Rittenhouse did a UK release of one of the James Bond sets, the case topper card and the chase set were different.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
It was posted that

"Checklist and Configuration of International Edition will differ from Hobby Edition."

Why do I feel like they just made an already poor product, worse?

This is what RA posted

There will be an International version of the product (primarily for China). There will be some differences between Hobby and International, and we'll post more info on that over the next couple weeks.


Wolfie, I don't remember RA doing UK exclusive chase on any of the Bond sets. Which set was that ?

quote:

Originally posted by ravenheart:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
It was posted that

"Checklist and Configuration of International Edition will differ from Hobby Edition."

Why do I feel like they just made an already poor product, worse?

I'm not sure I'd call it worse, so much as I don't know how it helps. If it is so limited already and quite a few of the hits, especially the duals, are going to be labeled "scarce", why divide it up further.

And if RA has so rarely done an international edition, why pick this particular Got set, when it has always been an international title and you didn't do it before. I mean the GoT cast is all over the map in terms of nationalities, with few American actors, and the show is filmed every where but the US.

And it's not like people are going to be completing this set as it is, so to make two editions, presumably with at least a few cards added and a few cards missing from each, I don't know who that is supposed to benefit?

Dealers maybe, if they want to think of additional cards as an added incentive. But then if the edition is missing cards, it's not. No I don't understand it. It seems unnecessary.

If the configuration is different. Shouldn't that mean the pricing should be different. Shouldn't one be better than the other. On second thought, maybe it does make it worse.

All of that sounds worse

Product with a print run of 400 cases is announced.
Orders come in for triple, or more, the amount advertised being made.
Big distributors complain they won't have enough.
Manufacturer decides to make more and calls it "International".
Printer prints more base cards- adds a new parallel set- makes a few different insert cards- waters down the insert ration on the inserts common to both releases (sketch- auto wardrobes- etc.)
Manufacturer adds verbiage to the sell sheet about "International" being different than "Hobby" sneakily adding 250 cases to the 400 advertised print run.
Manufacturer makes a cool half million on the additional case sales.
Pretty easy to figure out really.

OK, Wolfie, I have the answer.

On the 2004 Quotable James Bond, there was a UK exclusive Shirley Eaton case topper auto, and a 9 card exclusive Villains and Vixens chase set, that came 1 per box (also UK exclusive)

quote:

Originally posted by dobo98985:
Manufacturer adds verbiage to the sell sheet about "International" being different than "Hobby" sneakily adding 250 cases to the 400 advertised print run.

I really hope that's not it.

You can't water down the premium hits when the box price is this high. They don't have enough value to spread to 400 cases as it is. It would be different if it were a $75 box, but it isn't, and the value gap of an "average" box will be greater when you don't pull that big hit. Which of course is most of the time.

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
OK, Wolfie, I have the answer.

On the 2004 Quotable James Bond, there was a UK exclusive Shirley Eaton case topper auto, and a 9 card exclusive Villains and Vixens chase set, that came 1 per box (also UK exclusive)

Yeah that's the one, i think there were far more USA boxes than UK boxes.

quote:

Originally posted by dobo98985:
Product with a print run of 400 cases is announced.
Orders come in for triple, or more, the amount advertised being made.
Big distributors complain they won't have enough.
Manufacturer decides to make more and calls it "International".
Printer prints more base cards- adds a new parallel set- makes a few different insert cards- waters down the insert ration on the inserts common to both releases (sketch- auto wardrobes- etc.)
Manufacturer adds verbiage to the sell sheet about "International" being different than "Hobby" sneakily adding 250 cases to the 400 advertised print run.
Manufacturer makes a cool half million on the additional case sales.
Pretty easy to figure out really.

So... worse.

Yup that's definitely worse.

Worse for the collector paying good money for a now watered down product. Thanks for your support!

Pretty good for the distributors making bank off the additional cases.

Even better for the manufacturer making more bank by increasing already advertised production numbers. Something I thought this manufacturer was above doing.

Greed is a powerful motivator.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
OK, Wolfie, I have the answer.

On the 2004 Quotable James Bond, there was a UK exclusive Shirley Eaton case topper auto, and a 9 card exclusive Villains and Vixens chase set, that came 1 per box (also UK exclusive)

Yeah that's the one, i think there were far more USA boxes than UK boxes.

That was back when cards Inc was a huge distributer based in the UK.

For the first LOTR set from Topps, Cards Inc had the UK exclusive Sean Bean autograph card and some promo sets for various other sets too. It's been done before, but I thought it was a thing of the past and certainly something RA no longer did.

Maybe this is a silly question, but, if you buy your card boxes from a UK dealer whom gets them direct from RA distribution, do they get the regular 'hobby' boxes or will they be the international ones? Is there going to be a slight packaging design variation so they can be told apart? Or even a choice? I'm trying to work out the practicalities...
From everything I've seen about this set so far I wasn't going to invest in it too much anyway, but this development is even more off-putting.

quote:

Originally posted by dobo98985:
Something I thought this manufacturer was above doing.

None of them are above anything; they're all only in it for the money. There are a few collectors around with this romantic notion that they do it for the collectors and we should be grateful people make sets for us, but it's a product, like any other product in any other market, and they make it so people will buy it and they can profit. Collectors don't like to think of our little hobby as a cold industry, but it is.

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

So, from what someone on the scifihobby website posted- it appears that GTS is the sole distributor for the "International" cases.

Here is a link to their (GTS's) info:
https://gogts.net/rittenhouse-...ternational-edition/

It looks like Rittenhouse took out a few things from the Hobby product to put exclusively in the "International" cases- mainly the Character sketches (Hobby now only has Scenic sketches) and the Artifex inserts numbered to 25. Both those were on the original sale sheet for the Hobby product. Shady to say the least.

They also created a few new inserts for the "International" product- EXCLUSIVE Parallel Base Mirror Cards & EXCLUSIVE Reflections Character Cards. It also gets a different 10 case incentive- a Red Platinum Edition Parallel Set, #’d to 25.

Both will have all the other inserts- autos relics, dual autos, etc- except now your odds at any individual card are lessened by the addition of 250 more cases.

A very nice F.U. from Rittenhouse in my eyes.

So glad I stopped busting product 8 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by ravenheart:

quote:

Originally posted by dobo98985:
Something I thought this manufacturer was above doing.

None of them are above anything; they're all only in it for the money. There are a few collectors around with this romantic notion that they do it for the collectors and we should be grateful people make sets for us, but it's a product, like any other product in any other market, and they make it so people will buy it and they can profit. Collectors don't like to think of our little hobby as a cold industry, but it is.

I agree with this statement 100%. However, when you send out a solicitation stating only 400 cases are to be made- and you detail what will be in them- and then you get an offer from someone to buy a ton of cases that you don't have- and then you "create" these additional cases by altering what you said was going to be in the original cases to make these new cases- and then you sneakily add wording to the sell sheet announcing a new "International" version of the product- it all amounts to shady unethical behavior that I thought was above Rittenhouse. I guess I was wrong.

I imagine the character sketches being removed from the hobby cases is going to be the change that hits fans hardest. There were probably a lot of sketch collectors looking forward to those.

Steve posted that RA HAS done this in the past with Star Trek (making an International set), but apparently no one noticed

Info here is slightly wrong about the character sketches. Hobby (domestic) set will still have its (7?) character sketches, International will have 4 different character sketches and their related Artifex metal cards.

Also I've heard a few different autograph variations (like Full Bleed version in Hobby, bordered version in International, etc.)