Cult-Stuff

It’s been a while between updates and a lot has been going on but I will save that for another post! Sufficed to say I was very pleasantly surprised to find a parcel this weekend waiting for me from the good folks at Factory Entertainment, the UK’s best independent card manufacturer. It contained two boxes but we will only be dealing with one of them in this article, and as you have guessed it is the Prisoner Volume 2 set. The box

Prisoner Vol 2 Box

as you can see is 24 packs 6 cards per pack. The stats you need to know on set composition are as follows: It’s a 50 card basic set, two 6 card foils chase sets, 6 autographs*, 6 costume cards, 2 rare promos and many sketch cards. Your odds are Autos 1:24 Promos 1:24 Costumes 1:24 Foils 1:12 and sketch cards 1:34

Your looking at 2 or 3 hits per box more if you count the promo cards which are P1 and P2. These are for the recent Prisoner re-imagined mini series. (and very nice they look as well). The odds mean you SHOULD get 4 foils, 1 costume, 1 promo, 1 auto and a sketch in every second box. No guaranty about a basic set in a box but I would expect one with it only being 50 cards.

Now before I get stuck into this set I want to talk a little bit about the work behind it. The fact is Vol 1 of this set came out way back in 2002 and was brought out by Cards Inc (later to be absorbed by Corgi International and then wound up) makes the fact that Vol 2 has ever seen the light of day all the more remarkable. The new set released by Factory Entertainment (which is run by the former owner Cards Inc) is 7 years late but moving fast. Heck this set even has some of the inserts originally created for the Cards Inc Vol. 2 set, you will notice that all the costume cards are labelled under the older companies name. This was obviously a something that has been in the works for a number of years and before the box is open it looks like it was worth the wait.

As you can see from this image

I opened the box and the first thing I found was a loose costume card on top of the packs, which was a nice surprise to say the least. As I have mentioned these are the original inserts produced for Cards Inc and as such the card stock is a little different.

Open Box

After removing this card you can see the packs, the next shot is a close up of the fronts and backs of these:

Nice looking packs, and you know what your getting. They will stand out in a retail setting. Splitting these was very easy and a lot of fun, the card quality is very good with the high gloss finish on the front and a good thickness. It should be noted that the cards come out of the packs in order, that is to say ordered from high numbers to low numbers but not consecutively, ie: you will not get cards 1,2,3,4,5,6 but you might get cards 4, 14, 22, 29, 34, and 48 in one pack and if you do they would come out in that order from front to back. It makes sorting the base cards MUCH easier. We are not sure if this is consistent over the whole print run but if it is it works well. Its also good to note that this set has kept the same basic layout and design from Volume 1, which I have no doubts will please collectors fortunate enough to have the first series. As you have seen we already had a costume card from the top of the box, I am not sure how often this happens but in this case it was not the only one, as I also found another costume card in a pack, it seems they come both ways so we beat the printed 1:24 odds by getting 2 in a 1 box. The foil cards look great and have a real shine to them they seem to be of a higher quality stock than the 2002 set. We received the right number of these (two card from each set) and a P1 Promo card as well:

*The autographs are a little bit different, the set has 6 signed cards, 5 new ones for Volume 2 (Bernie Williams, Christopher Benjamin, Fenella Fielding, Ian Rakoff, Peter Wyngarde) and one card left from the original set which is a real gem: Patrick McGoohan. Now that last card is only available in extremely limited numbers. 75 cards were left over for the cancelled Cards Inc set and they are falling into this product at a rate of one in every other case. Something else to keep in mind: Due to a printing error the autograph cards are numbered up to 7, with card 3 not being in the set at all. It has been said that this was literally a mistake and all the cards intended for the set are in it… that’s not to say at some future date they may not sneak in an exclusive to back fill the unintended gap. This sample box produced a very nice Fenella Fielding card which is great as she is a first time signer.

Fenella Fielding

We didnt find a sketch card in this box but truthfully it wasnt missed with all the other high end cards you really feel like you getting good value compared to many sets that have perhaps 1 good hit in a box. The idea that you could get a sketch AS WELL makes this a really top end product.

I want to talk a little about the base set as well.

Basic Set

This box produced one 50 card basic set, now I know some will cringe at this because other products can give you 2 or 3 sets per box but with such a limited release this is the smart way to go, it means the sets are hard to put together and the base sets are more interesting and valuable because of it. This should help maintain a stronger secondary market value on these sets in years to come. One of the biggest problems in recent nonsports history has been the erosion of the basic set. Many dealers simply toss them away or sell them for next to nothing, this set shows that not only can you have a product packed with inserts but you can also maintain the value of the basic cards at the same time. That makes this set one of the few worth picking up and hanging onto.  Below you can see everything that came out of the box in one shot!

All things considered this set is a real winner, it’s very limited (125 cases) and provides a lot of quality for a low price. I would suggest you look for them now before they are all gone. This product wasn’t solicited with Diamond so they may be hard to find, I would suggest contacting Factory Entertainment directly to enquire about purchasing them if your regular dealers cant obtain these cards.  As ever a discussion thread is open on the NSU forum located HERE

Recently Factory Entertainment announced they would be producing some exclusive cards for the San Diego Comic Con, we can now bring you details on what those cards will be (in part)

There will be a Prisoner package limited to just 400, and it will contain a 50 card set, and Ian McKellan Autograph card a McGoohan Gold Foil Autograph, and a sketch card. All for $39.99.. No doubt they will sell out at the show. That seems like a nice low price when you consider the limited nature of the product and the autograph card you have included. We are assuming this 50 card set is from the new show.

Ian's Signed Card

On top of that they may well have other promotional cards to hand out but no details on those yet. If your lucky enough to get to SDCC your in for a treat it would seem!

Another update about the forthcoming classic series 2 set: It has been delayed due to packaging issues but should now have a release date of May 6th

Or: Panini, price fixing, market saturation, exclusives and the cyclical nature of markets as they relate to cards.

Yeah that’s a long and dull intro, but if you stick with me (which I hope you will) this might be interesting.

Recently the trading card market (both sports and non sports) has been going through what I can only really describe and a state of flux. A lot of things are changing in a short space of time, and that’s always news worthy, even if it’s not always a cause for concern. A lot of interesting things are going one, and they more they change the more it seems some of them stay the same. Many years ago in card history (Baseball card history at any rate) Topps was essentially the only kid on the block as far as mainstream Baseball cards, it put up a real real fight to stop others from entering the market. History has shown the market expanded greatly once it was eventually opened to competition however and Topps befitted greatly because of this.

Simply put competition leads to innovation, you have to work to make a better whatever, or else consumers will look at other products. A lack of competition leads to stagnation. From a manufacturers point of view why spend money on innovation when you already own the market? If people are going to buy the product they HAVE to buy yours.

But wait Jason I hear some of you saying… people will stop buying! Well yes and no often some companies (big well known companies who will remain nameless ~Cough~Marvel~Cough~) would like to lose customers. If you raise your prices you will probably lose some customers, on the flip side the customers who remain are paying more and making up the short fall… on top of that your costs go DOWN because you don’t have to print, pack and ship as much product… Is this cynical? Absolutely. Is it something actively considered by most companies? Again absolutely.

Competition can help put a stop to this sort of thing. Then again their can be valid arguments for exclusive deals, if you are protecting a market from over saturation for example. Lets take some entertainment examples, say Smallville , a popular show (though very niche when it started) and licensed to the now sadly departed Inkworks. Could the market have coped with another company producing cards on this show? Unlikely, had more cards been produced the market would very probably have been over saturated and it would have devalued the license and the property as a whole. No license holder wants a property associated with remaindered and generally unsold stock. It just looks bad. So in some cases exclusivity can be a benefit to a growing market, the question really becomes who judges the situations. That is something I think is best saved for another topic at another time. I would however say this:

Licensing is predominately about one thing and that is profit, which is fine as long as that profit is not derived at the detriment of the consumer. A good example of this: Harry Potter has official license trading cards, these are created by Art-Box for the hobby market and have proven to be very popular. Art-Box had an exclusive deal which as of last year has been altered. Now they have an exclusive US deal. In other parts of the world Panini have the rights to produce Potter cards of there own. Essentially the rights holders can sell the same license twice while stifling competition.

If the Harry Potter brand is suitable for more than one license then why wouldn’t it be suitable for competition? Simply put a license like this would be fine with competition but Time Warner can be paid twice for preventing it. I can only guess the second company might not pay Time Warner if they thought they had to produce a competitive product! Art-Box now are unable to export their cards to places like the UK (you know where Harry Potter was created) and the card collectors will be forced to buy on the grey market, which means higher prices for the consumer. The other option is to simply buy the mass market Panini product and forget about the hobby product. These options seem less than reasonable to the average collector, but from the finical standpoint of the manufacture and and licensor’s it’s a great way to milk your money.

Look at a company like Rittenhouse Archives, they export very little outside of the USA and Canada these days apparently because of the contracts they have to sign. Because of this markets are left devoid of any cards, often on subjects that would have sold well. How can this be a good thing for the consumer or the whole of the industry?

Worse still seems to be the growing inability to understand the market we are in. Some people think that by attempting to artificial control the market we can bring back some sort of pre eBay heyday of golden card joy. To put it simply this is utter crap. This is why I think Mike Anderson, Rodney Alsup, and the rest of Panini USA are not only wrong but extremely hypocritical.

Ok I am sure I lost some of you with that so I will give you the background and some links, oh and I will tell you who these folks are. Lets start with that one: Mike Anderson is the Senior Vice President for sales and marketing at Panini USA. He probably has his own parking space to go with that tittle, but I am guessing at that. Needless to say a mid-sized fish in a small pond. He has been working in cards for a long time so should really know better. Rodney Alsup is the Hobby Sales Director… probably a smaller office the parking space is anyone guess.

Panini have announced that they are completely changing the way the sell and distribute all of there products. They will be artificially helping small hobby shops to the detriment of non shop owning dealers and mid sized resellers. They also want the Internet distributors to go. Mike talks about Wholesalers and retailers:

“You are one, or you are the other,” Anderson said. “And never the twain shall meet.”

And if you are a retailer with some wholesale customers:

“Again, no warnings,’’ Alsup said. “They will be black-listed”

Wow ok so Panini not only want to control the production of there cards they want to control what you do with them once you have bought them that is IF they let you buy them. Oh and they are talking about setting a minimum price that there cards cant be sold below… This news was welcomed by a larger number of hobby shop owners… you know that’s hardly a shock, that’s like telling fish your pro water… what response do you expect? The rest of the market might have a few things to say about it however. It reeks of protectionism and it specifically targeting online resellers and wholesale distributors. Now this is the hypocritical part: (this comes directly from the BeckettBlog)

The Panini executives credited CEO Mark Warsop for the company’s renewed commitment to integrity in distribution and admitted that, prior to Panini’s purchase of the former Donruss/Playoff LP in early 2009, the company made distribution choices that were not in its or the industry’s best long-term interests. Some of those choices included selling significant a volume of new issues and closeouts to online retailers, and allowing certain wholesale distributors to develop and operate online retail businesses.

“We turned a blind eye toward those things, because, honestly, we had to. Our ownership needed the money, and we perpetuated the industry’s problem,” Anderson said. “But under Panini ownership, we work for a CEO who is allowing us to do what should’ve been done 10 years ago. We are well structured, well financed and committed to doing what is best for the brick-and-mortar stores who are the lifeblood of this hobby.”

Bricks and Mortar stores are important to the hobby but only as far as the market will support them.. this is akin to publishers saying we will not sell books to Amazon because they are harming the real Bricks and Mortar book shop… the life blood of the hobby is NOT a shop it is the collectors, the consumers who spend money on your price fixed products drive the hobby. The delivery method by which they obtain the cards is much less relevant and intervening to harm one method while propping up another is an anathema to free market economics. Card shops are NOT to big to fail. Don’t get me wrong I like card shops I think we should have more of them, and if enough people think like that we will, but putting folks out of the market to force people into card shops is not how this should work. Looks like that’s the way it will be however, at least if you want NBA or NFL cards because Panini have the exclusive rights… Licensing meets intentional market manipulation.

It seems like every time you see a loser you know its a consumer. Its also a little rude to in no uncertain terms say to distributors and online resellers yes you were OK when we needed the money but hey you can take a flying jump now that we have cash!

Obviously as a company they can chose who they sell to but they cant enforce price fixing. Nor do I think this will help them with the large segment of the hobby that shops on-line. Those retailers looking to grow and expand are also shut out…

What I find most amusing is the total lack of hobby support any of these companies have outside of the USA. Panini UK refuse to respond to ANY questions and Topps promised a response in January to questions about hobby support in developing markets like the UK. Still waiting….. years ago card companies opened up to competition and everyone benefited for a while, now we have returned to exclusivity, and very possible mediocrity. Its no longer a choice about whose cards should I buy it’s more a question of should I bother at all, and that’s not the way it should be. Go out an support the “hobby” by buying what you like from who you like and don’t let manufacturers tell you what is best. I wonder how happy Panini will be when this sort of decision hits the profits.

Also as you finish reading this that I only said it MIGHT be interesting, it wasn’t but hey you had fair warning. Still it could always be worse!

It depends on who you believe I guess but you would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks things are fine for the Carlsbad card manufacturer. We have had multiple reports that Upper Deck have indefinitely suspended all release dates on all products, entertainment AND sports. This has been coming from distributors, as well as shop owners and at least one now former employee.

Upper Deck have stated that they will be releasing Basketball and Hockey on time according to SCU and this interesting tweet from Upper Deck regarding Hockey. Upper Deck are saying things are fine, but that’s far from true. I have to admit we may have misjudged the situation in the last Upper Deck post, because just 24 hours later we found out that according to Ed from SciFi Cards Upper Deck have cancelled the whole Marvel and DC Vs line of cards. This line is one that they had problems with for a while now and recently pulled the plug on free promotional packs that were to be issued on the annual Free Comic Book Day event held across the US. The amount of money they put into the promotion of this card gaming set means that pulling the plug at this late stage had to have a major finical impact.

The Upper Deck statement that sets are on time is interesting because it only appears to cover Hockey, giving no reassurance about other products and leading to speculation about the now late Iron Man 2 film tie in set. If the rumblings are right then this set may not be coming out at all. I have to stress the point that this is NOT proven information, it is information that is coming from multiple sources some more reliable than others. With the number and variety of sources we know something is going on, and we are trying to verify exactly what that is. None of these sources have commented on the Iron Man set specifically, it seems t be considered to be a side issue when compared to the sports sets potential release freeze, but the lack of an entertainment set could prove to be a disaster for the already on the ropes company. This may have something to do with the Upper Deck entertainment departments lack of resources, if my information is correct they have less than 5 members of staff left in the entertainment division. The staff layoffs are no secret and have been reported on several times.

What ever is going on Upper Deck are not doing well, they cant be when there own distributors are telling people hat they are out of the game. They may not be out just yet, but it looks increasingly like Upper Deck are on life support.

So Upper Deck have lost the rights to make NFL cards…. We could have run this two days ago but I guess I am just losing the will read all this Upper Deck related commentary, even though I have been participating in it form months now. The talking heads within the industry are going up the wall with every revelation and every detail. For the last 6-12 months UD has been in massive decline. The facts are fairly simple, Upper Deck has been stripped of its license for Baseball, NFL Football, and from next year it must share the rights to produce NHL Hockey with Panini. It has lost YuGiOh because by producing counterfeit cards, they have been stripped of the World of Warcraft rights from next month, they fired the whole entertainment division and have had to fight three lawsuits in 12 months. It has by any one’s account been a very very bad year for the company.

So I guess when I read a constant stream of commentary about how Upper Deck are going to go under and how they have nothing left well I just don’t think it’s true anymore. I mean sure I personally would like to see them shut down, they have behaved in ways that not only bend ethics but snap them, Upper Deck is a dishonest company with a corrupt CEO, this has been demonstrated time and time again, by wise and infinitely more literate people than myself. (read the card sharks book) Realistically however Upper Deck still have some major licenses in the stable. Marvel could be a real money spinner if used correctly. Upper Deck have already taken steps towards a restructure with the dismissal of so many staff and the cancellation of products and sets. So many on the web are saying Richard McWilliam should go but this only demonstrates the naivety of the writers. Richard IS Upper Deck, from the outset when he made them the first advance of $70,000.00 he has manoeuvred the company until it was under his total control. People need to remember this is not a publicly held company it is NOT answerable to anyone but the owner and that is Richard McWilliam. The Idea that someone else will take over is simply farcical, he can ride it into the ground (and he may well be doing that). He can in essence do what he likes.

Months ago when I started writing about Upper Deck and the scandals a lot of people said it was a blip and that they were a good company, staunchly defending them, yet as more and more dirty washing is aired in public from so many reliable sources the tide has begun to turn. In my experience most forums and areas of comment seem to be siding against Upper Deck, which is a big shift in public perception, and probably a fair one.

It’s fair to say that Upper Deck are almost out of the sports card market, which is unfortunate for the Upper Deck fans who just liked to buy the cards they made, however it’s not a massive surprise to those who follow the news. If you read sites like sports cards uncensored you might even think the golden age is ending, however if you do ever read that blog keep in mind the the author “Adam Gellman” also writes for the official Upper Deck blog so you know… no conflict of interests… The real concern in my opinion would be if Upper Deck decided to become a major player in Non Sports. You see even a wounded Upper Deck is more powerful than most any specialized Non Sports producer these days. Non Sports is a sleeping giant, and as more card sets make it into mainstream retail outlets (Twilight is just one example) more and more companies are waking up to this potential. I fear Upper Deck may well come into the entertainment market with the same morally bankrupt ethos it used in the sports market and irreparable harm our industry. With Marvel behind them they already have the momentum to start. Of course this is speculation they may have no real aim to enter Non Sports in a serious way, so only time will tell. Upper Deck are down but I don’t think they are out just yet.

Cryptozoic Entertainment have been granted the license to produce the World of Warcraft Card game, this is the news that hit last night and has been picked up by a large number of other sites. I think granted is a massive stretch perhaps given is a little more likely when you consider that the aforementioned Cryptozoic Entertainment was founded by  Cory Jones from Blizzard (and Upper Deck before that)  and Ex DC comics and Wildstorm Exec John Nee. For those who don’t know Wildstorm was an independent comic company which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of DC comics.  Many sites are reporting that John is coming from Wildstorm, however in reality he resigned from DC in 2008. His history with large scale licenses and management may put the card game in reasonably safe hands, he is the CEO of the new company.

Cory Jones, now the new director of Entertainment on the other hand was also formerly Director of Brand and New Product Development with Upper Deck which is worrying. Anyone who was in the higher management levels of Upper Deck has ethical questions to answer. He worked on the initial product and then jumped to Blizzard, the license holders.  Now having set up this third company they have been handed the rights to WOW. Hopefully they will not let the fans down, but time will tell. At the time of publication the official web site is down http://www.cryptozoic.com/

Apparently Wrathgate Boosters will be out in May.

OK So we have a little while to wait (a month) before the updated Prisoner Vol 2 set hits the market but with the information released last week it’s shaping up to be a great set and with just 125 cases almost certainly a sell out product if it’s not already. With the addition of sketch cards and new autographs this set is also using some of the older Cards Inc stock that had been intended for the second set, a set they never produced. Specifically they will be using 6 costume cards and 75 Patrick McGoohan autographs, (that’s one in every other case). Now the set isn’t due out for another month (the last week in April) but you can see the costume cards now. As is often the case when a company is sold or wound up things slip through the cracks, and a some of these unreleased costume cards made it onto the market. Remembering that the Prisoner Vol 2 set had been cancelled it only seemed like a good thing that these cards came to the market rather than being hidden away in a dusty box some-place. At least they could be in the hands of collectors, which is, it could be argued, ultimately where they should be. No doubt a lot die hard Prisoner card fans have seen, and may own a set of these but I am sure a fair number of you have not.  Just to be clear: We nicked these images from auction listings.

Prisoner PV2 C1 Front

While it’s not known how many sets have been made available on the secondary market already it is a safe bet that the official release will drive demand up for these cards, which are due to be inserted at a rate of 1 per box.  In fact the hit rate on these boxes looks far better than most sets, you should be getting a sketch an autograph AND a costume in every box. It looks to be an outstanding value IF you can find a box!

As ever the discussion is ongoing at the NSU, and you should head over to talk about it. I will leave you with the updated promo sheet:

With world events what they are it seems the card collecting hobby is going to take a price hit. The price of wholesale paper and pulp has increased drastically in the last few months and now the prices are set to jump 8-12% in the next few weeks. These problems will hit the European market first and are caused in no small part by the Finnish port strikes and of course the Chile’s earthquake. Between them they account for almost 12% (source) of the worlds pulp sales, and the production mills have stopped running.

Already major card printers Cartamundi* have jumped on this sending out warning emails to all manufacturers stating  that they will be increasing prices. Apparently they will hold off until the end of the month one would guess they anticipate that this is when they will need to re-stock on paper, or it’s a good ploy to bump sales.

It looks like cards are about to get more expensive.

*Note: Cartamundi are printers under license and deal with the printing for many of the large manufacturers, including brands like Yu-GiOjh World of Warcraft Strictly Ink, Upper Deck, and several others.

Upper Deck have “settled” the lawsuit with the MLB… but only if you think settled means being publicly spanked, conceding just about every point your opponents have AND agreeing to pay not only last years disputed amounts but also an undisclosed amount for this years fiasco… oh and agreeing to detailed stipulations that essentially mean you can never make another baseball card…

In what can only be described as a MAJOR LEAGUE climb down these things have been agreed:

Upper Deck will pay MLB Properties more than $2.4 million (the entire amount in dispute) for Upper Deck’s 2009 debts.

Upper Deck will pay MLB Properties a substantial sum of money for the unlicensed cards it sold in 2010. The specific sum of that payment is confidential.

Upper Deck has agreed not to issue any additional releases of infringing cards. Last year it issued 15 baseball card releases and there are currently only three infringing releases that are in distribution in 2010.

Upper Deck agreed it will not make any new sets of cards using MLB logos, uniforms, trade dress, or Club color combinations.

Upper Deck also agreed it will not airbrush, alter or block MLB marks in future products.

Upper Deck must receive approval from MLB for the use of baseball jerseys, pants, jackets, caps, helmets or catcher’s equipment in future products featuring players.

That’s a big change in attitude from just one month ago when Upper Deck kept stating they were in the right. Upper Deck are in real trouble, they are hemorrhaging licenses and have been ripped apart with lawsuits… This is just weeks after Blizzard announced an end to the World of Warcraft agreement. Upper Deck true to form blamed poor sales and attempted to say THEY had decided not to renew which is far from the reality, my understanding is that Blizzard puled the plug for a number of reasons, the counterfeit YuGiOh case playing a major part in the decision.

Again Upper Deck made a laughable attempt to spin the outcome of that settlement as well. It seems Upper Deck subscribe to the idea that if you SAY you won people might believe it even when all the evidence is to the contrary. Without Yu-Gi-Oh and World of Warcraft Upper Deck have very little to offer game card enthusiasts. They have Huntik which is a weaker seller than World of Warcraft (WoW), and the Marvel Card Game rights… which is also not a great seller. As far as market penetration is concerned these brands really have very little to offer thus far. You will not find Hutnik in your local convenience store and the Marvel Vs. System isn’t popping up in many mainstream retail outlets.

This lack of penetration is going to hurt the bottom line for Upper Deck, as customers fail to find products at retail. At the same time they are paying people off left and right, while pulling out of expensive promotions. They had signed up to give away thousands of packs of the Marvel Vs. card game in tandem with the annual free comic book day event around the world, along with a “National Pack Time Promotion” which would have seen hobby shops handing out free packs of Baseball cards to visitors on the 6th of March. Both of these promotions would have cost Upper Deck a substantial amount of money, which it is now not going to spend.

The YuGiOh suit ended with an undisclosed finical settlement, what we do know however is that Upper Deck have already made the first of the two agreed payments, and the second is to follow in the next few months. These payments and the dates they must be made within are very strict indeed. The MLB will be paid the outstanding $2.4Mil. they are owed and an undisclosed sum for the three sets that breached it’s trademarks, all of this together leads to speculation of finical trouble within Upper Deck.

If you settle out of court at least you may recover something, in court of the company is forced into bankruptcy the reality is creditors will receive very little, so from that standpoint the last two cases have been wisely dealt with. Upper Deck have said they will carry on with baseball cards, but it is difficult to see how they can, and who would be interested in a set that have no team names, or statistics, or in fact any players in uniform… It’s extremely unlikely to happen.

They still have some strong sports licenses and they still have a lot going on with the Marvel rights they hold, but the last 6 months have clearly hurt them and if some insiders are to be believed taken them to the financial brink. Of course a lot of people will say (myself included) that they brought these troubles upon themselves through years of dishonesty and deception, and in many respects they are lucky to still be in business at all. The real question is will they still be around next year?

You can read more about this from the great folks at the Blowout forum

A lot of people have been asking for a True Blood card set, unfortunately at this time the license is not going to be made available to any one. You can add True Blood to a long list of properties that as far as cardboard is concerned might as well not exist. Many companies and studios seem unwilling to license trading card products for a lot of varying reasons, (often they simply don’t feel it’s worth the time and effort) and that leaves collectors and companies without cards that consumers would have wanted. Up until recently that was just the way it was. 258 West Authentic (named for it’s street address) have set out to change this with a new and innovative plan.

Rather than license the TV show or film itself they went after each individual actor, licensing the rights to the person rather than the character. This has a lot of added benefits for card collectors and autograph hunters alike. The truth is, no matter how much we all want a show to make it they are often only a few rough ratings weeks away from cancellation. This means your expensive and great autograph of  star X as character Y could soon be worth a lot less and little on the unfortunate side. Lets face a lot of collectors don’t really WANT a card from a cancelled program or a film that tanked….(exceptions always apply to that)  I know a lot of card collectors who buy a card from a set they have no interest in simply because they like the actor, and this type of licensing can really help out in that respect because now regardless of the show you have the actor.

A great example of this would be the Zachary Quinto autograph cards. He was Sylar in Heroes and now more recently Spock in the rejuvenated Star Trek franchise. To purchase these cards your looking at $75.00 for Heroes and about $190.00 for Trek respectively, yet you can grab the same autograph from 258 for about $25.00, and the back of the over-sized card has a photo of the man himself signing the cards.

They produced on the card signatures for a lot of the Heroes cast which appealed to many folks who hate the new security label (sticker) autograph cards that have taken over the hobby. The cards from the cast of Heroes were over-sized, (twice the size of a regular 2.5X3.5 card) and that put a few people off however 258 are now bringing us the normal sized cards that are compatible with all the accessories most card hunters have in abundance.

That means we will be seeing the cast of some great shows and movies added to the cardboard collection.While 258 have been around for a while they seem to be moving into a higher gear and have released 4 cards featuring autographs from actors in the hit show True Blood, (I am told more are planned) and now they are soliciting for three great signatures from Supernatural actors.

The four signers involved with True Blood are Nelsan Ellis, Allan Hyde, Ashley Jones, and William Sanderson. Buying any of the cards from 258 means you also have a chance of obtaining some interesting intentional variants. Again in the non-sports side this is something new, a small percentage of the cards have been altered so rather than a white background signature area it is black and signed in silver, this gives these limited cards a great look.  The Allan Hyde, Ashley Jones and William Sanderson cards are each limited to 240 Black pen on a White cards and 60 Silver pen on a black while the Nelsan Ellis is limited to 400 Black pen on White and 100 Silver pen on a black, I am told the card you get is random and this seems like such a basic idea it is surprising the bigger companies have not been using it in non-sports.

The next three autographs due out (as mentioned above) are from actors in the Supernatural show. The rights to produce Supernatural trading cards had been held by inkworks but when they went under the studio declined to re-license the show for the cardboard community, thankfully 258 have come in with some new products aimed at these existing fans. Actors already anounced include Misha Collins (Castiel), Rob Benedict (Chuck), and Julie McNiven (Anna Miltion).

Castiel Autograph available in June

Again it has to be stressed that these cards are of the actors and they have been in a number of other programs so these cards have a much larger appeal than anything aimed at just one program or film. These products could help cross the gap between card collectors and autograph collectors, which could in turn bring new fans to an ailing hobby that has been rocked with scandals.  258 want to change the way many people collect autograph cards and I think they have a shot at doing just that.  Marco says he is aiming to bring out between three and five new cards every 6 weeks, which isn’t bad when you consider the prices he is charging, (under $35.00) and the authentication the cards have.  Check out the 258 West website for updates and more information.