San Diego Artbox Exclusives

[Guest]

[Tower]

Watch the completed listings on ebay, i didn't notice since today that already 3 of 4 are sold. Hufflepuff (03/04) for about $2100  and after that there were BINs for Ravenclaw (02/04) and Slytherin (04/04) for about $2400. 

[Bitsy]

   They are great cards!

[Bogleg]

Absolute greed. I hope the IRS catches up. This isn't a reasonable profit - it's rich man's income 

http://cgi.ebay.com/HARRY-POTTER-SDCC-COSTUME-CARD-02-04-ONLY-4-EXIST_W0QQitemZ290347787372QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439a13a46c&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

Complete set of four sold for $2,200.

[kbmum]

It will be interesting to see if anyone bids.  Sure, the four Harry cards together sold for $2200, but someone might be willing to pay the seller $2600 or more for the Hufflepuff part of the patch.  Based on the prices of all the SDCC cards, I wouldn't be surprised if people bid even higher on the auctions next year.

[Bryanjs14]

Why are people so up in arms about this?

If you want to spend the money to fly to san diego, get a hotel for 5 nights, pay for admission, and then bid on the stuff artbox sells there feel free to.

It isn't a secret they do this, they have done auctions for the last couple years. Spend the money. It is a dice roll. He could have paid for those cards and then there be NO market for it. he got lucky, got them cheap, and is reselling them for a profit. There is nothing wrong with what he is doing. Am I ticked because I didn't bid more on them myself and maybe I could be the one standing to make a lot of money? Yep, I sure am, but there is nothing I can do about it now, I'll just bring more money to next years comic con.

[Tower]

Yes, and that would have been really a shame. 

[kbmum]

Artbox's auctions had very rare, very limited cards, which were sold as sets (Harry Hogwarts patch, Cedric Hogwarts patch, Potter letters).  When you get right down to it, what's better -- having one truly dedicated collector own all four or six cards from a set, keeping them a set as produced, or having a separate owner for each card, thereby allowing more people to own something special?  There are pros and cons for both.  It's a difficult question for an HP collector, because this is the first time we've ever encountered such truly rare cards.  Not even the lowest numbered pack-pulled card or case incentive from any of the sets is as limited as the cards Artbox auctioned at SDCC. 

I think there would be less controversy if Artbox had separately auctioned each card or had inserted the cards in packs.  Maybe Artbox should have put info about the cards and auctions on its website (insert your own Artbox website comment here) to give people a head's up as to what was coming and give them time to make plans to try to win the sets.

As for the prices sellers have been asking and receiving for these cards, Bryan does have a point.  Anyone who went to SDCC paid a lot of money to be there, on top of whatever he or she may have paid to win an auction.  Plus, there are the laws of supply and demand.  If there are enough people interested in a particular card to warrant a $2500 price tag for the resale of that card, the auction winner made a good investment, can pay off trip expenses, and make money in the process.  As someone who usually has running an eBay auction or two, I would be absolutely thrilled if one of my cards sold for four to fix times more than what I paid to buy it.  On the other hand, it sucks that I'll never be able to afford a card like that.  But, that's the way it goes.

[Bryanjs14]

I am not trying to be a jerk or anything, I am just saying. I spent my money to fly there, I spent a TON on a hotel (which I obviously could have spent much less, but I like the connivence of being close to the convention center), I bought my admission, and I even missed some panels I really did not want to miss to bid on and get the artbox exclusives.

I was very lucky to get a couple for myself, and the resale of them helped pay off more than half of my total expenses for the trip, which was a great surprise.

Anyone can bid on them. I passed on the patch cards up for sale now because I personally thought they were not worth as much as they are now selling for, am i pissed that I obviously could have made a good amount of money off them if I had pressed my bid higher? Sure, but it isn't the end of the world. At least they are being made available for sale. No one is FORCING anyone to buy them, and no one FORCED the seller to sell them, both are doing it under free will.

I dont blame anyone for selling those cards, I don't care if the buyer told me they were for a collection or not, it was obviously a lie, but who knows, the person they were bought for may come onto hard times. you never know, even if they sold purely for profit at that kind of money honestly who wouldn't? I love collecting, and I have a couple potter master sets, but at SOME point it just becomes a piece of cardboard with a piece of fabric in it.

[Sharon]

I truly hope something is done about these auctions in the future.  They have always caused problems and the way they have played out this year has proved things need to change.

I don't have any thoughts one way or another about splitting sets but I do have many thoughts about one dealer buying all of the cards.  If push comes to shove I would rather Artbox auctioned the cards directly on Ebay, giving anyone a chance to bid, even if they are the top bidder only briefly.

Everyone who goes to the show spends out a lot of money - this is their choice.  Bogleg had to pay for an airfare from the UK, a hotel and entrance to the show.  Just for information he collected many, many things (some free, some that were cheap) for other collectors in the UK.  He did not sell any of these items, he didn't even ask for postage on some of the smaller items.  He did this because he knows other people are not as fortunate in being able get to the show.  Bogleg goes to San Diego to see the show, not in the expectation of making a profit (or paying his expenses).

Maybe that is the difference between a collector and a dealer.

[Bryanjs14]

I go to the show to enjoy all the panels and pick up stuff for my own collection. I go to brag to my friends about all the cool stuff I saw.

If I can purchase some stuff to resell and recoup SOME of my costs, then why wouldn't I? That doesn't make me a dealer. I don't have a booth there, I am a spectator, a collection, then a "dealer" in that order. If I see a deal, I am going to try to get it, simple as that.

One dealer didn't get everything, about 5 or 6 did. This one dealer just got the patch sets because they were sold as ONE set, so it was just me vs him, and I underestimated the value of the patch sets. Again, I have Potter master sets from a couple sets. I don't have the pear tree leaf, I don't have any of the wand cards, I don't have any of the hard to find SDCC exclusives. At some point, those high dollar cards become just cardboard and fabric to me. I have to look at them that way. $2500 for a piece of fabric in my collection, or two months mortgage payment. I don't blame anyone for trying to resell these. Times are tough, and a good deal was had by some people at SDCC

[Bogleg]

It really bugs me when people go to this show and then try to justify the selling of good they've got there with the pretext that they need to make the cost of going because they couldn't afford to be there in the first place. If so much of a great show has to be sacrificed to get exclusives, is it worth going?

Bryan - you told me you called in a favour to get in the Hard Rock Hotel. Hardly the choice of someone whose first thought was to make money to pay for the trip. You used another favour to get a dealers pass so you was up front for the goodie bags. Wouldn't we all like to be in that position.

It didn't cost the winner of all but two of the auctions (the eyelet cards) squat to go as he was on the phone to the person who was bidding for him - someone who was going to be there anyway. The P.O.T.T.E.R set wasn't you vs him as there was only two bidders - me and the winner. You and I know why you didn't bid on that set.

Sharon was only partly right. There are collectors, dealers and mercenaries.

[Bryanjs14]

I think the real problem is someone is just angry they didn't bid more and win it for themselves after seeing what it went for.

You would have to be an absolute BAFOON if you passed on the oppertunity to make a little bit of your expenses back. I called in a favor for a dealer pass, didn't mean I didn't PAY for it. I called in a favor for my hotel, doesn't mean I didn't PAY for it. The favor is just getting the reservation and the pass set up, nothing is free.

There are some exclusives that I buy while I am there because I know they can be turned around and sold for double, and if I spend an hour of my day making $100 here and there, why not. I make $15 at home, so $100 an hour to stand in line and pick up some exclusives is as good as it gets to me.

I am not going to apologize for paying my money to win some great cards. They were amazing, I loved owning them for a short period, and If I could afford to keep them in my collection, I would. I don't NEED to make back a single $ that it cost me to be at Comic Con, I budget my entire year for that single trip, but the opportunity arose to make back some money on what I believed, and turned out to be, a good purchase. I'm not going to apologize for doing what just about any person would do. Sorry you didn't bid enough to win whatever cards you wanted. If you had shown up the second to last night, you more than likely would have won 3 rivet cards, just like If I showed up the first night, the Potter patch would have gone MUCH higher than it did. I missed out, you missed out, a lot of people missed out. I don't understand why this thread is even still going on. If someone wanted to bid higher, they could have. This is NO different than me winning an Ebay auction, other than I paid a lot of money to fly out and stay where the auction was happening.

[kbmum]

I truly hope something is done about these auctions in the future.  They have always caused problems and the way they have played out this year has proved things need to change.

When Kay realized there was a problem this year, she split up the 9-card rivet set (actually, they're grommets) into three auctions and allowed people to bid on only one of the three.  I would hope she'll keep this in mind when setting up next year's auctions.

I don't have any thoughts one way or another about splitting sets but I do have many thoughts about one dealer buying all of the cards.  If push comes to shove I would rather Artbox auctioned the cards directly on Ebay, giving anyone a chance to bid, even if they are the top bidder only briefly.

Artbox probably would make more money that way, because they'd be drawing from a larger pool of bidders.  However, they would argue that the auctions attract people and attention to the booth and help promote their products.  It would have been nice if they'd held a few items (rivet cards, Potter buttons, etc.) and had a drawing for them on their website.  They did that one year.