They are not worth thousands when they are cut up and placed on a card, and RA did this already for Complete Avengers, so it's not innovative so why was it such a mystery?

Maybe Upper Deck is not aware of those cards from Rittenhouse.

Are we certain this is the big mystery?

With credit to Rittenhouse who did comic pages as an oversized incentive, I doubt the whole world will be talking about this "new" card.

The comics they came from were reading copies at best, or they wouldn't have been cut up.

A cool insert, yeah I'll give them that. But it isn't the hyped up card news that they made it out to be.

And don't get me started on the holograms. Printing over holofoil card stock does not make a 1 in 3 box "hit". But the set will be nearly impossible to complete for those that like them.

Ed

I agree with you Ed. Not interested in the Autograph cards and the Holograms are a total let down. Too much in this set. The went to the extreme opposite of RA. I don't know about comic page cards. And at this point, I don't want to know. I'm very disappointed, and I don't even have the cards yet. And Kree/Skrull is turning out to be the same for me.

Anyone know the odds of the various chaes sets from this release?

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
Maybe Upper Deck is not aware of those cards from Rittenhouse.

Are we certain this is the big mystery?

Pretty sure that this is the kicker, and almost positive they did not know about the Complete Avengers stuff.

The UD Entertainment division was cut from 24 people down to 3. And those 3 are divided with sports. Tough gig, I think they are doing a great job so far.

quote:

Originally posted by Rian Fike:

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
Maybe Upper Deck is not aware of those cards from Rittenhouse.

Are we certain this is the big mystery?

Pretty sure that this is the kicker, and almost positive they did not know about the Complete Avengers stuff.

The UD Entertainment division was cut from 24 people down to 3. And those 3 are divided with sports. Tough gig, I think they are doing a great job so far.

Yeah it sucks when you have to pay out so much (undisclosed amounts) of money to all the companies you lost in court to for things like trademark infringement and counterfeiting. Thats got to sap the budget. And of course screwing all non shop owning dealers might be costing a few sales as well, so you know it all adds up...

Still they probably should have done some research to see if this had been done before. Oh and hey Rian, don't you write for the Upper Deck blog? Aren't you essentially an employee of the company?

I had written for them as an independent contractor for five years as a fan and Pro Circuit player when Vs. System had its glory days.

The restructuring was harsh, but I am glad they didn't walk away from the Marvel license completely. My recent articles have been done as a fan only, to give support to the sketch artists that I love.

quote:

Originally posted by Rian Fike:
I had written for them as an independent contractor for five years as a fan and Pro Circuit player when Vs. System had its glory days.

The restructuring was harsh, but I am glad they didn't walk away from the Marvel license completely. My recent articles have been done as a fan only, to give support to the sketch artists that I love.

There was never a question of them walking away from the Marvel license it's one of the only things they have left, and they will milk it's supple teats until they run dry. It's a very lucrative property, and without it Upper Deck's Entertainment Division would be face down in a puddle with two in the back of the head.

Well let me say a few things before I get down to the nitty gritty. Here is the title for this thread, "Marvel Beginnings and free sketch cards from Upper Deck." If you've got an axe to grind with UD then do us all a favor and take it elsewhere, like say the UD Distribution thread.
There have also been a few comments about UD making some hyped-up claims about this product, well please show me a manufacturer who's never hyped their product, let alone every product they put out. It's called business and every company does it.
So now that I've got that out of the way let's actually talk about this product, as I've just got done busting a case.

People have been complaining about base sets being worthless, well UD has given us a massive 180 card base set. This should boost the value of base sets. The majority of the base cards have a large image of the character and a smaller image inserted in a square of how the character originally appeared. The backs have decent info, but the numbers are smaller than I would like.

There are plenty of inserts in this set. Fortyfive Breakthorough Covers, fortyfive Die-cuts, and a whopping sixty Marvel Primes. Throw in the Holograms, which I concede aren't very impressive, Autographs, Sketch Cards, Printing Plates, and Comic Art Cards and you've got enough to make your hunting quite a challenge.

All in all a very nice product. I will post my actual pulls with photos on the Box Breakdown thread this weekend.

quote:

Originally posted by Rian Fike:
The mystery card is a piece of a real comic book, most of the books are worth thousands.

It's a little embarrassing they describe it as a innovative card the likes of which has never been seen before only to illustrate they haven't done their homework.

I'm not complaining though... more companies should try experimenting with the formula.