, they are great cards. So the numbers still available are dwindling for star and common alike. Even if the demand is staying steady, the supply is still decreasing, so prices must increase.

Another reason might be that it is true that younger generations are still watching old Twilight Zone episodes first shown long before they were born via reruns and holiday marathons. Many of those stories have not lost their edge despite the B/W and become stale, especially the creepy ones. New card collectors may have a connection to Twilight Zone autographs and sets that they don't feel to other older product.

Another reason might be a bit more morbid, every year a signer or two is dying and therefore will not add anymore autographs to the market.

Finally, these autograph cards are from many well known stars and character actors, while the signatures as a group are fantastic looking. Almost every one is letter perfect, no hieroglyphics, no sloppy initials, no doodles, just clean, readable signatures.

I have quite a lot of the Twilight Zone autographs, but I am missing a few of the more expensive stars and have not tried to collect every common. Writing this makes me think that I should make an effort to fill in my own gaps while I still can.

Of the 151 Twilight Zone autos (excluding the cut Sterling auto), I am in need of 15. On the higher end I have noticed a small drop off in price. On the lower end, they have been hovering around 10 to 25 for the last few years. The autographs are a great collection of classic film and television actors/actresses.

Raven, I think you pretty much summed it up.
I have a number of autos from the episodes I found particularly memorable, but over the years, more and more, I've wished I had them all.

Nyuk nyuk, I got 'em all! No fact, just brag. I am missing A121 without the words "Best wishes" though.

Funny this topic just came up.

I just opened 5 boxes of series 4 yesterday.
It's a nearly 10 year old set of which only 5,000 boxes were made, so there really is a finite number of those autographs, which I think is why even the common autographs from that set especially can reliably sell for $10 or more when such commons from most other sets have a hard time garnering even $5.

I actually have all of the autographs from the Series 4 set already, but was taking a (very long) shot at the Serling Cut. I've seen it said that there were 5 of those, but by the odds on the checklist (1 in 100,000 packs), there should really only be 2 of them (with 5,000 boxes of 40 packs adding up to 200,000 total packs, or enough packs for just two cut signatures to be found at the odds listed).

Whether it's 2 or 5 (hopefully 5), have any of those ever surfaced? I'd like to at least see what it looks like, since I unsurprisingly did not find one in my 5 boxes. I did have 0.1 percent of the entire run, which is pretty amazing to me that there are even that many sealed boxes still out there considering the chance at finding not only the Serling cut, but the valuable Ron Howard and James Doohan auto cards. There can't be too many of those boxes left that are still sealed.

The Hall of Fame cards are hand numbered out of 333 in Series 4, so with 200 packs, I could've expected 2 by the odds which are 1 in 100, but I got only one. It was Anne Francis at least, whom I adored, so that was cool. Out of the 20 autographs, they were all different, with the best being Mickey Rooney, (may he rest in peace), so an instant half a set or so. I'm hoping for at least one more set of these.

Maybe it's because the sellers who have them are the Ebay money grabbers ?

I have my (incomplete) collection In episode order, Where is every one ?, first + bewitchin pool last.

My favourites of all the auto's are Robert Sorrells (the mighty casey), William Reynolds (purple testament) + Mary Badham (bewitchin pool)

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

Leaving a Twilight Zone autograph in a dealer's $5.00 box is a sacrilege!

I'm 19 autos short of a set but I don't care. When I saw the first run episodes with Shatner, Nimoy and the like they were less important to me and my friends than
Patricia Breslin
Sherry Jackson (Make Room for Daddy)
Anne Francis
Julie Newmar
Donna Douglas (albeit brief w/o bandages)
...should I go on?

I think I need about 10 to 15 as well to have them all, and I'm with you, Bill, some of my favorites aren't necessarily the most valuable ones. It's taken on a bit more value lately, but I absolutely treasure the Anne Francis from "Jess-Belle" since that's one of my favorite episodes, top 5 easy. (Most would probably prefer her card from "After Hours", if they could have only one. Not me, it's "Jess-Belle" all the way, although I'm glad to have them both).
And while the "Jess-Belle" co-star James Best autograph card depicts him from is a different episode, it still makes a fine companion. Billy Ben and Jess-Belle are together forever...in my binder, anyway. Somewhere, ol' Granny Hart is smiling.
Another of my all-time favorites is "Miniature". Would that Robert Duvall agree to sign cards! That would instantly become, for me anyway, the best card in the set.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:

I actually have all of the autographs from the Series 4 set already, but was taking a (very long) shot at the Serling Cut. I've seen it said that there were 5 of those, but by the odds on the checklist (1 in 100,000 packs), there should really only be 2 of them (with 5,000 boxes of 40 packs adding up to 200,000 total packs, or enough packs for just two cut signatures to be found at the odds listed).

Whether it's 2 or 5 (hopefully 5), have any of those ever surfaced? I'd like to at least see what it looks like, since I unsurprisingly did not find one in my 5 boxes.

Over on the RA boards there's a thread about the Serling cut from back in the day. Here it is:

http://www.scifihobby.com/bboa...ead.cfm?threadid=770

Apparently #4/5 sold on eBay for $2650 in early 2005. And then a few months later #3/5 came up for sale also on eBay with a "Buy It Now" price of $3999 but it doesn't mention if it sold or not.

There's a scan of one of them on the RA product page for Twilight Zone Series 4 here:

http://www.scifihobby.com/prod...297&CFTOKEN=98074957

...and I also found a scan of another one here:

http://videodrome.org/cards/im..._zon/cut_serling.jpg

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

I am just curious who needs who since several of us are 10 to 20 away.
I need Shatner, Allen, Shatner, Nimoy, Howard, Doohan, Francis(Jessbell), Brittany, Foray, Osmond, Stafford, Both Robertson, Astin and Johnson.

It is a hard collection to complete, I had a case of the complete Twilight Zone and was missing 4 auto's (still need the ballerina
Susan Harrison from 5 characters in search of an exit, anyone know where I can get her at a nice price ? ) trying to complete is a pain, for a start there's the problem with the Elizabeth Allen, After hours card, then trying to get a Cloris leachman to find the cheapest is around £80.00, and last time I saw Ronny Howard it was up in the £200's.
There is room for more, Ann Gillian wanted too much to sign, they also said at Rittenhouse that Nehemah Persoff (Judgement Night) had signed cards, so how's that going to show up ?

Where it failed for me was with the base sets, giving each episode 6 images (and 9 with the 50 minute episodes) was too much, 3 or even 1 would have done, Passage for trumpet just has 6 images of Jack Klugman holding/playing his trumpet, so when try stopped, the set was incomplete.

Here are my missing autos. Not all are high priced:
Shatner(both)
E Allen
Klugman (#43) I have a dupe of #29
Nimoy
Takai
R Howard
M Brittany
Hayward
Foray
Macnee
Erdman
Osmond
S Marshall
Stafford
C Robertson
Call
Astin
G Johnson

I have been collecting these cards for years. As far as I can tell I only need the sketchafex fortune teller card, p3 from series 5 and the Serling cut to have all the cards. I do have quite a few duplicates that I have amassed over the years if anyone has any cards I am looking for. The duplicates I have are series 1: Douglas, Boxhner, Blyth, McCarthy, Milner, Miles, Taylor, Windom, Bower, Weaver, Holliman, Francis, Sorrels, Leachman, Mumy & Lee. Series 2 I have duplicates of : Shatner, Garland, Reynolds, Gordon, Kobe, Rickles, Ruskin, Carson, keeper, Klugman, Bikel, Richman, Best, Jackson, Ebsen, Berman, Weaver, Lloyd & Hingle. Series 3 I have dupes of Johnson, Martin, Pine, Pall & Lindsey. series 4 I have dupes of Morse, Linville, Wilcox, Durante, King, Rooney, Pollack, Sues, Nettleton, Wingreen, Wingreen, Cartwright, Dillaway, Strangis, Johnson, Lasell, Bean, Schallert, Masak, Barry, Gordon, Trundy, Malone, Erwin, Johnson, B. Cooper, J. Cooper, Hagen & Francis. series 5 dupes are: Hartford, Macnee, Chiles, Harrison, Cordova & Van Patten. I can't believe I have 88 doubles. I probably wouldn't have known had I not come across this thread. If any Twilight Zone collectors are out there and need any of these just pm me. I do hope we get to see another TZ set. I can't get enough of these.

Good stuff, here. Thanks for the info on the Serling Cut, Logan, I missed that somehow. So if there are 5, that would mean one in 40,000 packs are the actual odds, unless only 2 were placed in packs. With 5,000 boxes of 40 packs, that's only 200,000 packs, or enough for 2 cuts by the listed odds of 1 per 100K packs.
Thanks for the lists. Impressive that so many of us are so close and especially that you've pretty much finished yours, Bacall1.
I'll put mine list up as soon as I can make it. It should only be 10 or so, maybe 15.

Have you folks seen the ebay listing for Z redemption card from series 1? Could it be worth anywhere near what it is listed for?

quote:

Originally posted by Wilber Gray:
Have you folks seen the ebay listing for Z redemption card from series 1? Could it be worth anywhere near what it is listed for?

It has been sitting there for a LOOOOOOOOOONGG time. So, the answer would be no. If it could still be redeemed, heck yea, but sadly it cannot.

I had one a few years ago that I ran at auction with a starting bid of 99 cents. It ending up selling for around $75.