Finally some details...

The first unaffordable cards confirmed are:

They are great looking cards though

Nice card designs, but feel a bit like a kid with my nose pressed against the toy shop window looking at all the toys only the rich kids can have.

I wouldn't be that excited to get Diana Gabaldon's autograph as a 'hit'. I've read all the books now and read/viewed lots of her interviews...she kind of has her head so far up her own backside she has to open her mouth to see where she's going. Oh well, it could always be sold on...

The cards do look great, but I can't help but feel like card companies are mimicking each other in making things more and more higher-end and more and more expensive. And most times the value given back just isn't there. So much for trying to bring kids back into the hobby. On another forum they're saying that these Outlander boxes, which will contain 1 autograph and 1 wardrobe card per 6-pack box, are going to be over $200. This is the exact same thing that sports cards have become. Make everything super-premium and super-expensive. Oh well. Sorry for the off-topic rant. I'm now off my soapbox.

These autos look very nice indeed, but card makers are following each other down the same path with these franchise titles and I don't know when card collectors are going to catch on.

They are holding back for the next set or the next season. Sticker autographs can appear on anything in any combination, but even the on-card signatures are being released almost in order of importance.

Think about it. The first series is always missing one or two crucial actors. The second one has those actors in a very limited way. The third one has another design for those actors and maybe adds a dual or triple signature with them on it too. Then we get a signed relic eventually.

It's steps and the "best" card will appear later on and be regarded as better than what came before. So why are collectors buying what came before? Why not just wait till the end? Then you can either pick up what is truly the "best" card, or you can be just as happy with one of the previous autos because the price has now probably dropped due to the decreasing demand and additional supply of the others.

I mean this is a pattern folks and one of these days it's going to backfire when no one buys Season One until Season Five. By that time there won't be any cards made for Season Five.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
The cards do look great, but I can't help but feel like card companies are mimicking each other in making things more and more higher-end and more and more expensive.

Maybe it's less mimicking, and more doing what is profitable.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
The cards do look great, but I can't help but feel like card companies are mimicking each other in making things more and more higher-end and more and more expensive.

Maybe it's less mimicking, and more doing what is profitable.

I agree with Webjon. The non sports card market is about a decade behind the sports card industry in mining the market for profitability. When I owned a shop (2005 to 2008) and ran a shop (2009 to 2011), the sports card market was putting out 100 dollars a pack and 200 dollar a pack products. One day I get an advanced flyer for a 500 dollar a pack basketball product. I thought no one will buy this. I had 8 customers order a pack each! 500 a pack and I had 8 people in Meridian, MS ( a town of 40,000 people). The sports card people would buy boxes and throw away base cards.
I walked into a shop a few months back and the owner had saved all the X-files cards from 3 boxes where the sports card buyer kept the "hits" and left the rest to be tossed.

Here's a wolfie prediction for you.....

If non-sports go down the same road as sports then non-sports is finished, over and out, done with.!

If it's all so profitable, where are all the card shows? Where are all the card stores? Where are all the card makers? We had them once, now they are gone.

It doesn't matter if you have a few high rollers who will buy $500 boxes, they will not support hobby. If non-sport is about ten years behind sports card collecting then we already know what happened.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
If it's all so profitable, where are all the card shows? Where are all the card stores? Where are all the card makers? We had them once, now they are gone.

I think you are confusing a profitable product with a booming hobby.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Here's a wolfie prediction for you.....

If non-sports go down the same road as sports then non-sports is finished, over and out, done with.!

$2500 RDJ autographs don't agree.

The low end non-sport card market has been in trouble for a very long time. I bet that base sets literally sell for less than they cost to produce. From a business standpoint that just doesn't make sense.

While the low end of the hobby keeps getting lower, the high end has started to take off. Autographs selling for hundreds of dollars aren't all that uncommon now. . .

I can see a future where niche sets are only produced in high end formats. Base sets may only work for sets that appeal to a mass market -- sets that will sell at a big box store like Star Wars or the Walking Dead.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
If it's all so profitable, where are all the card shows? Where are all the card stores? Where are all the card makers? We had them once, now they are gone.

I think you are confusing a profitable product with a booming hobby.

Silly me!

Some more images...

I can't help but laugh, having had the price quote here in the UK.
Over £230 per box. 6 packs per box, 4 cards per pack, but hits are only 1 autograph and 1 wardrobe card per box. Yes, there are some great looking duals and triple autographs, they always show the best cards in the promo info, but your hit could be the author's card or another ordinary single. I suppose the collation might change between now and August in terms of quality of hit, but I kind of doubt it.
It would be slightly less painful to have a hit per pack...but that's just a dream.
I don't think I'll be touching any part of this set, I'll get my popcorn and watch others drop their cash down the drain.

Heard that price too. Insanity, and I don't see anyone buying it.

Also, is it just me, or are those costumes the same ones as in previous sets, just in different cards?

Can't believe that those price/contents are correct. I would have thought at that price point it would be one autograph and costume per pack so six autos and six costumes per box.

Either the description is incorrect or Cryptozoic are being very optimistic .

I got the price direct from a dealer this morning (£234.99 per box to be exact)with all the info from CZE. My eyes kind of glazed over on the inserts details after the price and hit rate were clear.

I'm sure they have yards of material for wardrobe cards. Think of all those long cloaks; and kilts/full plaids take yards more material than you think. Plus they'd have several of each costume for the star, stunt double, stand-in double, muddy version, faded version etc. Meaning CZE would probably have a whole costume to cut up into tiny squares.
Once you have one material type you have them all.

Edited to add: It's making the Rittenhouse premium sets look like great value now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hedgehog Witch,

To me the only way boxes are worth that price would be if every single one of them included a Heughan or Balfe autograph. I am guessing that Heughan and Balfe autos will be "easier" to pull here than in previous boxes, but I highly doubt it will 1 per box easy.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
To me the only way boxes are worth that price would be if every single one of them included a Heughan or Balfe autograph. I am guessing that Heughan and Balfe autos will be "easier" to pull here than in previous boxes, but I highly doubt it will 1 per box easy.

Really, it needs to be a Balfe in every box. Heughan was common as you like in the other sets - people were just paying a premium for no good reason and hoovering them all up quickly. There are still plenty out there at irrational prices.

quote:

Originally posted by ravenheart:

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
To me the only way boxes are worth that price would be if every single one of them included a Heughan or Balfe autograph. I am guessing that Heughan and Balfe autos will be "easier" to pull here than in previous boxes, but I highly doubt it will 1 per box easy.

Really, it needs to be a Balfe in every box. Heughan was common as you like in the other sets - people were just paying a premium for no good reason and hoovering them all up quickly. There are still plenty out there at irrational prices.

But it won't be, there is not enough in a box to warrant that sort of price, at £140/150 I might have had a go but at the price they are asking I'm out.