THE X-FILES SKETCH CARD PACKS ARE AVAILABLE NOW

Celebrate the 2014 Annual of the X-Files ongoing series with this special collector's set featuring both the 48-page comic and original art sketch cards from a pool of amazing artists including Mark McHaley, Cat Staggs, Sean Pence, and more.

The X-Files writer/producer Frank Spotnitz returns with an untold tale from Mulder and Scully’s first stint with the FBI. And in the second story, Cerebus creator Dave Sim writes his first-ever X-Files story and first scripted licensed work ever!

Limited to just 320 packs, The X-Files Sketch Card Pack is available in both Blue and Red Label editions.

RED LABEL

$75

• One copy of the 48-page X-Files Annual
• Includes one hand-drawn sketch card

BLUE LABEL

$225

• One copy of the 48-page X-Files Annual
• Includes one three-card puzzle set of hand-drawn sketch cards

Here is the artist list on the Black Label packs:
Sketch card artist list:

18 x Chris Mason (6 sets)
21 x Mark McHaley (7 sets)
18 x Sean Pence (6 sets)
21 x Tim Proctor (7 sets)
21 x Ted Dastick (7 sets)
21 x Dan Harding (7 sets)

Here is the artist list on the red label packs:
Sketch card artist list:


1 x Dean Haglund (Lone Gunmen)
30 x Joe Corroney
5 x Chris Mason
5 x Mark McHaley
20 x Cat Staggs
15 x Sean Pence
7 x Tim Proctor
30 x Mark Torres
5 x Ted Dastick
5 x Dan Harding
10 x Miran Kim
15 x Charles Hall
30 x Richard Cox

60 bucks shipping to the uk = ouch and a pass from me!!! Shame

These look really cool, but like Alasdair says, shipping to the UK is a killer.

Saw these at SDCC this year and was very impressed with the sketches I saw on display. Might have to pick up one of each.

The artist lineup is spectacular. I do think a variant cover of the annual that's included would've added some extra punch, but maybe they had a few hundred of the regular cover left over to use for this, or just wanted to spotlight it with this collection of sketch cards.

These come in a sealed bag with the comic and the sketch card, so even if no variant cover, why not seed 5 or 10 hand drawn sketch covers from among the card artists randomly through the run, providing collectors extra incentive to buy more than one. Shipping is already one reason to double up if affordable to you. It's really unfortunate that International postage costs are now so high, but $60 is probably right around what it costs to send even something lightweight like this overseas these days, especially if insured, so I don't think IDW is charging any sort of suspect "handling" fee.

But even in the US, the shipping is a much better deal spread over the purchase of 3 or 4 packs on one order.

Not complaining, I think this lot of cards from these artists at this price is a great value, especially in the US where shipping isn't so high. Were I a little more keen on "The X-Files" in general, I'd probably pick up at least a couple of the single card editions, and still might (although I might have to sell a kidney as opposed to just blood and bone marrow with those super expensive Star Wars cards coming out in early December that I just have to have a couple of boxes of.)

As for these IDW sketch card offerings, I bought a couple of the Mars Attacks Hardback books with sketch cards last year, and was not disappointed. I was even tempted by the Ninja Turtles comic book and random sketch card pack IDW issued earlier this year, and I'm not at all a big fan of TMNT.

IDW is just quality from top to bottom. They have been great for comics. I love it that they at least dabble in cards. I remember they made one of those Eclipse Comics 1980's style boxed non-fiction card sets maybe 6 years ago (politically themed), but the follow up sets I'd hoped for haven't materialized. They've done various promo cards for things, but not really any proper sets.

They are supposed to be issuing a 100 card set of Mars Attacks cards based on the original sketches from their Mars Attacks Red and Blue label hardcover books from last year. That was due a couple of months ago. The IDW Limited fellow at Comic Con I asked about it (perhaps the publisher, he was very knowledgeable) said that it was still on the way, for sure. I get my comic order in a couple of days and I'm really hoping that's in there. If not, I'll have to tell my Comic subscription company not to cancel my order automatically, like they do on most things once they are three months late.

I'm hoping they'll first actually publish and then quickly sell out the Mars Attacks sketch card reprint set I discussed above prompting a similar set collecting the sketches from the best hundred or so of these X-Files sketches now on sale. There will be some beauties in there, even beyond the ones I've already seen, I have no doubt.

No one really knows what the "truth" is, so the "X-Files" can never really deliver what it's been building to from the very start, but there sure has been some cool merchandise associated with that show!

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

A comic and a sketch card equals $60 postage.

The truth is indeed out there, just not here.

Just to try and be a bit controversial here, and because I am basically an autograph card collector and not a sketch collector, don't you think that this is getting a bit high for random art?

For $225 I could get a framed oil painting of any subject to hang over my mantel, except that I don't have a mantel of course. But you get my drift.

I really like the artist list and I like the sketches I have seen, which are likely the best sketches. However I am not interested in all of the subjects (various creatures and stuff) and I wouldn't want to own even some of the those nice sketches because I'm not interested in the subjects, artist names aside.

I guess with such a limited release it will sell out, but then what? Does the bag stay sealed? Is it broken up and sketch and comic sold separately? If you went for the $225 package, do you dare to see the panel you got? How does it appreciate in value if you don't see the sketch? How is worth it to add another $60 for international shipping?

My feeling is that sketch card only products are just too subjective to invest a lot of money. If it's your thing, better wait till someone else opens it up and pay the price then if you want official product, at least you know you want it. If you're an art lover, than commission the art. Spending a good amount of money and then hoping you get a sketch you like, by someone you like, of a subject you like, is just too iffy a proposition for me.

Well, here are the current rates for an 8 ounce package worth $75 sent to the UK.

http://ircalc.usps.com/MailSer...e=8:00%20AM&dv=75.00

The cheapest way with any kind of protection against loss or damage seems to be 1st Class with Registered mail added on for a total of about $30, but the other options are $60 or more. And this is by regular USPS, the cheapest of all delivery services. Any of the other services like UPS or FedEx would be even more expensive.

I used to send a good 20% of the stuff I sold overseas. Now, due to postage, it might only be 1%, if that.

First class mail with USPS is about $15 max for this package.

If the package is lost there must be some sort of claim for the loss that can be made against the postal service.

There is no such claim that can be made without purchasing Registered mail which costs $14 additional to the postage. That was the "economy" $30 rate I quoted.

With Registered mail, there is an automatic $47 worth of insurance, but that doesn't even cover the whole $75 in the case of this particular item. To purchase the additional insurance above the $47 on a 1st Class package is additionally not possible. To buy the full insurance, you have to use Priority Mail International which starts at about $50. The insurance at that point is fairly inexpensive, but it hardly matters with the huge increase in the shipping rate first required to be able to be eligible to buy the insurance. There is also no online tracking with the Priority mail shipments that the Registered mail gets you on 1st Class International and the Registered mail service is not allowed on Priority International packages, a good ol' "catch-22" that is.

The vast majority of the US sellers who once delighted in but now no longer ship internationally haven't taken that stance because they don't want to fill out an extra form or two. That would be both lazy and insane. Rather, they don't ship outside the US because it is just too expensive relative to the value of the items usually being sent. I tend to only ship stuff overseas if it's worth at least $75 or so, and even that's pushing it with shipping that costs $25 at a minimum.

Ebay attempted to make it easier on sellers with the Global Shipping Program which allows sellers to mail the item to a US address where it is then forwarded on. It is much easier for the sellers, who don't even have to fill out the customs forms, but unfortunately, the service ends up costing the buyer even more than the expensive methods discussed previously.

Relatively inexpensive shipping on international packages IS still possible, but only if the seller effectively accepts 100% of the responsibility for loss or damage. That is how it is, and how it has been for a couple of years now.

Having accepted that responsibility in the past as part of my efforts to keep the shipping costs for the buyer low, I have been burned enough times that it is no longer a risk I wish to take. Things change, and this changed.

Thank you for that, it was very interesting.

I guess if the people outside of the USA want items these days they better get themselves a friend in the USA who will accept the items being sent to them and then send them to the UK at the cheap rate.

Shipping in the reverse direction from UK to USA is now in a similar position cost wise. Until fairly recently, the Royal Mail offered £46 UKPounds of insurance cover on standard airmail post but that was lowered to just £ 20 UKPounds. If it's worth more than that, the price jumps to nearly £8.50 for items worth up to £50 UKPounds and then up again to £11.00 UKPounds for anything worth more than that. Worse, those prices only apply if you can send them Letter rate rather than Small Parcel. Add a chunk more if your package weighs more than 100g. It gets awkward when someone buys a couple of cards worth £20 UK pounds each or their combined value goes over the £20 UKP mark and you have to explain the price hike or offer to send in multiple packages to keep the cost down International sales are hard to get these days as result.

As a buyer, I'd noticed that, too, Kevin. Thanks for the explanation. While the costs for the shipping in both directions is high these days, I remember that not so long ago, it was so reasonable, I had to wonder how the respective post offices weren't taking a beating charging so little to deliver something literally on the other side of the world. It turns out they were losing money and have now adjusted things accordingly (if not more than accordingly).

Where Ebay is concerned, some international buyers would be more than happy to pay $20 shipping on a $20 card since $40 total is as low as they can find it anywhere. The problem is that even if a buyer is willing to pay that, I don't like to accept Paypal payments of which I get to keep much less than half of after shipping costs and Ebay/Paypal fees are taken out of the total.

Because of that, I wish I could just write something like this in the auction:

"International shipping available with these conditions. This card (for instance) will be sent well protected in a padded envelope and sent as a parcel for the exact cost of $7.

Once mailed, a scan of the postmarked customs slip and matching dated register receipt will be sent to you, so you can be sure the card was mailed and when.

PLEASE NOTE: To hold your shipping costs down to only $7 (instead of the $22 it would be with the online tracking number Registered mail provides), the card is sent at your own risk. While the vast majority of packages arrive without incident, by purchasing this item, you agree (in the rare event that the card is lost in the mail) to not open an Ebay case since a refund or replacement of this is not possible if lost."

I would love to at least sell $20 cards overseas again (if not the $3 to $10 kinds) and a great many buyers would welcome this opportunity to once again be able to purchase items from the U.S.A., I think, but it is sadly not to be, as the above would not be anything recognized in any way by Ebay or Paypal in the event the item is lost. The seller remains at square one which is at the complete mercy of the buyer's honesty in regard to any item sent without an online verifiable tracking method (and its accompanying expense) when sending the item.

That said, I do have some international buyers (and trading partners) I am willing to send to without tracking for purposes of saving them money, and it is generally understood the items are sent at their risk, but even so, were those items lost, I would probably at least try to send the replacements owing to my appreciation of their previous purchases. Unfortunately, it is impossible to extend the courtesy to new buyers when I have no idea whether they actually received the items or not.

OK, back to the "X-File Sketch Card Series" discussions if there is anything left to talk about. If I'm able to get any of them, I'll post my sketch pulls from them, for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Just to try and be a bit controversial here, and because I am basically an autograph card collector and not a sketch collector, don't you think that this is getting a bit high for random art?

Doesn't this apply to every single card product then? Everything is a gamble when you don't know what you're getting in a sealed box or pack. I think if the subject, artwork and artist list is decent enough, then it's probably got a market for it.

I think it's funny when people talk about commissioning work, cause it's not the same as buying a pack inserted trading card. From an autograph perspective, people can also go to a show and get an 8x10 or item signed, but is it really the same as getting a signature on a limited edition or rare card? There's a collect-ability factor in the equation that is often overlooked. What's rare about hiring an artist to do work for you?

Right, why else would a Matt Groening Art D'Bart card with a small drawing of Bart be worth five times more than a nice big drawing of Bart by Matt Groening on the cover of a comic book? Why is a Daniel Radcliffe Artbox Harry Potter autograph card worth so much more than the same Radcliffe autograph on a Harry Potter 8x10 glossy?

An art/autograph collector would likely prefer the larger pieces for less money. The card collector, not so much.

I have to say the higher cost of buying packs/boxes is making me move more towards commissioning pieces direct from the artist.

It's cheaper, you get the subject you want, and the artist gets paid more than he/she would for doing cards for the manufacturers.

As an example Tim Proctor did me a beautiful set of five paintings measuring 6 x 4 of ladies from Game of Thrones for less than the cost of two sealed boxes of season three.

quote:

Originally posted by clearblue:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Just to try and be a bit controversial here, and because I am basically an autograph card collector and not a sketch collector, don't you think that this is getting a bit high for random art?

Doesn't this apply to every single card product then? Everything is a gamble when you don't know what you're getting in a sealed box or pack. I think if the subject, artwork and artist list is decent enough, then it's probably got a market for it.

I think it's funny when people talk about commissioning work, cause it's not the same as buying a pack inserted trading card. From an autograph perspective, people can also go to a show and get an 8x10 or item signed, but is it really the same as getting a signature on a limited edition or rare card? There's a collect-ability factor in the equation that is often overlooked. What's rare about hiring an artist to do work for you?

I agree with you in principal, it is better to pay the higher cost of a certified autograph card over some in-person signed card, even though the signature is just as authentic. It is better to pull a nice sketch on official card stock than get a commission drawing. However you have to consider the price point in relation to the risk you are accepting.

The lower the price the less you are risking by buying blind. The higher the price the more that risk goes up. At a certain point it all levels out and the price of purchasing sealed product, whether for a random autograph or a random sketch, becomes unacceptable compared to the risk. For me, if I loved one of these three puzzle set sketches I might be tempted to spend $225, but to spend $225 and just hope that I love what I pull is an unacceptable risk.

Every collector has to decide for himself where he draws the line that he won't cross.

I agree it is a big risk to plonk down the money wanted for these when, as Raven said, you might not like the artist, the character, or the art on a card. But how is that any different than any other card set with sketches. They certainly look of more 'value' than most given the quality shown.

People like me who are that worried about what they get for their money don't buy blind anyway, so isn't it something of a moot point?

Given how subjective art is, I've never understood how people can so bravely bust boxes and cases of sketch-focused product when the chances of you finding artwork that "speaks" to your specific tastes is so slim.

As for commissions... I like them. I have some. But if their not on stock from a trading card company, then I don't really see them as trading cards, but rather just a different art medium. One is artwork, the other is a collectable. So no matter how expensive the 'official' cards might be, or how good the commissioned card is, they're not the same thing.

I LOVE the X-Files and I LOVE the look of some of these cards, not to mention they are the first licensed X-Files cards in 6 years! But even though they ALL the card look to be of far higher average quality than you're average sketch set, I still wouldn't take a punt only to get a very well drawn card, by a great artist, that makes for a card I still don't like.
But by sitting it out and avoiding the pack busting, waiting for things I like to hopefully hit the secondary market, you of course risk missing out on some gems that collectors who pulled them don't want to sell. And whilst I'm not sure how buoyant the X-Files card market is these days, I do worry there aren't enough of these sketches to go around.

I'm a big, big X-Files fan.

I'm not buying, and here's why.

Way too expensive. IDW made me promises to provide me with info and it was an epic fail.

The cards do look great. I have one. An AP I bought for a fraction of the price the artist wanted for it.

That's not good news for the artists involved. I bought it directly from the artist asking $150 for $30 from him on Ebay.

Not all XF fans are sketch card collectors. I'm probably in the .05% group. And at this MSRP, it will drop many sketch card collectors off too.

Not many cards had previously been on ebay. Knowing about this for nearly a year has helped me out. But IDW and artists where tight lipped about it. The project started over a year ago.

IDW Limited's annual sale is ongoing through tomorrow (Friday the 3rd) and everything is buy one, get one free, a pretty amazing savings.

I thought about picking up a few of the X-Files single sketches and still might, but first things, first, I went for a couple of the Mars Attacks Red Label books (with the one sketch card). The first was the regular price of $150, but the second was free. Even with tax and shipping being $25, the books still ended up being $87 each, not too shabby given their quality.

The X-Files sketch packs at half price ($37.50 each plus tax and shipping) are an incredible deal given the artist lineup. Even the 3 sketch packs drop down to $112.50. Something to think about.