quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
so you have to spend $1600 in order to get one sketch.

Oh sorry I forgot, you get some stickers as well, that's ok then.

Now it's your money and I would not even start to tell you how to spend it, er, so I won't.

It would be nice to hear what happened with this release because I don't think it was ever supposed to be this.

I agreed 100000% with this.

Absolute nonsense that you have ZERO chance of getting a sketch if you want to buy just one box.

Plus, there is no base set either!!! Her autograph would be nice, but I would also like other cards to go with them too. Not just some stickers.

I feel like those stickers are a cheap way of increasing whats in the box!
Not impressed one bit!

So there did end up being 2 different auto designs lol.

Well I'm just going to come out and say that this set is rubbish. After all this time we get 1 auto and a bunch of stickers? The sketches are only 1 in every 4 sets? I'm not surprised with the price, but it's almost $500 Australian now.

What on earth happened with all the sketches? Only 100 available and 3 characters were no allowed to be drawn?

I don't know, I might not even bother getting the auto now. Seeing as this set turned into nothing, RA might take another approach down the line.

Also, to add, collectors can only buy 1 set directly from RA. Only dealers will be able to buy the 4 sets to get the sketch. If you want a sketch you will have to buy from a dealer anyway.

Considering we've known for over a year that a SMG auto card is on the way, it is hard to imagine how this "set" could be more disappointing.

14 months of additional development to deliver 9 stickers, that could have been generated by a 10 year old in 5 minutes.

Plus sketch cards that nobody has seen and which are not even available on the RA website because there is a maximum order quantity of 1.

RA have had some great releases over the years, but this is bordering on being an embarrassment for them.

Not all sets have sketches in the first place. Many do not. Even "Games of Thrones" sketches were so rare, they may has well have not existed for the average collector. Same with Disney Treasures Sketches from Upper Deck 10 years ago. Same with these, given the artist list. These will be worth hundreds. Just by the nature of how hard it is to even get one sketch, no matter what's on it, makes it a desirable card. It's the first Buffy sketch card for a small, but loyal fan base ravenous for anything new. The fact that at least some of these new ones to be issued are coming from premiere artists only adds to their luster (lustre for our many overseas chums).
I'm looking to forward to seeing them.

Sketch cards will be ridiculously priced as there will be so few of them.

This is basically a dealers set, where they purchase as many sets as they can and sell the sketches at huge prices.

Least with GoT we actually got a full set with other cards and the sketches were an added bonus. All we have in this set is an auto and some stickers that look like they're from a set made 10 years ago.

With only 400 sets available, they all should have had a sketch included. If so many sketches were rejected, then they should have looked at other options to replace that hit.

quote:

Originally posted by MarcG:
I was hoping for more out of this set...

But All I really wanted was a Sarah Michelle Gellar Buffy Auto Card for my collection...

So now there are two versions of them.

I personally do not think $400 is a high price for a Gellar Buffy Auto Card...

I was expecting the price to be around $500 to $750 for her Buffy Auto.

My thoughts exactly.
Was hoping for more, but all I really wanted was a SMG auto, so I'm pretty happy with this release, and the price.

And I have to say I love that bordered design, using that purple background really ties it into all the old merchandise that used to be sold, but it still has a modern Rittenhouse look to it.


edit;

The more I think about this and everyones complaints, I'm wondering what people expected really.

My thinking was the moment they said that this set was just a SMG auto with sketches, is that all we will really be paying for is her auto.
I never thought that there would be an abundance of sketches, maybe a bit more than one in every 4 boxes though, but I didn't expect lots.

I am disappointed that there isn't at least a card set with each main character, from that respect it seems rather rushed just to add a few stickers. It makes me think something big must have happened for it to end up like this.
Why didn't they design a nice subset with each character when they were designing and printing the SMG auto? It seems like there is so much untouched potential for this set, maybe down the line they really will release a full set.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Juelle Lou,

I do agree with you that people will buy it and try to flip it for a higher amount.

If this is the only Buffy Set she signs for, then I think the value will go up a bit.

Hopefully this will be the first and last Buffy Set she will sign for.[/QUOTE] MarcG

The other thing to consider is that there are two versions, a FB card and a bordered card. So in fact there are only 200 copies of each.

I think it will have to go up, because many true fans will be shut out fast by those only buying just to make money on the re-sale. Just how much people are willing to pay above a $399 retail has to be seen.

My personal feeling is that SMG will be signing again for some product or another and her autograph value will adjust to whatever it should be.

So hard to predict about any future Buffy releases. I still think the fan interest is enough for a full traditional set, but who knows what stumbling blocks RA hit with this license.

quote:

Originally posted by Sidewinder:
Sketch cards will be ridiculously priced as there will be so few of them.

This is basically a dealers set, where they purchase as many sets as they can and sell the sketches at huge prices.

Least with GoT we actually got a full set with other cards and the sketches were an added bonus. All we have in this set is an auto and some stickers that look like they're from a set made 10 years ago.

With only 400 sets available, they all should have had a sketch included. If so many sketches were rejected, then they should have looked at other options to replace that hit.

I'm really curious to see the sketches. Originally it was supposed to be one sketch and an SMG autograph per set. Then the studio needed to approve the sketches at the same time as the release date. So now we have gone from 400 sketches to only 100 approved and available only with a 4 set purchase.

This would imply that 300 or so sketches had to be tossed out by the studio for some reason. I don't know if that's true, but if a lot of sketches were rejected I'll bet that at least some of them were terrific, wherever they may be now.

quote:

Originally posted by Sidewinder:
All we have in this set is an auto and some stickers that look like they're from a set made 10 years ago.

More like 40 years ago, those stickers are definitely 1970's style-retro, which is kind of odd for a card set for a series from the 1990's.

I was thinking about a similar Rittenhouse set to this one in terms of quantity and content, and the Spider-Man 1967 Animated Series set from 2012 had just 1 autograph card (from two different styles like with Sarah here), nine lenticular cards (as opposed to the stickers for Buffy) and was limited to 500 sets (as opposed to 400 for Buffy.). It retailed for $100 (as opposed to $400 for Buffy) but I would imagine Paul Soles (voice of Peter Parker/Spidey on that show) come quite a bit cheaper than cards signed by Buffy Summers herself.

That set was also very likely the end result of something that began as something more ambitious, only to be released in an extremely scaled down version and was widely derided at the time as a result. Now, three years later, the set has certainly not accrued in value, but I wouldn't say that it has been dumped either. Recent sets have sold for about $75, so somewhere around the wholesale price at least, and there aren't a lot of them offered at any one time.

Buffy costs 4 times more, but I would say the interest is approximately 1,000 times higher than it was for the Spidey '67 set, so that should make the set a winner, in the overall. And even should SMG sign more cards in the future (for "Star Wars Rebels" for instance), as long as they aren't Buffy cards, the effect of those cards added to the market won't have much of an effect on the value and desirability of these BTVS cards. These will occupy a certain place in our firmament. They've been wanted for a long, long time.

quote:

The other thing to consider is that there are two versions, a FB card and a bordered card. So in fact there are only 200 copies of each.

I think it will have to go up, because many true fans will be shut out fast by those only buying just to make money on the re-sale. Just how much people are willing to pay above a $399 retail has to be seen.

My personal feeling is that SMG will be signing again for some product or another and her autograph value will adjust to whatever it should be.

So hard to predict about any future Buffy releases. I still think the fan interest is enough for a full traditional set, but who knows what stumbling blocks RA hit with this license.

I am thinking this might be the last Buffy Set...

Seeing what happened to this set and all the issues RA had with it, I am thinking it might just be the last one.

Does anyone know if SMG agreed to sign just for this Buffy set or did she agree to possible future Buffy sets?

Also, I do not think the value will drop if she does sign for Star Wars Rebels.

BTVS SMG auto cards would be different... Buffy was and still is a Huge TV series for a lot of people.

I think the only way Rittenhouse saw they were going to get a return on their money was doing it this way. Reading between the lines, and talking to people in 'the know', when Buffy first started and Inkworks got the license, Fox didn't know what they had, or what to do with it. Inkworks designers were pretty instrumental in setting the 'Look' of Buffy merchandising.
If RA have bought a short term license and they are having problems now, Steve's not a newbie, he's probably looked at this and seen a way he can recover his license investment and his SMG costs. Then he can walk away or try again. With the image rights issues, and the approval process it just shows how hard it is to get a set to market, and how all the companies do it while some people moan because all their favourite stars didn't sign or fave artist didn't do 100+ sketches.
My favourite sets were always the Australian Ikons sets. I still say as I sell each set "If you don't agree this set is better than all the other sets put together I'll refund your money in full"
- Never ever gave a refund

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cardcollectors uk,

Could have just sold us the auto on it's own last year, rather than have us wait around for a sticker set and a chance to buy a sketch on the secondary market for 1K.

They wasted a lot of time to bring us little more than they originally revealed.

Also what a tool David Boreanaz has become. Buffy and Angel made his career and now he wants nothing to do with it. I was a big fan of this guy, now I just think he's an ungrateful jerk.

According to the Rittenhouse website this set is now SOLD OUT. That didn't take very long.

I wonder how many buyers there were for the 400 sets?

Rittenhouse didn't sell all 400 of those on their website. Their distributors most likely got the majority of them, and they are still available at retail you know where.

Currently selling at $425.

Looking in wrong place, I could get it for $360

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:
Looking in wrong place, I could get it for $360

That must be from someone who bought four sets and has a sketch in the hole. Way too early to undercut the retail otherwise.

I don't know why, but that is what I have been quoted. Does it matter why? This is what I expected, dealers won't pay $399.99 a set anyway, so cover costs on auto/stickers and make the money on sketch.