Well release date is July 24, 2024 and RA says $269.99 a box. That price will probably be knocked down a bit at retail, but still be around $240.

Remember when the first Game of Thrones opened at around $75? And remember how many sets passed before boxes got into the $120 - $150 range? Not this baby. Its starting off at peak. Just where is it supposed to go?

Box configuration has 1 autograph and 2 relic cards in every box. 1 inscription autograph card in every case. The usual assortment of rare extra hits like sketch cards, metals and auto/relic cards.

The big difference between this one and the first GoT for me, besides the price, is the actors involved. When GoT opened there were several big autographs from known actors who had done a lot of other work. Even with all the young unknown stars, there were tentpole signatures. It also appears that the complete autograph list is limited to the 16 people already advertised.

For Dragon, the only actor I have really seen before is Matt Smith. Considine, D'Arcy and Cooke will go big because they are the main characters, but otherwise I wouldn't know them. The rest of the people on the checklist I don't know now. Maybe they will become stars, but not yet. This season 1 isn't being given the chance to mature like Game of Thrones did before the prices went up.

It's foolish to say I know, because there is no stopping it, but RA is starting at a level that is prohibitive to building any dedicated collector base. At least suck people in before you turn them off, that's just good business.

As usual the cards look really nice.

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

One of them has been cast as the new movie Supergirl, so her card will be sought after right out of the gate. Another, Olivia Cooke, already has signed cards from Breygent "Bates Motel". I picked one up because I liked her in Spielberg's "Ready Player One", but I was delighted to see her later cast on this show. Sure enough, her Bates Motel cards jumped in value after Season 1 aired. Unless she gets the ol' Ned Stark treatment, she'll hold one of the lead roles for the duration.

I'm most interested in an Eve Best card, I've loved most characters she's played over the years.
I'd rather have a Matt Smith Doctor Who card than his HotD card.

Graham McTavish has signed for a few other things, including the Hobbit and Outlander, so if I bought a box and got him I'd be disappointed as he's only a mid-lower priced card in any other set he's been in.

Nah, at that price for those contents I wouldn't dip my toes.

Shocking offering from RA. Loads of unwanted short numbered subsets, few autographs with only one a box; needing one of 2-3 autographs to justify the price or you backed a loser. Will skip this which is a pity as I have been really looking forward to it.

Wow! Thought I was going to jump on a case of this....maybe not. No box numbers listed yet either.

With only 16 signers a case purchase should produce every one.

Really tired of the make cards valuable by producing less method. Subsets and short prints are fine but not when someone needs multiple cases to put them together.

I know production costs have gone up but pushing 20 or more different subset designs can't be helping either.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

With only 16 signers a case purchase should produce every one.

Numerically yes it should, but is RA going to hand pack them out that way? I doubt it. It may not even be possible if they wanted to do it.

Some signers will have more cards done than others. They have been doing SCARCE on all the better ones lately. Also both full bleed, bordered, dual and auto/relic designs are shown. So the same signer may have more than one card and its generally the common signers who have multiple designs released in the same set.

Can't see where the number of boxes is indicated yet either, so that makes a difference too. If every case was guaranteed to contain every signer, I think case breakers would love it. But I don't see RA guaranteeing it.

A dealer email to me said it's 750 cases and 12 boxes a case. 9,000 boxes...so my calculator says. That's a lot of boxes for only 16 signers and a ton of garbage filler subsets.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
A dealer email to me said it's 750 cases and 12 boxes a case. 9,000 boxes...so my calculator says. That's a lot of boxes for only 16 signers and a ton of garbage filler subsets.

Oh I am behind the times. You are absolutely right. RA went to 12 box GoT cases when they raised the prices and came out with those few packs in a cut out. I'm still in the days of 20 box cases. My only excuse is that I have never bought anybody's case, ever.

So IF there are 9000 boxes, that's 9000 autographs seeded. Now here's another fun number. With only 16 signers, that means each one signed 562.5 cards on average. RA states SCARCE is 100 or less, EL is 100-200, Limited is 300-500 and Normal is over 500. So everybody would fall into the Normal category, total wise, not by card, if it went by the math.

No, that's not happening. Stars don't sign that many to be slated for release all in one product and common signers have to make up the short fall for what was promised. Hope buyers like relic cards.

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

Yikes, when you break it down like that it does look even worse. Yeah, I can't see Matt Smith signing more than an EL amount, or any of the top 3-4 actors. So there could be 700+ of some of those 16 signers.
Yes, great, we do have a chance at some Targaryen leather pants swatch and a bit of wool blanket to make up for the autographs shortfall.

Sorry to be a downer, but this makes the box price look like robbery. And my particular dealer was limiting people to only so many boxes!? Who the heck are lining up to buy this?? I can't see how flippers would want any of it at all, either, there's nothing much there.
This makes me think it should have been a limited premium pack release.

I dunno...maybe. It's not like 500+ sigs is that big of a deal. Anyone remember the 90's? I've seen celebs do it in a day at cons combined with photo ops.

Give each actor 3 different cards to sign (Which RA is known for) and all of them fall into EL land.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
I dunno...maybe. It's not like 500+ sigs is that big of a deal. Anyone remember the 90's? I've seen celebs do it in a day at cons combined with photo ops.

Give each actor 3 different cards to sign (Which RA is known for) and all of them fall into EL land.

It's not that they couldn't physically do it, it's how much RA has to pay to contract them to a certain number and how RA plans to stagger the release of the cards. The RA titles like GoT, HotD, Doctor Who, Star Trek and all its offspring are being constructed as franchises, with more sets expected to follow. Star signatures are always going to cost more to obtain than ones from the minor character actors. So a common signer might do a couple of 1000, whereas the star might want to do a couple of hundred for the same price. And then RA will determine when to drop them, in which product boxes.

As an example, if RA gets Smith to do 300 cards for HotD in 2 different designs, maybe that means they put out 150 cards in each of Seasons 1 and 2 product. Maybe he doesn't want to do 300 cards. Or maybe his agent is asking for too much per autograph for RA to afford more. Star autographs always seem to be SCARCE or EL now and RA is dividing them and vaulting them for future release. We know that's true because dead people keep showing up in the autograph checklists year after year.

Needing 9000 autograph cards from 16 signers, when maybe 6 or 7 of them are going to be short printed stars means those other 9 or 10 individuals are going to get writer's cramp.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven

It's not that they couldn't physically do it, it's how much RA has to pay to contract them to a certain number and how RA plans to stagger the release of the cards. The RA titles like GoT, HotD, Doctor Who, Star Trek and all its offspring are being constructed as franchises, with more sets expected to follow. Star signatures are always going to cost more to obtain than ones from the minor character actors. So a common signer might do a couple of 1000, whereas the star might want to do a couple of hundred for the same price. And then RA will determine when to drop them, in which product boxes.

As an example, if RA gets Smith to do 300 cards for HotD in 2 different designs, maybe that means they put out 150 cards in each of Seasons 1 and 2 product. Maybe he doesn't want to do 300 cards. Or maybe his agent is asking for too much per autograph for RA to afford more. Star autographs always seem to be SCARCE or EL now and RA is dividing them and vaulting them for future release. We know that's true because dead people keep showing up in the autograph checklists year after year.

Needing 9000 autograph cards from 16 signers, when maybe 6 or 7 of them are going to be short printed stars means those other 9 or 10 individuals are going to get writer's cramp.

I can't remember the last time one of the 'main' actors in a set was given more than a VL coding. Even someone like Sean Bean that would appear to sign anything, with no fuss, was always an EL or one VL he had with GoT iirc.
RA seem to be the ones governing the scarcity of most autograph cards, and it doesn't appear to always be the cost of the actor's signature itself that prohibits upping the quantities. Are they just trying to add to their product exclusivity/prestige? They sure as heck aren't considering the ordinary customer anymore, and haven't been for a while.

Now sold out on the Rittenhouse website.

I also want to note that as of last week the price listed was $169, or normal SRP. I don't know if the $269 was a typo or a reach. I never looked to see if they were really charging that on check out or if it was just a typo on the display page.

Ed

Good to straighten that out, $269 for a one autograph box would have been nuts. Also, if you do any regular business with a dealer, they should knock off $20 - $30 a box on whatever SRP. Kind of makes you wonder what bottom cost is on these things. Not sure inflating the SRP when you don't really mean it doesn't produce more negative reactions than positive ones.

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:
Now sold out on the Rittenhouse website.

I also want to note that as of last week the price listed was $169, or normal SRP. I don't know if the $269 was a typo or a reach. I never looked to see if they were really charging that on check out or if it was just a typo on the display page.

Ed

They were charging $269 but now the invoice on the website has changed to $169.

Blowout is at $200 a box which I always thought the manufacturer would not under cut the dealer.

Granted $269 seems high but $169 would violate that agreement.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Blowout is at $200 a box which I always thought the manufacturer would not under cut the dealer.

Granted $269 seems high but $169 would violate that agreement.

As a direct dealer, there is no agreement.

RA always sells at a SRP. This one was a little off, it seems.

The wholesale price did not make sense compared to an SRP of $269.

Blowout's free to charge what they want, especially now that RA is out of the picture.

Ed

Even though HotD should be the hotter title I can't see RA getting more per box than Doctor Who 5 - 7. The chance at only one autograph is not enough to support even that cost. Doctor Who 5 - 7 is carrying 4 autographs and I know for a fact that it just hit the street and eBay at under $140.

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:
Blowout's free to charge what they want, especially now that RA is out of the picture.

Ed

I read the Blowout non-sport forum now and then and lately there seems to be a lack of interest just judging by the paltry number of posts. New product, even on mainstream titles, don't generate many pages and once it comes out the thread disappears quickly. I wonder how HOT non-sport cards really are when hardly anyone wants to keep the subject going on sites that should be talking about them, including right here.

BTW Doctor Who 5 - 7 turns out to have 6 autographs per box and I happily admit that the inclusion of a Doctor, Companion or River Song in the breaks I have seen so far is producing box content value. The boxes are off of SRP too. Don't know if that's typical, just true in the breaks I have seen or read about so far.

The flipside is that now HotD may need to ramp up, because you don't want to go from 6 autos to just 1 at a similar cost. RA has got me a little confused with their planning, but more is better.

Yeah, going down to 1 auto in a box for the same price seems like even worse value versus the Doctor Who boxes, now. The problem would seem the lack of signers. Normally RA tracks down everyone, be that 'third soldier on the left in the throne room', or 'woman with dog', but this title just seems weedy on content, unless lots of variant subsets are an obsession.
I never felt the CZE boxes with just 1 auto seemed as bad, as you were guaranteed a base set a relic and usually 2-3 insert sets too. But you just know RA will have too many 'filler' and duplicate cards with this.