Have you ever bought a card simply because you liked how it looked? I'm not talking about a sketch card, or a base card, or even a premium card that was part of a product you liked. I'm talking about an autograph, costume or relic card that had nothing to do with anything you were collecting, but you just saw something in it that made you buy it.

As an example, not long ago I was scanning through eBay listings and came upon the True Blood autograph card of Michelle Forbes. I have no interest in True Blood. I don't know the character. I don't have a special feeling about the actress, except that she was in Battlestar Galatica. The card was limited and mid-range expensive. I had to have it.

Why? There was something about the picture and the construction of the card. I guess she's a vampire queen or something, I never looked it up, but there is this Vampirella quality in the pose. TB cards have a large white space for the autograph and red ink blood dripping down. The autograph was legible and in bright blue as contrast to the white and red. All and all a perfect card for what I look for in an autograph.

I've bought cards on a whim before, but that's a little different than finding ones you just like for no other reason than the look.

So now I'm wondering if other collectors can point to autographs, costumes or relic cards that they think are just great looking. They don't have to be expensive, they can be commons. Price is not important and neither is the set. Anybody like to talk about them and why they appeal to you?

I picked up an AVP Requiem costume card of Reiko Aylesworth because I loved her character in "24".Never seen the film the card is from or have any other cards from the set.

I do that all the time. I was just buying some Twilight Zone autographs and the seller had a card of Melody Anderson from Battlestar Galactica the original series. I saw a couple of episodes of those back in the 1970's when they first aired, but none since, nor the new show on Sci-Fi, but I still had to have it since I recognized the actress as having played Dale Arden in the 1980 "Flash" movie which I adored. I didn't even know it existed until I saw it the other day, and now it's on the way.

I'm also a huge Simpsons fans, and there's no Simpsons autograph card for Kelsey Grammer who has voiced Sideshow Bob on the show pretty much since the start. He did finally have a card in the X-Men III movie card set. Kelsey as the blue hair covered Beast in that movie, so I picked up the card and it's now in my binder with my other Simpsons Cards, which ironically lacks a signed card of the Blue-haired Marge Simpsons, whose voice, Julie Kavner, it would seems has absolutely no interest in signing autograph cards. If she finally were to sign one, I'd pick up that card no matter what set it was from.

Similarly, I have the Six Feet Under card set, nice but it lacked an autographed card from Frances Conroy who played the mother Ruth Fisher on the show. A few years later, she finally had a signed card in the Inkworks "Seeker" card set, which I picked up right away for my SFU collection. As for the Seeker movie, I still haven't seen it.

I've also didn't watch Lost or Alias, but I must have at least 15 autograph cards from between the two series, just because I liked those actors from other things I've seen them in, which tells me I'd probably like Lost and Alias. JJ Abrams and his crew have certainly moved on to bigger things!

I Don't really collect Star Trek cards , but a few years ago i found some of the Orion Slave Girl Autograph cards from the Enterprise Series , I liked how the cards looked so i picked them up for my collection , gotta love green skined dark haired women...maybe it's just me , those are the only Trek cards i've ever collected besides a few misc trek food premiums

I do this quite often actually. First off I've been an in-person autograph collector for 20 years and only 6 months ago I also started collecting autograph and costume cards and the only set I'm trying to complete is ALIAS.

As for any other autograph or costume cards, I buy them upon my personal preferences. If I really like an actor/actress and know I won't meet him/her in-person anytime soon to get my 8x10" photo signed, an autograph card is the perfect fill-in.

For example, I really liked TNT's show 'Leverage', a remake of BBC's show 'Hustle', starring Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Aldis Hodge, Christian Kane and Beth Riesgraf.
I already had Timothy Hutton on an 8x10" photo, but bought Aldis Hodge (Supernatural Season 2 A17), Christian Kane (Angel Seaso 1 A6) and Mark A. Sheppard (Warehouse 13 Season 1 #7).

I also buy costume cards in order to get them signed in person at a later date because it's becoming harder and harder to get my 8x10" photos signed as many celebs will suspect you're a seller when you show up with 8x10" photos and blue Sharpies.

Plus, sometimes you can score great deals on autograph cards from actors who are hard to get in person. And you can also get their early full signatures on a card whereas many only use their initials when they sign in person these days (e.g. Gregory Smith - Small Soldiers A1 and Laurie Holden - X-Files Season 4 & 5 A4).

So in the end I don't need to have a special interest in a complete set, it's only about certain cards that I like.