quote:

Originally posted by Miss Lizzy:
Anyone know yet how many cards will be in the base set? I've been looking around but don't see that info anywhere.

I have 72 cards in my notes. Came from the original solicitation PDF.

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

quote:

Originally posted by Miss Lizzy:
Anyone know yet how many cards will be in the base set? I've been looking around but don't see that info anywhere.

I have 72 cards in my notes. Came from the original solicitation PDF.

Ed

Thanks Ed. I've got the binder solicitation, but can't find the other one.

quote:

Originally posted by watchers of watchers:
Here is a silly question? I was on the Crypto site checking any update for TBB cards and saw on the ordering page it says available in the US only? I didnt see that on the other ordering pages? Is that normal or is that a reason for the delay?

The delay has nothing to do with the US only thing, we covered this a long time ago. A good deal of the new sets are going to be limited to the US/Canada only under the terms of the license. It's sadly the way many properties are going these days.

We toyed with the idea of grey marketing a lot of this product but a lot of the UK dealers already have sources for this so we left it. Rather than buying cases we are just going to import a few boxes. Geographic licensing restrictions suck but they are the way of the world now.

So does that mean customs will confiscate it if its mailed to the UK?

No. I've bought many boxes from the US from sets that were 'US-only' without any problems (except the dreaded custom fees of course... grrr!).

quote:

Originally posted by watchers of watchers:
So does that mean customs will confiscate it if its mailed to the UK?

Not at all, it means that if the manufacturer sells the goods intentionally outside of the geographic restrictions they are liable to have one of several actions taken against them including but not limited to: Financial penalties, loss of the license and or any other licenses they hold from the same people, and a lawsuit for breach of contract.

The truth is once they sell it in the US however it can be shipped any-place the buyer wants for the most part. What it means however is this: The owners of the licensed properties are missing out on a great deal of sales, because no one is going to option the international rights to these sets, it's just not going to happen so the international market will earn them nothing. Cryptozoic also have the problem that they have no real way to judge demand for the product internationally so they cant risk much over production to support US grey market exporters, and obviously the set is not advertised internationally so it's going to be a tough sell even if they did.

This means the prices will be higher outside of the US and of course all the companies involved ironically make less money than they could/should have.

The real shame of it is that Cryptozoic have a fantastic international distribution network which COULD support these sets, as they do with other products like Warcraft, but they are simply not aloud. Of course the other issue is that no one in the UK would stock it because even the comic shops wouldn't know a trading card if it bit them on the ***, but that's another conversation completely.

One other problem with geographic restrictions is that the company is not able to do customer service requests from outside the licensed area.

So, you have to get creative if you have a box that didn't have what it was supposed to or had damaged cards inside.

That can be the bigger problem for the end consumer.

Ed

I see they pushed it back again! Guess this set is all talk no action!

quote:

Originally posted by watchers of watchers:
I see they pushed it back again! Guess this set is all talk no action!

March 20th on the website now. Who knows, it will come out eventually. Except for the fact that I really watch Big Bang and want at least some of those autograph cards I would have lost interest a long time ago.

I don't mind it been late, as of now I'm more interested in seeing a checklist of some sort.

Sorry for not reading every page to see if its mentioned but whats the cause of the delays?

I think the delays are mostly a domino effect.

Walking Dead was delayed due to approvals and production issues...

So Vampire Dairies was delayed. Diaries had major production issues causing delays. (Binders still are not here.

So, that delays The Guild. Which seemed to have no problems other than you can't release one product too close to another.

So, that delays BBT some more. Again, dealers cannot absorb too many releases too fast, and that's who is buying from Cryptozoic.

So, you can bet Smallville is pushed into April and then Fringe probably becomes May.

Ed

My VD binders showed up on Thursday, so they should be arriving on your doorstep soon Ed

The international angle is an interesting one. I pay an online game that after 8 years suddenly sold the international servers/players to an EU company, region locking the game so that EU and US can't mix. A stunning developement in a environment that has been regionless for years! It happened at the same time as card sets went US only and I wodnered what, if any connection, was between the two.

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:
I think the delays are mostly a domino effect.

Walking Dead was delayed due to approvals and production issues...

So Vampire Dairies was delayed. Diaries had major production issues causing delays. (Binders still are not here.

So, that delays The Guild. Which seemed to have no problems other than you can't release one product too close to another.

So, that delays BBT some more. Again, dealers cannot absorb too many releases too fast, and that's who is buying from Cryptozoic.

So, you can bet Smallville is pushed into April and then Fringe probably becomes May.

Ed

I agree, but Cryptozoic keeps annoucing new licenses and there are rumors/hints of even more titles from them. Its a great thing to be sure to have another major non-sport card manufacturer, but I don't believe that even Inkworks in it hayday tried to produce a set a month. If you have delays and you have production issues because of growing pains that's understandable, but you have to catch up or you can't charge forward.

RAven, that would be okay but..... They announce new sets but never say anything about the ones that are late until after the fact and then its really no info as to why the delays? And again I say these people all worked for Upper Deck so they know what goes into making cards there is no excuse for the poor customer support... oh wait I answered that they worked for UD!

quote:

Originally posted by watchers of watchers:
RAven, that would be okay but.....

WW, I think you mistake my tone. I wasn't saying it was okay at all. I was just trying to be polite.

Oh sorry I wasnt trying to be mean either

Inkworks did indeed produce 11 to 12 sets a year most years. A set a month seems to be about critical mass for trading cards, more and it overloads things.

That said, there were times they released things too close together. BUT you also have to remember they kept to their schedule by using redemption cards more than anyone else in non-sports.

Cryptozoic can't win. When the DC and Castle licenses were seen at the toy show, I heard "why are we just hearing about this?"

I'm willing to give Cryptozoic a year to figure out all the details. Just because some of them worked for UD in the past does not mean they know all the facets of what it takes to make a card set. And each license is different in what hoops you have to jump through.

It's going to take some time for them to get all the kinks out, and delays are inevitable when you have both On Card and non-redemption autographs.

Ed

Redemption cards are one thing that kills a product. I collect sports cards too and they often insert redemptions. Most people that pulls the cards end up selling them because they don't want to deal with it. While others stay away from buying boxes and just stick with singles.