Why The Ridiculously High Price?

OK this post is primarily just a huge rant. It is mostly about the ridiculously high prices for individual cards that folks ask for on Ebay and elsewhere because some boneheaded collector or the silly folks at Beckett have said the card is worth that skyhigh price.

A case in point this "Lost In Space" The Movie autograph card made by Inkworks in 1998 of Lacey Chabert who played Penny Robinson, the teenaged "cute" younger sister played by Angela Cartwright in the original 1965 television show.

1998 Inkworks Lost in Space Autograph Card

A-2 Lacey Chabert as Penny Robinson black on-card sharpie

(Front and back)

 

Images from blog: retiredcomicguy.blogspot.com

 

For at least a year or two, possibly longer, I have been watching various copies of this card on Ebay. It isn't often listed as an auction, but usually as a fixed price item for sale. When it does it does come up for auction this card usually starts at OVER $100. At the time of this rant there are 3 Fixed priced listings currently at $108.39 + $10 shipping (in Australia using the Aussie Dollar Mate), one at $130 (or best offer, whoopie they probably won't take anything under $100) with $6.95 shipping in Columbia, Maryland bet they send it in a PWE and the third at $125 w/ Free Shipping from Phoenix, Arizona. That is plain RIDICULOUS with a CAPITAL "R".

Any collectors who know me know that I try to get the lowest price as possible for any of the cards on my want and wish lists. OK I am really really cheap. My standard maximum price I am willing to pay for an individual card, especially newer cards, is just about 40 bucks. Obviously for some vintage cards of huge stars I'll have to go a little higher, but NOT over $100. At least not until I am a confirmed millionaire and can afford to buy any card new or vintage for over $100.

The other two autograph cards A-1 Mom Maureen Robinson (Mimi Rogers) and A-3 little brother Will Robinson (Jack Johnson) from this set sometimes start at $50 or more, but can be found closer to my comfort zone of $20-$30 ($30 is my near-maximum price). So far I think $35 is the most I have EVER Paid for a single card.

For my Non-Sport collecting wants/needs I currently need ALL THREE of these cards. I am watching all 3 now, but haven't pulled the trigger on them yet. As I said the Lacey Chabert one I will NOT pay those ridiculous prices for.

Related blog post article: 1998 Autographed A-2 Lacey Chabert Lost in Space Movie Trading Card by Inkworks

Charmed Autos

Went fishing on Ebay and got a few Charmed Autos from Inkworks. They are from a few different sets Charmed Destiny, Charmed Conversations, Charmed: Season One and Charmed:The Power Of Three set. They are supporting characters with the exception of Leo Wyatt played by Brian Krause that was the most expensive one. I got most of them for an average of a little under $3.00. I would love to get the autos of the Main stars the Halliwell Sisters but those are usually astronomical.

For the three I got from the same seller I thought I had been shilled. The opening bid for those three were just 99¢ (one of them might have been a little more). On all three of them the same bidder with a large feedback number had bid, but my max had them outbid. One of them a second person bid on it bringing the total number of bids up to 5. Now that I study the bid history and bid times it looks like that first bidder was trying to snipe me unsuccessfully. Probably a seller trying to get something for real cheap and then turn it around for an insanely inflated profit. They were 3 day auctions and the later bids were on the final day. Even if I was "shilled" I got them for nice prices so it is OK.

 All of them are the sealed uncirculated case hits. I had mentioned one of these type of cards way back with my Non-Sport Autos post with Mimi Rogers as Diana Fowley from The X-Files Connections series. I hadn't mentioned the problem it has that it shares with two of these. The problem is that the gold seal covers up the character info on the back. SIGH! I guess that means I'll have to find some "regular" versions of these things and very rarely get these sealed ones. I will show the back of the Mimi Rogers card at the end of this post. I also need to mention a card I had gotten almost two weeks after that card (it is from the same series as the card I had mentioned along with the Mimi Rogers card).

2000 Inkworks Charmed: Season One Auto A5 Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt. I got this one for $14.99 plus shipping $2.95.

Due to the Back card design the huge gold "Razor Authentic Uncirculated" seal covers half of the character info. For some cards it covers up the character photo and the card number.

 

2003 Inkworks Charmed: The Power Of Three Auto A20 Michael Bailey Smith as Belthazor. This is one of the ones I thought I had been jipped on at first. I got it for $3.28 (2 bids) plus $3.50 combined shipping for 3 cards.

Again the great golden seal blocks half of the character info on the back.

2005 Inkworks Charmed: Conversations Auto A8 Patrice Fisher as Avatar Beta. Got it for $1.51 with 2 bids plus the combined shipping.

2006 Inkworks Charmed: Destiny Auto A5 Rebecca Balding as Elise Rothman. Got this one for only $2.99 with 1 bid shipping was $2.00.

Auto A8 Gildart Jackson as Elder Gideon. Never been a huge fan of the character since he is a bit nasty. Anyway got this for $3.01 after 5 bids the combined shipping.

As mentioned above here is a card I had previously mentioned that has that back info being covered up by the giant gold seal problem.

2005 Inkworks The X-Files: Connections Auto A3 Mimi Rogers as Diana Fowley (back)

Now the card I failed to mention back when I got it - 2004 Catwoman Auto A4 Kim Smith as Drina

Non-Sport Autos

From a fellow member on one of the card forum sites I discovered a short while ago (Card Collectors World), I bought a couple of Non-Sport Auto cards made by Inkworks. The Rolls Royce of Auto Cards. I've wanted to get some Inkworks autos for some time from various sets. They were either too darn expensive, or they were GU/Auto cards, or the signature looked awful. I finally decided to bite the bullet on a couple. Actually the prices weren't too bad, averages $10 a piece.

So here are the two beauties, with a couple of beauties on them.

Alex Borstein as Sally from the movie Catwoman Card A-2 (2004)


Mimi Rogers as Diana Fowley from X-Files (2005).

The X-Files one is an "uncirculated" card with a huge gold seal keeping the toploader sealed. Now that is fine and dandy and 10-out-of-10 for style for being super duper Mint condition, but minus several million for covering up part of the signature. Fortunately this card only the end "s" in Rogers is partly covered. I've seen other signatures where most of the signature is covered over. It also covers over most of the info on the back that describes the character or some of the actresses previous work. I may have to break the seal on it and live with an uncirculated card being tainted by having it's gold seal broken.