Friday, November 12, 2021

Aftermarket sketchcards - do your homework

There are a ton of sets that feature sketchcards these days. There are a ton of artists that produce those cards. And there are a ton of blanks available for any price range.

I came across a couple of fantastic cards on eBay that were being sold directly by the artists themselves. This usually means they are Artist Proofs, Returns, or whatever the nomenclature is for that particular manufacturer. I believe both of these showed up in the bottom of other listings, one of those "related items". Both caught my eye, and not having much time right then I just added them to my watchlist and moved on.

The first is this one:

This is the "love you" girl in Indy's classroom at the beginning on Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it-moments from cinema (pun intended). Anyway, a phenomenal sketchcard. It is done by Javier Gonzalez. I am familiar with Javier's work as I have a couple of commissioned cards of his in my own collection. I saw this and wanted it immediately. I actually had a snipe set on it (lower than the final bid, obviously).

In the description, Javier clearly states the following (font and caps his emphasis):

"This is what is commonly referred to as an Aftermarket Sketch Card. This piece is done on OFFICIAL Topps Stock by a non-set artist."

No harm, no foul. Javier was clear, but to the unsuspecting bidder who may be just skimming the listing, would they care? I didn't at the end of the day. This is one card that would go in my collection and stay there. But there is definitely some differences in realized prices if this were an official pack-inserted card.

The second card is this one:

Without even looking at the seller name I knew this was a Charles Hall card. I have a few of his cards in my collection, too. Charles does not have the disclaimer in his listing that this is an aftermarket, but any smart collector should know a few basic things about this.

  • Charles Hall was not on the artist listing for this Star Wars Evolution set (though there can be some errors on those)
  • Charles typically puts the year on the front, and is from 2021
  • this particular Evolution set came out in 2016
  • Topps does not give blanks to artists for their Returns/Proofs (like Rittenhouse, for example)

Ergo, this was originally a blank card that Charles painted on. It is not an "official" Star Wars sketchcard. I don't know if he purchased it blank, if another collector purchased it for Charles as a commission that fell through, or what. Doesn't matter. Not an "official" Star Wars sketchcard.

I am not implying that Charles was being deceitful--much like the Gonzalez above, I had a snipe in on this one, too. And I imagine that if this were an official card it would have ended higher as well.

So to some collectors, it just doesn't matter. A great sketch is a great sketch, right? But do a little homework before you start bidding, especially if you ever plan on selling or even flipping the cards. If you don't disclose it, that's on you...

Economics of ePack and COMC

For anyone who is into non-sports, particularly Upper Deck products, they know about UD's ePack platform. For anyone into non-sports OR sports cards, they know about COMC. They are tied together at the hip, as COMC does the fulfillment for ePack. That means that when you open any physical product for ePack, those cards are actually at a COMC facility. This also means when you transfer from ePack to COMC, really all they are doing is taking it from your ePack account and switching it over--it's ostensibly a database update with no need for physical shipping or anything like that.

Unfortunately that is a one-way street. You can transfer from ePack to COMC, but you can't go the other way. I'm not exactly sure why, as it would be just another database update (there is more behind the scenes, probably, so I am oversimplifying things). A big part of ePack is the achievements, and once you redeem a card for an achievement, you can't redeem it again. The ePack platform flags it as redeemed, though it is still a perfectly viable physical card. Once you transfer that same redeemed card to COMC, it doesn't matter. There is no flag there to say if a card was redeemed or not, because it doesn't matter.

This prevents you from buying cards cheaply on COMC, transferring them back "upstream" to ePack, and doing achievements. This also puts a divide in the different markets.

Another feature of the ePack platform is combining base cards. Right now there is an X-Men Metal set live on ePack. It has a low and a high series. The low series is not a physical card, meaning you cannot transfer a low series card to COMC. You can, however, combine 10 base cards to get an ePack-exclusive Blue parallel which is physical. If you are industrious enough with pack breaks or trading, you can do this multiple times and get 10 Blue parallels, then combine those for a Black parallel. So in essence, 100 base for one Black. Let me rephrase that: 100 non-physical, relatively worthless, low-series base for a physical Black ePack exclusive parallel.

You can do the same with high series as well, but those are already physical cards (meaning you can transfer to COMC if desired). Some people are offering $1.50 for a high-series. So that means if they are going for the Black parallel, that's roughly $150 in perceived value for that collector for the Black version of the high series card. That's more than many of the Red PMGs are that are /100, and more than the Pinks which are /75. That's strange to me.

Getting 100 of any card is a challenge because ePack trading can be... difficult. There is a chat feature on the site, and you may get some trades for exactly what you are looking for. Most times, it is lopsided. Few people seem to be ok with base-for-base trades.

With Metal, for example, I am collecting the Firestar cards. She has a low series and a high series base (along with some others, but we'll focus on the base). Same as above, I can collect 10 of each to get the Blue parallel, then 10 Blues to get the Black. Since I am a completionist, technically I need 110 of each, since I gotta keep a Blue one, too.

This is where that one-way street breaks down.

If I could buy 10 of the Blues on COMC, it would cost me roughly $6.50 (they're not all $.65, but you get the idea). I could then transfer them BACK to ePack, combine them, and be done. That is much cheaper than the $27, which is currently the cheapest Black version.

I've read some collectors say they keep things on ePack because they are worth more there. I can see some arguments for that.

The other odd part of ePack and COMC is this. We know they don't produce the base low series, again, using X-Men Metal as an example. This is also true for most of the non-premium sets. But that means that UD created the Blue and Black parallels specifically for combining base on ePack. OK, fine. But let's say that no one wants a Black parallel. People want Blues and that's it. That means that UD has to account for that (admittedly far-fetched) idea and print the maximum number of Blues that could possibly be made from however many low series cards are distributed via ePack pack, boxes, and cases.

In this example, what happens with all those Black parallels that were made and are sitting in COMC warehouses somewhere? Do they purge those at some point? Is there an expiration for ePack exclusive parallels, or will they sit there for an eternity? Maybe three-years from now someone on ePack decides they want to combine 10 of those Blues for a Black. So they have to keep them all, right?

Then think about what happens for the combined cards. You can combine 10 Blues for one Black. You no longer have those Blues in your account, but they are physical, so they are... somewhere. Do they physically destroy Blues when combined into a Black?

Just some of the weird things I think about.