Kryten, I recall you posting images of Charles Hall's Buffy "work-in-progress" sketches. I see his name is not on the artist list on Rittenhouse's site. Is he not involved with this now or were his sketches not approved? That would be a shame as he really does excellent work.

Believe it or not....

some artists had cards held back from series 1 for release in this series...

So far, all other artists are waiting for approvals before releasing any images or previews.

I haven't heard back from Charles Hall yet.

All sketches will be tough this go around. There are 120 Sketches based on 600 sets. 1 sketch per 5 sets.

plus the ARs. the Artists who had sketches held back, may not be getting any ARs.

Charles may have been brought in to do Incentive cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Justice41:
Charles may have been brought in to do Incentive cards.

What do you mean by Incentive cards? All of the sketches are technically 5-set incentives.

Are there incentives for the incentives? Anything is possible.

hi,
Holding some sketch cards would even out the number of main cast members across 2 sets since some are harder to get approvals from or would just not participate eventually in the future from first set point of view.

There definitely doesn't seem to be as much buzz for this as there was for the previous set. Not one has sold yet on eBay. The first set was already sold out at this point. As stated previously, I think people have realized the error of their ways the first go-round (paying $400 for a card that's now $200-250) and now I wish Rittenhouse would do the same. You can't just take a particular card and say it's worth $400 because you say so. And these clearly aren't going to be worth that on the open market. Collectors (including myself) who got burned with the previous set are not going to fall for it again. I really wish they would put forth the effort to make a full set and release these the proper way.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
There definitely doesn't seem to be as much buzz for this as there was for the previous set. Not one has sold yet on eBay. The first set was already sold out at this point. As stated previously, I think people have realized the error of their ways the first go-round (paying $400 for a card that's now $200-250) and now I wish Rittenhouse would do the same. You can't just take a particular card and say it's worth $400 because you say so. And these clearly aren't going to be worth that on the open market. Collectors (including myself) who got burned with the previous set are not going to fall for it again. I really wish they would put forth the effort to make a full set and release these the proper way.

Couldn't have said it better myself!
I'm sure Steve could justify to us why this is a small set etc, but knowing that they had potential to make it into a full set (maybe, who knows?!) is a little frustrating for a collector like myself.

To be fair, the initial reason why last year's set was so greatly anticipated was because SMG had never signed for a licensed Buffy card before. Once collectors found out the nature and price of what was basically a two card autograph product, the second big wave of interest came when images of the sketch cards started to be circulated. People were caught by surprise with the quality of the art that was not widely advertised in the run up to release. If you look at the middle pages of this thread, nearly every post is about the sketches and no one even mentions the SMG signatures once the sketch buying begins.

Now this time around things and both pretty much the same and completely different. No one is all that excited about SMG's autographed relic because she has two cards already out there. Also there were SMG costume cards from Inkworks. Worse yet, last year's first autograph cards have not held their retail price. That is not to say that they won't go up in years to come, but they will have to rise a good bit before getting back to that $400 set value, and face it, the $400 was all in the one card because the 9 "base" cards were nothing.

And then came those great incentive sketches which cost dealers/collectors a $1,600 investment. Only this time around we expect those sketches and we know that some sold for a lot and some not so much, depending on the subject. The investment this time around is $2,000 and that makes a difference too.

Finally there is the Hannigan autographs, also desirable, but not a first since she signed for Inkworks. If you got SMG last year it's possible you really want Hannigan now, but if you didn't, you may prefer the SMG auto/relic. In that case, the Hannigan is something you don't want to pull.

My own conclusion on this product is that enough dealers will take the chance and sell it out, counting on those sketches to make it work. However more Buffy collectors are going to take their time and not jump at the sets right away. The cards will sell of course, but not as fast and not for as much as last time. Just MHO.

if the autos don't sell, the Prices of the Sketches will be Insane. A lot of people have reached out to the Few Artists who will get ARs only to find them Reserved for someone else. My name has been mentioned by Artists & Collectors alike.

a good amount of people who are advertised got all their ARs for when the 1st Set come out.

I have Only Myself to Blame. I did everything I could to get Every AR out there & I came pretty Close.

My Best Guess is that there are maybe 6 ARs out there...

Charles Hall is checking w/ RA as his name wasn't on the List. I've heard from a few artists that some sketches STILL need Approval.
This May be the case with The Hall Sketches.

quote:

Originally posted by Kryten67:
if the autos don't sell, the Prices of the Sketches will be Insane. A lot of people have reached out to the Few Artists who will get ARs only to find them Reserved for someone else.

I wasn't really addressing the ARs, my comments were simply about the incentive sketches that mainly dealers will receive with a 5 set purchase. If there is a side business going on just for the ARs that is something out of my pay grade.

The autographs will sell, but if dealers don't get enough profit they will try to make it up on the sketches. That is the whole point of the incentive in the first place. However it won't be insane because there is a limit to what anyone is going to pay for a relatively small piece of art. Sure sketches of Buffy and Willow and Faith and Angel and Spike and to a lesser degree the other main cast will be hot, but who knows how many of them are left, especially if there are ARs that have been returned. Any assorted demons and vampires may look great, but they will sell for what they did last year. Only exceptional sketches of the prime characters done by the best known of the artists will go up in lights.

I would not be surprised if the release date push back was because of sketch approvals. What else could be the problem? Not card production, there are too few cards. Not SMG autographs, they were probably in hand from a year ago. Maybe Hannigan might have been tardy, but its been a long time since she was announced. Most likely it is getting enough sketches together.

Rarity will drive the Prices of the Sketches... The Most Expensive sketches last time, the Artists did less than 10 Sketches....Those were Owens. Ismart & Hardy... Ismart only Had 2 Sketches approved! & one of those was his AR!

I don't think you will see sub $500 sketches this time unless the Villain character has been done to Death.

quote:

Originally posted by Kryten67:
I don't think you will see sub $500 sketches this time unless the Villain character has been done to Death.

I don't know about that. There were many sketches last time that sold for $150-$250. I was watching every one of them and quite a few sat idle for many months before one particular buyer came around and bought up every single sketch that was on eBay. I believe it was something like 17 or 18 of them for around $11,000 total. If that person is buying again, then you may be right. If not, then I only see the top artists/characters bringing in $500+. I just don't think there are that many collectors willing to drop that kind of money on sketches anymore.

I was going to say pretty much the same thing. Even if there is one or two buyers going after any and all of the sketches, setting the bottom at $500 is a heavy lift when there is a template already established, be it not an absolute one.

Fortunately we can all enjoy the sport of watching the sketch sale prices, even if we don't or can't participate.

i just don't see a ton of sketches hitting the market.... add to that the perceived non-interest in the AH autographs...sketches will be few & far between. every set settles after a few months...but the best sketches will disappear in the blink of an eye.

I was hoping that this time around the sketches wouldn't have that annoying gold sticker on them, but it looks like that's not the case. I'm all for authenticating a product, but I wish the gold seals were smaller and not covering the artwork on the sketch cards (some are much worse than others). Anyway, that's even if I can get my hands on one this time around.

Let's not forget how quickly the product sold out last time. Most people couldn't even order 1 set. That kind of buzz definitely isn't around the product this time around so I wouldn't be surprised if more sketch packs just sat in Rittenhouse's offices and not in the hands of retailers/distributors.

Regardless, this is still such a shame of a release. Makes me feel like the company is just like "how can we get the most money for doing the least amount of work?" lol

A few new sketches from the first set have turned up...

Those are very good.

Some older ones are starting to pop up... that Buffy/SMG sketch was one I was trying to pick up from another collector but he traded it.

I did manage to get a Kristin Foxy Allen Buffy Sketch later on... so I was a happy camper.

Those are great sketches but I have to be honest the first thing I would do is take them out of those holders with the sticker on and put them in a blank one.