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Post by madmanmoore on Mar 14, 2013 1:11:30 GMT -5
Where was all the hating when BNS1 came out?? BNS2 is quite an improvement and look at the reaction. I think that it may seem that way, but there was plenty of hate going around last time.... BNS 2 is wayyyyy better... BNS1 was a dick tease in the sense that you have this amazing magnet set done by Ping and expect more of the same from BNS1, and then it becomes Bunk central and everyone is left scratching their heads.
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Post by Jimbo on Mar 14, 2013 2:43:54 GMT -5
I'm not quitting. Mr. Trump would have fired every Topps executive by now.
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Post by TornShaun on Mar 14, 2013 3:41:32 GMT -5
Did you say Wayne your selling off your collection? How many big players tonight have said they are or thinking of calling it quits? Cory, Wayne, TCT! Really? Can I please be leader then hahahaha I've been selling the items off for a while now (excluding the US GPK releases, everything I have left is listed in my For Sale section on my website). I stopped collecting after FB1, and I definitely do not miss it. I still visit here and see what has been going on with GPK. You probably can be GPK leader of the UK... maybe print up a special "UK GPK Leader" T-shirt for yourself. To be The GPK Leader, there is a whole hierarchy and process... all the Subordinate GPK Leaders get together and vote for one of the other Subordinate GPK Leaders that they know little about and that really does not want the job as The GPK Leader. Outside of the voting area, there is a stream running of clear water, and after the votes are cast the water turns yellow. That did me laugh so much
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empyre327
Junior GPK
eMpyre ramireX
Posts: 147
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Post by empyre327 on Mar 14, 2013 3:45:14 GMT -5
One thing I thought about long and hard are the economics behind GPK as related to my experience with comic books. I used to read Marvel stuff - but between 2000 and 2010 I went from collecting about 12 Marvel books a month to like 40. Their print runs went down a LOT since the 90s and to compensate - they intertwined the storylines more - had mammoth crossover events and had mostly strong quality with about 1/3 duds.
I feel like because of GPKs shrinking audience (since the 80s at least) that they are juicing us more. Transformers had the Michael Bay movies to boost toy sales quite a lot. . .and in the early 2000s the new toys were still falling apart - and then once they started launching the Masterpiece line and the Alternators/Binaltech - their quality went up a LOT - but these toys are premium prices. Over $100 for the masterpieces and $35-$60 for the Alternator/Binaltech. That is 10x the normal medium sized figures that come out.
I would prefer less parallels. White, Black and Gold perhaps? The subsets and bonus stuff is a little much - but I like the quality of the bonus cards with BNS WAY more than FB.
The other point about originality is . . . we've near - if not more than 1000 GPKs - the well of ideas has to kind of run dry to some extent. How many new names can they find that match new gags?
Finally - sometimes a "style" that works once it works - can never work again. Star Wars? EC Comics (Tales from the Crypt), GPK OS? I think the newer style is different - but they seem to be making a strong effort. I feel like they have listened to the fans about some things. i.e. No more Adam Bomb subsets. We all know that the artists read this forum. I'm sure some people at Topps do too.
I have wondered about collecting less many times. When FB3 came out I had to have surgery on my spine and had NO money. I never got a silver set. I have far fewer golds than any other set, I still don't have a plate. I think the key is to pick the level of collecting that is comfortable for you, your budget, and your free time. If its not fun anymore - don't do it. Just sell me your FB3 Plate and Silvers first. ;]
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Post by rusVan on Mar 14, 2013 10:33:04 GMT -5
I'm not quitting. I have tenure.
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Post by rusVan on Mar 14, 2013 12:13:42 GMT -5
Since FB2 I have set myself a 100$ budget for spending on new GPK sets. So far it's been great and I haven't got burned out like I did with releases before that. For FB2 and FB3 I bought one sealed Target gravity feed (I used to have a friend that worked at target) and a rack pack. The goal since FB2, honestly, is to try to score a sketch or a plate. I've never pulled a sketch, or anything good(besides errors) out of a GPK pack. Creating a hundred dollar boundary does not get me much -besides an a&b set, and a decent mix of inserts, but it prevents me from buying hundreds and hundreds of dollars like I did before, and still not scoring s**t. I'm doing the same today, going to spend 100$ at Target and then I'm done until BNS3.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2013 12:15:59 GMT -5
Did you say Wayne your selling off your collection? How many big players tonight have said they are or thinking of calling it quits? Cory, Wayne, TCT! Really? Can I please be leader then hahahaha I'm not quitting GPK...Just undecided about the BNS2. To collect BNS2 or not to collect BNS2: That is the question -TCT
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Post by TornShaun on Mar 14, 2013 12:18:09 GMT -5
Did you say Wayne your selling off your collection? How many big players tonight have said they are or thinking of calling it quits? Cory, Wayne, TCT! Really? Can I please be leader then hahahaha I'm not quitting GPK...Just undecided about the BNS2. To collect BNS2 or not to collect BNS2: That is the question -TCT That's good to hear Diego Just get a base set of BNS2 Does this mean I still have to be 10th in command
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Post by Cory on Mar 14, 2013 12:57:50 GMT -5
I'm not quitting GPK...Just undecided about the BNS2. To collect BNS2 or not to collect BNS2: That is the question -TCT That's good to hear Diego Just get a base set of BNS2 Does this mean I still have to be 10th in command Same with me. I'm not quitting. I just can't see picking up BNS2. I'd probably sell my BNS1 stuff. Just getting out of the BNS game overall. Maybe FB items too...anything post ANS7 really. Maybe.
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0bisp0
Cabbage Patch Kid
Posts: 86
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Post by 0bisp0 on Mar 14, 2013 13:15:02 GMT -5
All these subsets and the subpar art got old really fast. I set up a few parameters and decided to stick with collecting the base sets also picked a few is characters to collect in the new issue stuff. Adam Bomb and Slain Wayne are two of my favorites so I went after the foreign releases and any new items with JUST the original artwork. This limited me to just the parallels for Adam bomb in the fb1 and a few of the subsets such as the autograph card, the glow in the dark etc, but not all the new artwork AB subsets and golds. This has kept it fun, but hasn't broke the bank.
I look back at all my sports card collecting and I would have done it differently if I could go back and do it all over again. The boxes and boxes of sets don't mean anything to me. It's just those rookies that I care about. Had I taken all that money I'd spent on boxes and packs and just collected the actual cards I really wanted, me and my collection would have been better off. Years later I find myself pulling out the couple cards I actually care about hacking the rest. My brother in law has one of the smallest basketball collections I've ever seen. Also the most impressive. It consists of the top ten players rookie cards of all time (in his opinion) and are in a glass display in his home, gervin, wilt the stilt etc. I've followed suit with my favorite characters...all lined up in their foreign issues.
I know this doesn't work for some collectors and opening all those packs was priceless as a kid. I get that's half the fun. But my focus has shifted to "what I value more" as opposed to the past fun of opening packages. My new fun has become the search for the few cards I value most and simply looking at those few cards in the display case......
Anyhow, just my two cents, but I bagged collecting all the new stuff day one of the Ans1 release. It's the old art I love and I'm sticking to it.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2013 13:18:49 GMT -5
well i knew not to expect a perfect set with bns 2 . but i like what i see so far. i have just gotten back into collecting gpk. i do understand where your coming from . there is still alot topps can fix . i think they know exactly what we want. they know how to release a proper gpk set. but i think there will always be the filler in the product......... the not so popular artists . Maybe they should just find some people that can do it correctly. Fugg, they released a series like every 3 months in the 80's. How have they regressed in quality with all of this technology to speed s**t up/make things easier? I don't think they know what we want or what a GPK even is. It's evident by the crap they continue to put out. If they know we don't want X.....don't give us X. Throw X in the trash and replace with Y. It's not difficult. People accepting low quality product aren't helping things either. We can only show our displeasure by not buying this crap. Obviously, pointing out problems on a message board hasn't done much in the last 10 years or so. ;D If sales tanked they'd take no blame though, the product simply wouldn't have a fan base anymore. So we are kind of forced into buying trash if we want it to keep going. We want it to keep going because one day they might figure it out. One day... I think one of the best ways to make a difference is showing your support to the artists that you like and stop buying from the corporation. Make up your own concepts like a lot of fans out there do and have an artist make a cool card painting. Everything gets manipulated and homogenized by the time everything comes out in stores. In a small scale what is happening with GPKs is what is happening to the whole country. Everything is based off branding and using the company image and it's nostalgic history to continue the cycle of selling inferior products. For most product lines there is a "planned obsolescence" for it. That's why you need to get a new car after 10 years (if you get lucky). For creative stuff it's "creative obsolescence." Regurgitation of the same stuff with little creativity. In a lot of ways some of the later OS had this problem. I read many interviews where they just ran out of gas. There is no heart or love for it. It's just another owner buying something and trying to make a ton of money from it. The sad thing is the only way people will stop buying from them is if the economy plummets again. Stamping those 3 words on a product doesn't make it a great product. Imagine the brand had a different name on it. Would you still buy it? I don't make a ton of money with what I do, but the fans keep me able to continue doing what I love. I don't need a fancy house or a large color flat screen. I just need to get up and work on something cool without catering to someone who is just in the office for a paycheck dictating what they think is cool. They have no idea what is cool. If all the artist would just do their own thing trust me the stuff would make you teary-eyed and proud. Imagine if it was all backed up by the fans? I know most of you don't know about comics, but something like that happened with Marvel where the best left in the early 90s and made their own company (Image Comics) and it was revolutionary. Not all the comics were good, but it was a break from the same-o. The creators blossomed into even bigger super stars. Today they still stand for creators rights and usually give the better deals to creator-owned stuff. If you knew they were putting harmful stuff in your food would you still buy it? Most people choose to be ignorant until it's too late. So the question Cory asked to me goes deeper than that, but the real question is are you still going to continually support them?
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Post by script77 on Mar 14, 2013 19:07:23 GMT -5
Seriously Luis, You're one of the last GPK artists that I loved their stuff and I agree with you completely. I live the same way, I don't make a lot freelance illustrating but I love what I do. Keep up the good work man.
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Post by Smetchlock Smomes on Mar 14, 2013 19:43:54 GMT -5
Haven't read all 3 pages but i am expecting a lot of others in the same boat. I bought cases or fb3 and bns1 and came up with just a mere fraction of the cards needed to complete some of the hard to find parallel sets. In the end i just got stuck with 100s of extra base cards. I haven't bought anything of bns2 and i don't expect to buy anything but the basics. I have given up collecting the rare cards. It's pointless really. It was about the cards in the 1980's, now it seems to be all about the money. As Luis said, we truly are better off supporting the artists then the company producing "their" artwork. Topps is just the 3rd party really, but as it stands now, they have complete say over what they print. Topps is just using the same marketing techniques it is using with the rest of their card sets. Parallel this, parallel that. I'm not falling for that gimmick anymore. I personally would like to see a completely different set of larger cards that really show off the artwork. Until then i've gone back to collecting vintage comic books. I still think the best gpk sets are going to be fan made. It just takes a team of passionate artists to come together to make it happen. Topps has had their chance, they're old hat now. I nominate TCT and Luis Diaz for the job
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Post by Buildakidwnr on Mar 14, 2013 20:02:47 GMT -5
I personally can't wait for the next UG fanset. I am more excited about that then BNS2 or BNS3. TCT are you listening... don't addd parellels in the fanset! lol
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Post by militaryhorn on Mar 14, 2013 20:34:10 GMT -5
Luis - it sounds like in your post that Topps turns down creative ideas that artists bring to them and they only want card ideas that have known to work in the past. Am I reading this wrong? How many of your ideas were shot down that you felt got to the heart of GPK and kept the integrity of the series, while still being new and innovating?
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Post by Cory on Mar 14, 2013 22:50:38 GMT -5
Maybe they should just find some people that can do it correctly. Fugg, they released a series like every 3 months in the 80's. How have they regressed in quality with all of this technology to speed s**t up/make things easier? I don't think they know what we want or what a GPK even is. It's evident by the crap they continue to put out. If they know we don't want X.....don't give us X. Throw X in the trash and replace with Y. It's not difficult. People accepting low quality product aren't helping things either. We can only show our displeasure by not buying this crap. Obviously, pointing out problems on a message board hasn't done much in the last 10 years or so. ;D If sales tanked they'd take no blame though, the product simply wouldn't have a fan base anymore. So we are kind of forced into buying trash if we want it to keep going. We want it to keep going because one day they might figure it out. One day... I think one of the best ways to make a difference is showing your support to the artists that you like and stop buying from the corporation. Make up your own concepts like a lot of fans out there do and have an artist make a cool card painting. Everything gets manipulated and homogenized by the time everything comes out in stores. In a small scale what is happening with GPKs is what is happening to the whole country. Everything is based off branding and using the company image and it's nostalgic history to continue the cycle of selling inferior products. For most product lines there is a "planned obsolescence" for it. That's why you need to get a new car after 10 years (if you get lucky). For creative stuff it's "creative obsolescence." Regurgitation of the same stuff with little creativity. In a lot of ways some of the later OS had this problem. I read many interviews where they just ran out of gas. There is no heart or love for it. It's just another owner buying something and trying to make a ton of money from it. The sad thing is the only way people will stop buying from them is if the economy plummets again. Stamping those 3 words on a product doesn't make it a great product. Imagine the brand had a different name on it. Would you still buy it? I don't make a ton of money with what I do, but the fans keep me able to continue doing what I love. I don't need a fancy house or a large color flat screen. I just need to get up and work on something cool without catering to someone who is just in the office for a paycheck dictating what they think is cool. They have no idea what is cool. If all the artist would just do their own thing trust me the stuff would make you teary-eyed and proud. Imagine if it was all backed up by the fans? I know most of you don't know about comics, but something like that happened with Marvel where the best left in the early 90s and made their own company (Image Comics) and it was revolutionary. Not all the comics were good, but it was a break from the same-o. The creators blossomed into even bigger super stars. Today they still stand for creators rights and usually give the better deals to creator-owned stuff. If you knew they were putting harmful stuff in your food would you still buy it? Most people choose to be ignorant until it's too late. So the question Cory asked to me goes deeper than that, but the real question is are you still going to continually support them? I'm not anti corporation or anything but I know where you are coming from. Yep, in the 80's OS10-OS14 suffered badly. It became the Bunk/Warhola show and they sucked the fuggin life out of GPK. Somehow Topps fixed it by OS15 and OS16 but it was too late. Kids were smart enough to abandon GPK when the quality went to hell. For some reason we keep coming back now when we are supposedly smarter. We've been fugged over time and time again and people just keep saying it'll get better. It's all bulls**t. It's never going to get better, because Topps apparently doesn't have any shits left to give about GPK. I'm just going to do what I did in the 80's and bid farewell to new GPK products. I'll let the people that would be satisfied with a turd rubbed on canvas (as long as it has a GPK LOGO) buy this s**t. I'll just enjoy my OS and ANS....well OS1-9, OS15 and the standouts from the OS10-14 and ANS 1-7. ANS will always hold a special place in my heart. I really did my best to help out as much as I could and met some cool mofos in the process. Thanks LD for being awesome and taking the time to read my dumb GPK emails back in the day. It was fun. Mark you rock too. TL:DR You broke me Topps. Thanks for saving me money.
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Post by M I K E on Mar 15, 2013 0:20:14 GMT -5
I spent a lot on BNS1 but now that I'm here and have trust built with members its a lot easier to trade & complete sets. I probably spent about $2000 on BNS1, If I play my cards right I only plan on spending about $500-800 on BNS2 and Ill get what I get, I have like 7 OS sets to buy soon anyway that are on hold for me. I have my Plate & sketch from BNS1, I'm happy with that, I'm not a gold digger either but my hats off to those that put the gold sets together.
As far as the new BNS2 artwork, some of it is nice & some are pretty dull. I'm not going to stop collecting over it though, we have to remember, they are made for kids, an adult set would be a nice change.
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Post by ANSestren on Mar 15, 2013 1:15:05 GMT -5
I spent a lot on BNS1 but now that I'm here and have trust built with members its a lot easier to trade & complete sets. I probably spent about $2000 on BNS1, If I play my cards right I only plan on spending about $500-800 on BNS2 and Ill get what I get, I have like 7 OS sets to buy soon anyway that are on hold for me. I have my Plate & sketch from BNS1, I'm happy with that, I'm not a gold digger either but my hats off to those that put the gold sets together. As far as the new BNS2 artwork, some of it is nice & some are pretty dull. I'm not going to stop collecting over it though, we have to remember, they are made for kids, an adult set would be a nice change. Yikes! That is a lot on BNS 1 alone. Still, I spent about roughly $1K. I managed to complete all base: Green X2, Silver X2 and Black X1 sets, Bonus X2 sets, 2 base Golds, Locos X3, Mix N Match X2, Green ABTH X2, Silver ABTH X3 sets and Poster X2. Also got a printing plate I bought when I sold that gold ABTH I pulled that helped paid for it. Finally got 2 hobby boxes, 1 retail, 2 retail 16 packs boxes, 7 bonus boxes - all these factory sealed. I think that is all the main good stuff I got. I do have a bit of extras of parallels and base. I made 4 base sets and carefully cherry picked the best cards from the case I bought. Oh and probably a dozen base ABTH. I think I faired well.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2013 1:39:48 GMT -5
Luis - it sounds like in your post that Topps turns down creative ideas that artists bring to them and they only want card ideas that have known to work in the past. Am I reading this wrong? How many of your ideas were shot down that you felt got to the heart of GPK and kept the integrity of the series, while still being new and innovating? I sent Topps a lot of out-there concepts and they only got a handful of mine. To give them credit a lot of them were really rough, but I sent between 50-70 concepts when I was working with them. So some of them turned out on my self produced sets and may will see the light of day one of these days.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2013 1:55:19 GMT -5
I can't say enough of Cory and what he's done to help make my art better and connect with the fans and collectors. We would go back and forth on GPK stuff and what makes them great. We shared many of the same views. Unfortunately he wasn't the art director for the company.
So every time you spend money on them you are voting for them to continue turning out the same thing. If you stop buying them and enough people decide to do that than they have to make changes and listen to their buyers. So if you want to make a dent to this industrial tank of cheesiness you have to do it with your wallet, but I don't think most people care enough.
Either way I think supporting the artists is the alternative.
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Post by Smetchlock Smomes on Mar 15, 2013 5:54:14 GMT -5
I spent a lot on BNS1 but now that I'm here and have trust built with members its a lot easier to trade & complete sets. I probably spent about $2000 on BNS1, If I play my cards right I only plan on spending about $500-800 on BNS2 and Ill get what I get, I have like 7 OS sets to buy soon anyway that are on hold for me. I have my Plate & sketch from BNS1, I'm happy with that, I'm not a gold digger either but my hats off to those that put the gold sets together. As far as the new BNS2 artwork, some of it is nice & some are pretty dull. I'm not going to stop collecting over it though, we have to remember, they are made for kids, an adult set would be a nice change. Years from now you're going to reread your above post and realize you spent wayyyyyyyyyyy too much. The collectible aspect of gpk has really destroyed the hobby the same way it destroyed sports cards in the early 90's. Noone should have to spend 1000$ to try to complete a basic set. In europe, it takes about 2 panini boxes to complete a full sticker album of about 200-250 stickers. sticker packs sell for 50cents a pack (usually 5 stickers per pack). One box of 50 packs sells for 25 euros. Bottom line, panini has held on to a very strong community of collectors with this basic concept that hasn't changed in over 30 years. We didn't need collectible gimmicks to buy gpks in the 80's and we don't need them now. We're being made to think that we do. Good art will always stand the test of time. It is the artwork that draws us to the original cards, not the quantity of the cards they produced. Gpk collectors are a vastly different breed (i'd like to think this is still true) compared to sports card collectors who only collect cards based on the players performance and the values of the cards are based off that performance.
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Post by Smetchlock Smomes on Mar 15, 2013 6:33:08 GMT -5
I just realized, since i haven't bought any bns2 yet, that there are now "c" cards as well. Jesus, talk about overkill topps. Insanity. Good luck to keirmon and other gold collectors on that. I'd rather save the 15k to buy a new car.
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Post by Artful Dodger on Mar 15, 2013 6:58:33 GMT -5
Since FB2 I have set myself a 100$ budget for spending on new GPK sets. So far it's been great and I haven't got burned out like I did with releases before that. This is what a lot of people are not doing and when you spend too much you get mad if you do not get anything good even though you are gambling. i did this for bns2. i bought 3 hobby boxes. i spend $150. i got a sketch and some good cards and a few base sets. Sure i will still buy some bonus boxes and retail stuff but i am happy with my purchases. I relate this to gambling as when i go to casinos i limit myself as well. sometimes i win and sometime i lose but i always have fun because i do not blow the bank.
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Post by tevans333 on Mar 15, 2013 7:16:53 GMT -5
The most liberating thing I did was sell off all my inserts and chase cards a couple of years ago. I was burnt out and the parallels kicked me of my completionist habits. Once I did that I started enjoying the hobby again.
I used to just accumulate every variation and tuck it away safely never to be looked at again. What do I need with 2 of the same card with the only difference being * or ** on it? Or a copywright on one but not the other? Yellow Border or Gold Border? It's all the same damn card.
It became more of a chore than a hobby. Once I got out of the completionist midset though I realized that what drove me to collect these as a kid in the 80s was the images, not owning boxes of stuff collecting dust. I decided to only collect 1 of each "kid". So numeric sets of A and B (and triplets), plus bonus cards and the occasional insert set that has new art (Scratch N Stinks etc.) gets me everything I need to feel my collection is complete. It keeps me from burning out and giving Topps too much $$. Only problem now is these "C" fuggers, they may through a wrench in my plans, but oh well I'll skip 'em if they are as short printed as they seem. No reason to stress and make this hobby a chore again.
Now I spend more time enjoying the "kids" again and can focus on items I can enjoy like Final Art! A nice piece on the wall is enjoyable, five fuggin different boarders of the same card in a box in not.
If I were you I would pick up a base set for $10 and your favorite final to keep your art collection complete. It will be a lot easier to buy the art now when there will be a lot available rather than regretting not picking one up and trying to fill the hole later on when the art is all gone.
The real problem with this sets art is they went for quantity. For fuggs sake the base set is 55 cards, plus a re-imagined set of 18 plus another 10 bonus cards. Thats 83 new pieces of art. Sets used to be 40.
I can easily say I really enjoy about 15 of the new pieces. If they rejected half of these and took the best 40, it may not be Pound OS worthy, but it would have been decent. As it stands, there are too many bad pieces that detract from the good ones.
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Post by TornShaun on Mar 15, 2013 7:22:53 GMT -5
The most liberating thing I did was sell off all my inserts and chase cards a couple of years ago. I was burnt out and the parallels kicked me of my completionist habits. Once I did that I started enjoying the hobby again. I used to just accumulate every variation and tuck it away safely never to be looked at again. What do I need with 2 of the same card with the only difference being * or ** on it? Or a copywright on one but not the other? Yellow Border or Gold Border? It's all the same damn card. It became more of a chore than a hobby. Once I got out of the completionist midset though I realized that what drove me to collect these as a kid in the 80s was the images, not owning boxes of stuff collecting dust. I decided to only collect 1 of each "kid". So numeric sets of A and B (and triplets), plus bonus cards and the occasional insert set that has new art (Scratch N Stinks etc.) gets me everything I need to feel my collection is complete. It keeps me from burning out and giving Topps too much $$. Only problem now is these "C" fuggers, they may through a wrench in my plans, but oh well I'll skip 'em if they are as short printed as they seem. No reason to stress and make this hobby a chore again. Now I spend more time enjoying the "kids" again and can focus on items I can enjoy like Final Art! A nice piece on the wall is enjoyable, five fuggin different boarders of the same card in a box in not. If I were you I would pick up a base set for $10 and your favorite final to keep your art collection complete. It will be a lot easier to buy the art now when there will be a lot available rather than regretting not picking one up and trying to fill the hole later on when the art is all gone. The real problem with this sets art is they went for quantity. For fuggs sake the base set is 55 cards, plus a re-imagined set of 18 plus another 10 bonus cards. Thats 83 new pieces of art. Sets used to be 40. I can easily say I really enjoy about 15 of the new pieces. If they rejected half of these and took the best 40, it may not be Pound OS worthy, but it would have been decent. As it stands, there are too many bad pieces that detract from the good ones. This is the mindset I'm slowly turning too, not so much not collecting inserts by like my OS2 sets, do I need one matte back set and one glossy back set? Why not keep the 131 glossy variation set and sell the 86 matte card variation set? (anyone) Similar with the OS15 die-cut and non die-cut? I choose on the parallel sets just too pick one card I liked and have in all border colours, a lot easier and cheaper. It starts getting crazy, especially if you budget isn't massive, but I get enjoyment when I do purchase or trade something I need. The bonus cards are just getting stupid now, and the prices end up getting jacked up by eBay sellers that have no interest in them other than the $$$
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Post by damien308 on Mar 15, 2013 7:23:31 GMT -5
I spent a lot on BNS1 but now that I'm here and have trust built with members its a lot easier to trade & complete sets. I probably spent about $2000 on BNS1, If I play my cards right I only plan on spending about $500-800 on BNS2 and Ill get what I get, I have like 7 OS sets to buy soon anyway that are on hold for me. I have my Plate & sketch from BNS1, I'm happy with that, I'm not a gold digger either but my hats off to those that put the gold sets together. As far as the new BNS2 artwork, some of it is nice & some are pretty dull. I'm not going to stop collecting over it though, we have to remember, they are made for kids, an adult set would be a nice change. Years from now you're going to reread your above post and realize you spent wayyyyyyyyyyy too much. The collectible aspect of gpk has really destroyed the hobby the same way it destroyed sports cards in the early 90's. Noone should have to spend 1000$ to try to complete a basic set. In europe, it takes about 2 panini boxes to complete a full sticker album of about 200-250 stickers. sticker packs sell for 50cents a pack (usually 5 stickers per pack). One box of 50 packs sells for 25 euros. Bottom line, panini has held on to a very strong community of collectors with this basic concept that hasn't changed in over 30 years. We didn't need collectible gimmicks to buy gpks in the 80's and we don't need them now. We're being made to think that we do. Good art will always stand the test of time. It is the artwork that draws us to the original cards, not the quantity of the cards they produced. Gpk collectors are a vastly different breed (i'd like to think this is still true) compared to sports card collectors who only collect cards based on the players performance and the values of the cards are based off that performance. i do enjoy collecting the paralels , although i wont go broke trying to complete sets. im hopeful i get a nice sketch , but i wont get extremely upset if i dont get one . i still collect gpk becasue i enjoy them , it takes me back to my childhood . do i sell some ? sure i do , but im not in it just to make money . i keep most of what i open up . i love sports . and i still collect sports cards . i also treat my sports cards the same way i treat my gpk collecting . collect some for myself and sell some . im not in these hobbies only to make money . i think thats where the problem lies for so many people. i see it on many message boards. people spending crazy cash on case after case. then getting so upset becasue they didnt get anything good . i still remember being a kid and walking to the convenience store to get a couple of packs of baseball cards. i would open them up on the way home and get so excited simply because i got the base card of a player i liked ........... not a autograph or game used card , simply a base card .
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Post by tevans333 on Mar 15, 2013 7:31:00 GMT -5
Years from now you're going to reread your above post and realize you spent wayyyyyyyyyyy too much. The collectible aspect of gpk has really destroyed the hobby the same way it destroyed sports cards in the early 90's. Noone should have to spend 1000$ to try to complete a basic set. In europe, it takes about 2 panini boxes to complete a full sticker album of about 200-250 stickers. sticker packs sell for 50cents a pack (usually 5 stickers per pack). One box of 50 packs sells for 25 euros. Bottom line, panini has held on to a very strong community of collectors with this basic concept that hasn't changed in over 30 years. We didn't need collectible gimmicks to buy gpks in the 80's and we don't need them now. We're being made to think that we do. Good art will always stand the test of time. It is the artwork that draws us to the original cards, not the quantity of the cards they produced. Gpk collectors are a vastly different breed (i'd like to think this is still true) compared to sports card collectors who only collect cards based on the players performance and the values of the cards are based off that performance. i do enjoy collecting the paralels , although i wont go broke trying to complete sets. im hopeful i get a nice sketch , but i wont get extremely upset if i dont get one . i still collect gpk becasue i enjoy them , it takes me back to my childhood . do i sell some ? sure i do , but im not in it just to make money . i keep most of what i open up . i love sports . and i still collect sports cards . i also treat my sports cards the same way i treat my gpk collecting . collect some for myself and sell some . im not in these hobbies only to make money . i think thats where the problem lies for so many people. i see it on many message boards. people spending crazy cash on case after case. then getting so upset becasue they didnt get anything good . i still remember being a kid and walking to the convenience store to get a couple of packs of baseball cards. i would open them up on the way home and get so excited simply because i got the base card of a player i liked ........... not a autograph or game used card , simply a base card . Shift my friend, use the shift button. It makes the first letter of each sentence look so much prettier;) (And it doesn't hurt to use it when saying "I")
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Post by Nolan JP on Mar 15, 2013 7:36:47 GMT -5
Despite actually not minding most of the art for BNS 2 (brainwashed by the re-imagining of the OS characters haha) I can totally get where most of you are coming from. I agree that the parallels are ridiculous. I totally agree that spending $2000 on one series is ludicrous JUST to complete it. I agree that we should support of the artists themselves as it's not clear what the circumstances are surrounding some of the concepts and perhaps "artistic" interventions from the company force certain cards to incorporate vomit/fart/guts gags. Maybe. That last one is speculative and I'm sure somebody knows better.
I pretty much agree with the people that say BNS 2 is stronger than BNS 1. It is. Yes there are some weak concepts out there but OS wasn't flawless. Even my favourite series of all time, OS 2, has some weak concepts; Doug Plug for example. It's nostalgic as hell though. Am I an OS 1-9 purist? Nope. Personally speaking I thought that OS 9 was weak and I didn't like the concepts, thanks to Aaron I had a chance to look thru OS 8 and I really don't care much for it either apart from the odd great card (Chained Shane would not look out of place in OS 2-5 if you get what I mean). OS 1-6 I adore. I'm digressing.
No one is forcing you to buy EVERY parallel. If when BNS 3 comes out it turns out to be A-MAZ-ING (hypothetically speaking) would you go back and buy BNS 2, JUST to complete it? It's crazy. What if Pound was coaxed out of retirement for the 30th anniversary to release new concepts? Would you buy it even if the release on the whole, sucked monkeys balls??
I think all of us were seduced by the OS so much, we want every new release to be good, we get caught up in the "emperors new clothes" when a new shiny series comes out. But who really cherishes their collections beyond OS? Some of you love ANS, some of you love the flashback sets even though, personally, I think the flashback sets were pointless. But in all honesty, when all is said and done, 5 years down the road if you decide to thin out your collection, will you start with OS or will you get rid of BNS/ANS/FB? I'm just asking because it seems that everybody is more pissed off by the fact that they don't personally like BNS rather than if it's a strong enough series to appeal to new collectors. Kids will love it (if they get to see them, sounds like a lot of you have been mass-consuming!!!).
Basically we're pissed off at ourselves. We're annoyed that we really don't like it as much as we want to. We're all trying to recapture that nostalgic feeling but we can't. The UG fan sets are when we truly get excited. The last fan set was awesome. The unofficial GPK art coming out of Diaz, Layron, Ping, et al is awesome. Pings Predator anybody?? The exorcist parody?? Layrons Madonna??
The artists are doing what they're doing, to the best of their ability, whether you agree with their concepts/art or not. Topps are the ones releasing it at the end of the day. It's Topps product and has to meet Topps requirements whether we like that or not. They have to make year on year increase in profits by fulfilling a certain amount of parallels, new concepts, new ideas which are completely lapped up by the completists who simply must own the base set, the fold ins, the black/silver/gold parallels, the sketchcards, the printing plates. If you want a sketch card, buy them off the artists! They're so much better than the 10 second sketches thrown together for the sake of it. Each and every release is "Topps approved". Doesn't mean to say it should be great. I'd rather continue getting excited about the unofficial GPK art coming from Dave Gross, Joe Simko, LD, etc.
The only time I've been really and truly excited about GPK's in the last 5 years are Luis' flickr feed and the artists who regularly post up their unofficial concepts on deviant art. Have you seen Diaz's Parody Kids?? Marks Ping Kids?? Layrons Garbage Sketch Kids?? Of course! We all have! You think if Topps loved them they would've included them (if they were offered of course).
This has been said before but something I would love to see: a fan set of new and original art made exclusively by the UG for the UG. Most of the artists are contractually obliged so I don't know if legally they could participate. Luis isn't. Not every artist is. Why hasn't this happened yet? 44 cards, no parallels, no printing plates, back to wax packs, the odd sketch card would be great but not the be-all-to-end-all.
Be original! Look at the custom cheap toys coming out of the wood work! They're great! Do you think IF, and that's a giant IF, Topps release another CT set we'd be happy with it? Probably not because the concepts won't be Alice Island, Thin Lynn, Graffiti Petey, Horsey Henry, Berserk Kirk, Picky Mickey, Leaky Lindsay. They'll be characters we probably don't enjoy from the newer series with some older characters thrown in for marketability. Sounds like BNS doesn't it??
I am more than up for a new set. I'm more than happy to send someone some concepts just like I'm sure a lot of you are too. So why don't we make it happen?? One official UG set, for the UG, by the UG, all original art. How many more sub-standard Topps releases are you going to put up with before you say STOP? I'm jus' sayin'.
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Post by edhaskel on Mar 15, 2013 7:51:09 GMT -5
Years from now you're going to reread your above post and realize you spent wayyyyyyyyyyy too much. The collectible aspect of gpk has really destroyed the hobby the same way it destroyed sports cards in the early 90's. Noone should have to spend 1000$ to try to complete a basic set. In europe, it takes about 2 panini boxes to complete a full sticker album of about 200-250 stickers. sticker packs sell for 50cents a pack (usually 5 stickers per pack). One box of 50 packs sells for 25 euros. Bottom line, panini has held on to a very strong community of collectors with this basic concept that hasn't changed in over 30 years. We didn't need collectible gimmicks to buy gpks in the 80's and we don't need them now. We're being made to think that we do. Good art will always stand the test of time. It is the artwork that draws us to the original cards, not the quantity of the cards they produced. Gpk collectors are a vastly different breed (i'd like to think this is still true) compared to sports card collectors who only collect cards based on the players performance and the values of the cards are based off that performance. i do enjoy collecting the paralels , although i wont go broke trying to complete sets. im hopeful i get a nice sketch , but i wont get extremely upset if i dont get one . i still collect gpk becasue i enjoy them , it takes me back to my childhood . do i sell some ? sure i do , but im not in it just to make money . i keep most of what i open up . i love sports . and i still collect sports cards . i also treat my sports cards the same way i treat my gpk collecting . collect some for myself and sell some . im not in these hobbies only to make money . i think thats where the problem lies for so many people. i see it on many message boards. people spending crazy cash on case after case. then getting so upset becasue they didnt get anything good . i still remember being a kid and walking to the convenience store to get a couple of packs of baseball cards. i would open them up on the way home and get so excited simply because i got the base card of a player i liked ........... not a autograph or game used card , simply a base card . There's a reason why they are called "Hobby" boxes instead of "Profit" boxes.....I'm with you damien, I keep stuff I want and PC and sell off other things to fuel my addiction (GPKs and Sports Cards)
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Post by Keirmon on Mar 15, 2013 8:08:18 GMT -5
I have to say, I love GPK, I love OS I love FB, and I love BNS. ANS not so much simply because I wasn't involved. I still collect it though. I am a completist, and as such I need to finish the project. Is it ridiculous, yes, but I enjoy the hunt. In fact I enjoy the hunt as much and maybe more than the finished goal. Does that make it bad? I don't think so, and that's what matters to me. As for the art, it's not art intended for my dream, it's for Topps dream. I can't for the life of me see how we should expect Topps to make something for us individually. In fact, since I think I've been here long enough to notice. We don't all agree on what a set SHOULD look like, we all have different character favorites, different series favorites, and different favorite artists. Why and how do you expect topps to cater to each individual? I am thrilled that GPK lives, I get to share and relive a childhood memory with my kids. They could care less who drew what, they just like the funny cards and something about it draws them in. I give big props to the GPK franchise as it has survived. Do I hate parallels, not really. I'd be bored with the set if it was complete in 1 hobby box, no hunting required. Oh and for the record, parallels drive the GPK economy. Without parallels no box breakers would exist and distribution would suffer. GPK as a franchise would die. In today's economy it's distribution and volume, you need to sell more and reach more to make the same dollar that 1% of the effort did 25 years ago. Competition is fierce, not just between manufacturers, but between brands within Topps. I love GPK, I think it's absurd to be a completist with this many parallels etc, but it's my choice and no one is forcing me. In the future, I will likely slow down as the kids get older, hoping that one day they can enjoy the GPK phenomenon with their kids.
So I will now open my case that just arrived from Potomac, no matter what's inside we will have fun doing it!
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