I just got a mass email from a dealer I frequently buy from saying that Cryptozoic has increased the wholesale prices of their products moving forward, starting with:

Adventure Time
Fringe Season 5
Arrow Season 1
Supernatural Seasons 1-3
Castle Seasons 3-4
Psych Seasons 5-6
Vampire Diaries Season 4

Yay higher prices for us.

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

And this dealer has now upped their preorder prices by about $9-$10 a box and $100 a case for the products listed above.

Yup, that is just what is needed, considering that some of their products like Fringe can be had for about $35-$40 a few months after release.

Maybe the extra money is going toward the Batman '66 card set? <plunk>

I noticed with the upcoming DC Epic Battles that the pack count in a box has gone from 24 in Women of Legend to 20 in this release. The packs have also have a retail increase of $2.00

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
I noticed with the upcoming DC Epic Battles that the pack count in a box has gone from 24 in Women of Legend to 20 in this release. The packs have also have a retail increase of $2.00

I don't know about the price increase in general but on the DC Comics Epic Battles series, I'm thinking this is a high end product (Cryptozoic's first?) and that's why the per pack increase. All the cards in that series are printed on a premium cardstock. I think it's similar to foil.

While Crypto has really put together some beautiful sets, many of the products have fallen flat. Every DC product that they have put out can be had for under distributor pricing, including Women of Legend.

At a point, "you have to know when to fish and when to cut bait". The simple fact is that no matter who produces a DC comics set, it will not sell very well so a higher price point "premium" set just looks like a disaster waiting to happen (financially).

TWD Season 3 Part 2 as well.

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
I noticed with the upcoming DC Epic Battles that the pack count in a box has gone from 24 in Women of Legend to 20 in this release. The packs have also have a retail increase of $2.00

I don't know about the price increase in general but on the DC Comics Epic Battles series, I'm thinking this is a high end product (Cryptozoic's first?) and that's why the per pack increase. All the cards in that series are printed on a premium cardstock. I think it's similar to foil.

Actually, I was told today that the DC set would have it's own price structure since it's a 'different format' than normal.

Not a fan of the price hike. 20% is a hefty rise in price. It will be harder for them to sell the weaker sets at this price. Let's face it, all sets are not equal.

Ed

Any price hike with Cryptozoic stuff is a little hard to swallow when they are a) one of the most expensive products to begin with, and b) so stubborn about putting such low numbers of hits in each box.

Most Crypto releases I simply won't buy a box of because there is barely any chance of getting a return of equal value from the cards inside.

In Hobbit, SOA, and Supernatural they've got three of my favourite licenses, and I will only be buying a box of SOA. The others simply aren't worth it, and they don't seem to be learning.

I agree with the last poster, but its not so much the number of hits per box, as it is the quality. If you are getting one autograph in a $100 box that's what it is, but it can't be an $8 autograph.

I always expect to lose money when buying a blind box and am pleasantly surprised when I pull a nice hit. Sometimes I even get the better of the deal with a really limited autograph that I couldn't normally afford. However the value of the contents is generally going to be less than the total cost of the box, which is understandable.

Yet that lost difference can only be so much, or the buyer feels like the money was thrown away altogether. That is the problem with raising wholesale prices. Cryptozoic has to raise the value inside the boxes too, either by adding more hits or better hits. If that doesn't happen, the boxes literally become too expensive to open.

Dear GTS Customer,

We want to make you aware that Cryptozoic has just announced a pricing strategy change designed to keep up with rising costs of raw materials and autographs, and to enable them to deliver the highest quality products to the consumer.

It's BS to raise prices on product already solicited. JMO


Sorry, I'm not buying this at all. Raw materials haven't gone up over 15%. Autographs have not gone up over 15%.

I pay pretty close attention to going rates of autographs at shows. Only a few like Norman Reedus have slowly gone up. It's all supply and demand, but manufacturers and such get bulk rates. Sometimes things like this, TV/convention appearances are in their contracts, so I highly doubt initial costs have gone up that much.

I guess it depends on how long they've been absorbing any rises.
The costs may not have gone up over 15% in the last year but they may have gone up that much over the last 4 or 5 years.
When was the previous time Cryptozoic raised their prices?

Maybe my supplier is absorbing the costs, but the price of printing promos has not gone up for me since I started them.

But, to be fair. This is not a rise on already solicited product. Just ones solicited from here on out. Many (myself included) assumed prices on some of these sets but that was just assuming.

Don't like it but Topps, UD, and now CZE have all effectively increased their prices. I can imagine that somewhere down the line Rittenhouse and Breygent will have to as well.

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:
Maybe my supplier is absorbing the costs, but the price of printing promos has not gone up for me since I started them.

But, to be fair. This is not a rise on already solicited product. Just ones solicited from here on out. Many (myself included) assumed prices on some of these sets but that was just assuming.

Don't like it but Topps, UD, and now CZE have all effectively increased their prices. I can imagine that somewhere down the line Rittenhouse and Breygent will have to as well.

Ed

I believe RA has as well. And the price increase is on product already solicited.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
I just got a mass email from a dealer I frequently buy from saying that Cryptozoic has increased the wholesale prices of their products moving forward, starting with:

Adventure Time
Fringe Season 5
Arrow Season 1
Supernatural Seasons 1-3
Castle Seasons 3-4
Psych Seasons 5-6
Vampire Diaries Season 4

Yay higher prices for us.

So far I've noticed one on this list has not gone up. Yet some of this list of mine has, and have already been solicited.

Adventure Time Trading Cards - Releasing Q3 2014
Castle Trading Cards Seasons 3&4 - Releasing Q3 2014
Supernatural Trading Cards Seasons 1-3 - Releasing Q3 2014
Fringe Trading Cards Season 5 - Releasing Q3 2014
The Walking Dead Trading Cards Season 3 Part 2 Hobby - Releasing Q3 2014

I can only resist the urge to comment for so long...

I've been involved in the manufacturing side of the printing industry for almost 10 years. If anything, the cost of bulk digital printing has dropped thanks to improvements in digital presses.

Now, I have no idea if Cryptozoic outsources their printing needs or keep them in house. If they outsource, they really need to do some negotiating to reduce their costs. The printing world is a buyer's market - we will do next to anything to get business.

If they keep their printing in house, I would highly recommend researching more efficient presses with cheaper click charges and less prepress setup time.

Of course, this is all assuming that the sole reason for the increases isn't the fact that they bought up so many licenses in a short amount of time and are desperately trying to make some of them pay off.

quote:

Originally posted by ravenheart:
Any price hike with Cryptozoic stuff is a little hard to swallow when they are a) one of the most expensive products to begin with, and b) so stubborn about putting such low numbers of hits in each box.

Most Crypto releases I simply won't buy a box of because there is barely any chance of getting a return of equal value from the cards inside.

In Hobbit, SOA, and Supernatural they've got three of my favourite licenses, and I will only be buying a box of SOA. The others simply aren't worth it, and they don't seem to be learning.

I agree with you about the quality of the contents. Take Fringe, for example. The big hits are only about 1 in 2 or even 3 cases. Every single box (7)I've gotten from Fringe barely has $20.00 worth of cards in it. The risk of having a lousy box makes box buying enormously less appealing. I'm done with Cryptozoic. I'll get what I really want on ebay or from a friendly card dealer, and save my money.

quote:

Originally posted by jane:

quote:

Originally posted by ravenheart:
Any price hike with Cryptozoic stuff is a little hard to swallow when they are a) one of the most expensive products to begin with, and b) so stubborn about putting such low numbers of hits in each box.

Most Crypto releases I simply won't buy a box of because there is barely any chance of getting a return of equal value from the cards inside.

In Hobbit, SOA, and Supernatural they've got three of my favourite licenses, and I will only be buying a box of SOA. The others simply aren't worth it, and they don't seem to be learning.

I agree with you about the quality of the contents. Take Fringe, for example. The big hits are only about 1 in 2 or even 3 cases. Every single box (7)I've gotten from Fringe barely has $20.00 worth of cards in it. The risk of having a lousy box makes box buying enormously less appealing. I'm done with Cryptozoic. I'll get what I really want on ebay or from a friendly card dealer, and save my money.

Not to state the obvious, but if there are any card collectors out there that still don't know that box buying is not an effective way to get the most value for their money, than it's just because they haven't been paying attention.

Crypto's construction of 1 or 2 big hits per case is bad, but at least you get some minor autograph per box. UD's construction of 1 autograph per case and most boxes without any signature hit at all is worse. Other manufacturers may give multiple autographs per box, but when you look they are all cheap commons and the ratio for getting a big hit is no better than that 1 or 2 a case either.

As a person who picks up maybe 1 or 2 boxes of a product, I know its a dice shoot. I don't really expect to get the same value from the contents of a box as what I paid. It's a gamble, and sometimes you do pull a nice card that is expensive and it's a lot of fun to bust packs. But like any other gamble, over an extended period of time you will most likely throw it all back and lose even more.

If you like boxes, there are still nice titles being made that will give you more even results. The main thing is to buy a title that you really like and than the monetary value becomes less important. For example I love Game of Thrones, I will buy RA boxes and be happy with whatever autographs I get. I have also had good results with Breygent products because they generally include most of the better cast signers and the star autographs don't appear to be short printed in that the cards are actually being pulled by me and others. The trade off is that these easier to find autographs are not valued at the mega-bucks of Crypto or UD star cards.

Of course its still a matter of luck, but if the boxes from any card manufacturer are consistently disappointing you, buy individual cards or lots and stay away from boxes of those under-achieving products. You will save money and the manufacturer will eventually get the point when orders start falling off.

For me it won't make a difference as the titles I am interested in from Cryptozoic seem to be the ones that sell badly and end up heavily discounted . I just bought a box each of Alphas, Vampire Diaries 1 and Fringe 3/4 and the total for the three was less than the cost of one box when they were first released.

Unless you are after Walking Dead or Big Bang wait a few months and the gamble of buying a box won't be anything like as big .