Oh picking and choosing for me, definitely. The GoT sets really lend themselves well with that I think (plus some things are just way out of my price range!) That and when Season 4 hits, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage and Jack Gleeson will have signed 5 times, and as much as I think the Lannisters really make the show (I mean, Cersei's definitely the most effective antagonist in my eyes, and Tyrion is a legend) I'd be happy just to have one of each of their autograph cards

I had the Archive boxes for Season 1 and 2, and boy, were those fun to open. I don't collect relics, so I sold those immediately to get back some of the money I spent, along with most of the full bleed autographs, since I prefer the bordered kind, and I really only need one signature from each different actor.

I love it that the case incentives for Season 3 and 4 were from previous signers, since I don't need those, and there was no way I was going to get a case of either this new or the previous series in any event.

Some of the characters, I like so much, that I've kept both (or more) versions of the autograph cards (four different for Arya) and in one case, I kept the full bleed instead of the bordered, because the signature was so much nicer, that was for Tyrion Lannister.

I got most of the new signers from Season 3, but before spending too much money on any of them, I knew to wait for Season 4 since many of them will repeat, and some of them in my more preferred format.

Sketches I don't generally collect (meaning I have a couple of hundred different ones instead of a couple of thousand), and as beautiful as GoT sketches are, their rarity and associated value means these might as well not even exist for me unless I can get one out of the pack, and even then, I might not keep it. It would depend what was on it, most likely.

I love these cards. Rittenhouse is doing a great job on them. Can't wait for the new ones to hit, and the premiere of Season 5 on HBO. I forced myself to stop reading at about halfway though the most recently published book, in the hopes that I can still be surprised at some point by the TV show this year.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
I would be satisfied to have a full base set with inserts and one relic from each season, along with one autograph from every actor, in any style and from any season, not including the one shot incentives of writer and production staff.

Is there a reason you're not interested in the producers and author?
I see them as just as important as the actors, because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have this amazing show to watch.

I've been out of the loop really when it comes to the season 3 set, was there something exclusive only available in the archive box?

And I enjoy reading how other people collect these sets, it's fun talking about the latest release, but I love hearing about and seeing others current and past GoT collections.

So for those that just collect as you want, do you see it as one big set that you are slowly amassing, or separate sets for each season.
I think I am starting to see mine as one big whole set rather than individual seasons because I won't be aiming for master sets.

quote:

Originally posted by Juelle Lou:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
I would be satisfied to have a full base set with inserts and one relic from each season, along with one autograph from every actor, in any style and from any season, not including the one shot incentives of writer and production staff.

Is there a reason you're not interested in the producers and author?
I see them as just as important as the actors, because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have this amazing show to watch.

I've been out of the loop really when it comes to the season 3 set, was there something exclusive only available in the archive box?

And I enjoy reading how other people collect these sets, it's fun talking about the latest release, but I love hearing about and seeing others current and past GoT collections.

So for those that just collect as you want, do you see it as one big set that you are slowly amassing, or separate sets for each season.
I think I am starting to see mine as one big whole set rather than individual seasons because I won't be aiming for master sets.

The only reason why I excluded George R. R. Martin and the producers Weiss and Benioff is because I would rather pick up the actor signatures first and the incentive cards are by nature short printed and more expensive than a regular autograph might be. I haven't priced these three cards in awhile and I think the value has softened a bit, but last I saw the producers were around $60 each and Martin was in the $170 range. I'd just rather put that money to the screen talent, but you are right in thinking them just as important. Certainly the show wouldn't be here without Martin's books.

Not sure about the archive box, I can't recall anything exclusive to that, but maybe I didn't read about it.

For me, I am thinking about it as one big set and like I said, I'm content with one autograph per actor as a way to keep the cost down. Of course there are some that I already have 2 and 3 autograph cards on, just because I pulled them or I picked them up in buying small lots.

GOT is the only title that I am really following in cards. Otherwise I am much more random in individual autograph cards that concentrate on the signer, rather than the title.

The Producers cards are nice, but I can't imagine not having the Martin card. That is the equivalent to a JRR Tolkien autographed card in a "Lord of the Rings" set in my book.

The Archive box for Season 3 had an exclusive Robb Stark relic card, which is very valuable, as you'd imagine. As with the rest of the relics so far, I'm glad to have not felt the "need" for that one either, as those don't even come up for sale very often.

I have settled for just collecting one auto from every actor across all seasons, of any type.
I did buy the Martin card as he is a legend but I didnt bother with the Weiss and Benioff cards as those cards hold no interest for me.

I think this discussion of how you collect GOT can be applied to the way we all choose to collect our cards in general. It's about allocating limited resources, aka money, and to a certain extent ideas of quantity vs. quality. It would be great if we could afford everything, but most people can't, and how it gets divided up is strictly an individual decision.

I get that it's an individual decision, but I still think it's interesting to read about how and why people choose to collect these massive sets.

One other question, was there no promo inserted in the Disc releases this time?
I remember buying Seasons 2&3 off of Amazon just to get the promos that were in them. Luckily they must be region free because they actually play in my Bluray player unlike all my other DVD/Blurays that I have bought from the US.

No promo card in the Season 4 bluray/DVD set. But Season 3 didn't either, right? Just S2 had the White Walker storyboard promo card.

quote:

Originally posted by ctacker:
No promo card in the Season 4 bluray/DVD set. But Season 3 didn't either, right? Just S2 had the White Walker storyboard promo card.

Yeah, I think you're right about only S2 having the promo.
And good to know S4 doesn't have one because I was hoping I could buy it locally this time.

quote:

Originally posted by Jason00:
I think these sets are great, but they are getting weighed down with things I just don't care about at all like more and more parallel cards.

I agree, they just seem to be padding for the binder... I wish RA would either do the chase set itself, OR a limited version of a chase set (whether it's numbered or Gold or whatever). I certainly do not like the fact there are THREE versions of the base (that's at least 33 ultra-pro pages already!)

I collect the regular parallel set as my base, find it really fun tracking each card down once I have started with my 1 box purchase. More interesting that having the normal base (in fact, my S3 box did not have a whole base set in )

In fact, just a week or two ago I got the last 2 cards I needed for Season 2

Hi. Need a little advice....

Gotta admit I am a GoT newb! Just started watching the show and as of last night just watched episode 4 of S2. And I am hooked, lol like I am sure a lot of you are as well.

I own none of the card sets from seasons 1 thru 3. Interested in picking up a few boxes or possibly even a case of S4 when Rittenhouse releases it in the May-ish timeframe. Which I gather from their website is similar to previous releases. And I hope this is the case. No pun intended

Not really interested in getting any of the special cards (Autos/Relics/Sketches) from the previous 3 releases as I would rather spend on more towards S4 boxes. However, I would love some of Pence's sketches or a Clarke auto but they are just too pricey for my liking.

Do you get a complete base set per box? Is this guaranteed? Is the series starting to get too gimmicky or is RA just responding to buyer responses with all the new parallel's they are releasing for this set? Will the sketch insertion rates be the same for this upcoming release as it was for past releases. I believe it was 1 per 2 cases. I hope the rates will be better as I am a huge sketch card fan.

Cheers - Peter

Just from my experience with the previous GOT releases, I think I have gotten a full base set in each box, along with some dups and the usual number of foil parallels. I buy a couple at a time, so I might have been short a few. I don't know if there is a guarantee when the base is over 72 cards and this looks like a 100 card base set. There are also the small insert sets and the occasional relic. Looks like one box might not do it.

I would not call it gimmicky. RA follows a pretty standard formula that most collectors seem to like, or at least not too many seem to be opposed to it. The biggest question seems to revolve around the parallel cards. Some people don't need them, I am with the group that likes the shiny cards better than the base.

As far as the info that has been released thusfar, I don't believe Clarke has been included in the autograph list for the season 4 cards. She did not sign for season 3 either.

Sketches have been very, very rare. I couldn't quote you any ratio, but I don't expect to ever find one myself. Hope that helps.

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

Just checked a couple of other sites and found no really new info. Seasons 1 and 2 were 72 card base sets, I thought that I got a complete set per box, and I guess I did. Last year had the 99 or 100 base, as will the new one apparently. There are more inserts and no relics in Season 4 cards.

I wouldn't call any of this definite and the autograph list that has been posted may not be the final version.

Product page is now up on the Rittenhouse site:

http://www.scifihobby.com/prod...eason_four/index.cfm

If the mock-ups of Kit Harington's cards are how he actually signed his name then that's a bit disappointing. It's a far cry from his signature in the first two sets. Perhaps another case of "autograph signing fatigue" (or just plain laziness) setting in.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
Product page is now up on the Rittenhouse site:

http://www.scifihobby.com/prod...eason_four/index.cfm

If the mock-ups of Kit Harington's cards are how he actually signed his name then that's a bit disappointing. It's a far cry from his signature in the first two sets. Perhaps another case of "autograph signing fatigue" (or just plain laziness) setting in.

I can't belive they will all be full bleed. I'd like to see some variety on the sell sheet. Also, three of the cards don't have the actor's name on the bottom. Looks like a quick job. The two Gold Incentives are very dark and contrasty to me.

Still anxious to open a case,
VinnyH

Not really sure about that product sheet RA just put out. All autographs shown are in the full bleed format, but I haven't read that anywhere and it is a departure from previous sets. I happen to prefer the full bleeds, but many collectors like the bordered autograph cards better.

The checklist has not been included yet, so that sheet really doesn't say anything more than the info that was already being circulated. It names twenty-one signers and "more". I think we won't know anything for sure until that checklist breakdown gets posted.

I think the season 2 sell sheet showed all full bleed as well, I'm sure they just think the fb cards are cleaner and look nicer in advertising (and I usually agree with them, except in this case where I only collect the two bordered styles). I really hope that Indira Varma and Daniel Portman signed bordered cards because they are the two signers I am looking forward to the most.

I'd be interested to know which style of autograph cards the real hardcore GOT fans like the most and how they collect them.

I prefer the original black bordered cards myself but the 'blue' style is too similar in layout to my eye, so seems repetitious. I like the full bleeds but the text at the bottom looks too big and the character image isn't that much bigger than the black bordered. I dunno, I guess I don't see a massive difference from one style to the next and think maybe the master set collectors might struggle with fairly similar cards. But like I said, would be interested to know what the real GOT fans prefer.