[YHSCraig]

I have no idea how I missed this is what it came out last May, but Crytozoic entertainment, who specializes in premium trading cards for television and movies, announced that they will be doing a series of Ghostbusters cards this summer based on the movies and animated series.

I am a pretty big card collector in the industry has completely changed over the last 10 or 15 years. There is now more of a focus on cards featuring autographs and pieces of costume material from the different properties. Cryptozoic's sets for The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad were awesome andy I imagine that the GB set should be pretty great as well.

[fixer79]

That's great news! I'm kind of a sucker for movie / tv show trading cards, especially autograph, prop or costume cards...

I wonder what special cards will be included in the Ghostbusters packs...

[YHSCraig]

I've been wondering that same thing. I'm assuming we will get memorabilia cards of some sort though the purist in me hates the thought of original uniforms and costumes being chopped into tiny pieces for trading cards.

As far as autographs, normally Crytozoic products have a wide range autos from the main cast all the way down to bit players and guest stars from any given movie or series. That being said, I think a Bill Murray or Rick Moranis auto card is a definite Longshot. A Harold Ramis cut auto would be cool but from what I have seen, Crytozoic doesn't go that route either. I think a great potential list of signers would be:

Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton, Ray Parker Jr., Ivan Reitman, Sigourney Weaver (Longshot), Peter Macnicol, Bobby Brown, Kurt Fuller, and probably more. Maybe some of the RGB voice actors as well. We should also see artist sketch cards which could prove to be very cool.

[fixer79]

You're right, Craig... It would be a shame if they'd chop up screenused costumes. I'm sure that's not an option.

I even have serious doubts that costume cards from contemporary movies actually feature swatches of screenused costumes. Most likely they're just swatches cut out of what's left of the fabric they used to make the costumes from.
I have a card with a swatch of Wolverine jacket in my collection but I highly doubt they actually cut to pieces a screenused jacket that could be sold for thousands of dollars

Autograph cards are still cool though. I take it those are generally genuine.

I hope they start giving us some more info on these Ghostbusters cards soon... Can't wait!

[VincentVegaFFF]

They probably take the most damaged stunt version of a piece and cut that up. I doubt they cut up hero costumes but I'm not a big fan of this practice and haven't collected cards for almost 15 years but I may make an exception for Ghostbusters. I guess an unopened box would be the way to go or have the prices on those jumped to insane levels over the years?

[YHSCraig]

With TV shows like Walking Dead and Big Bang Theory, they include photos of the actual piece of memorabilia on the card with the swatches. But like you guys were saying, probably a different deal with a movie like Ghostbusters.

As far as prices goes, I would imagine that these boxes will retail for $75-$90 maybe closer to $100 actually. Depending on how "hot" the product gets, that will determine how much the boxes end up going for. I have never bought more than one box of these products, and have opted to just wait to purchase the single cards that I want when they show up on eBay.

I will be making an exception for these cards and will maybe even take the deep dive and get a case...depending on what's in the product. Going by how these boxes normally are, I would say were looking at

24 Packs per box with one Autograph and one Memorabilia card per box.
Sketch cards 1:3 boxes falling 3 per 12 box case.
Autographed memorabilia cards of main cast members, maybe 1 per case.

This is all speculation, but Cryptozoic doesn't vary much with their products. Check out some of there other releases at
http://cryptozoic.com/tradingcards

[fixer79]

They probably take the most damaged stunt version of a piece and cut that up.

That's very well possible. But in the many years I've collected costume cards and from all the cards I've come across on sites like Ebay , I've never actually seen any damage on the swatches. They all look pretty much prestine. Like they had been cut from a roll of fabric.

I don't know... I don't think trading card companies will ever tell us where the swatches came from. Also, the descriptions they print on the back of costume cards doesn't always reassure...

Here are a few descriptions on costume cards from my collection. Read between the lines:

"Congratulations! This FilmWear FilmCardz contains authentic costume material worn by THE TERMINATOR in Terminator 2: Judgment Day."

"This card contains a genuine piece of costume of Wolverine's costume used in the film"

"This rare card contains a swatch of the material from Van Helsing's Brown Jacket."

"The memorabilia has been certified to us as having been part of the production of the Avengers movie."

"This Harry Potter Costume Card contains authentic costume material worn by Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood in the film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".

My best bet is that the only swatch that actually comes from a copy the actor's costume worn in the movie is the Harry Potter one. I think all the others come from (in the best case) some stunt or test costume or (what I think is most probable) the roll of fabric left over from the costume department

Anyway...
When buying sealed boxes of trading cards it's very important to know there's a big difference between hobby boxes and retail boxes. I learned that the hard way by buying three cheap boxes of Captain America: The First Avenger cards and not even scoring a mass produced patch card.

Like Craig says, it's probably best to just buy the cards you really want seperately on Ebay.

[VincentVegaFFF]

Interesting. The whole industry has changed so much since I collected. Back then it was all about foil cards and holograms. You get cooler cards today but a complete set is extremely expensive to get, if not impossible and that kind of sucks.

Still, this thread has inspired me to look at some of the sets on offer and I've just bought a Hobbit box, so thanks for making me spend more money, jerks! I should be able to get most of the base set from that plus a few chase cards and an autograph so it seemed cheaper than getting them one card at a time. I won't even try to get them all but may finish off the cheaper chase cards if I can and maybe a select autograph or two.

With Ghostbusters I would seriously consider a case, depending on price. If they get a Murray autograph you can bet it's going to go for a ton of money on eBay so a case would perhaps be a smarter way to go and depending on the full details I may want to get as much of this series as possible. Extras could always be sold here or eBay. On eBay the Hobbit cases are going for $1000+ so hopefully Ghostbusters is quite a bit cheaper. Also thinking of buying a case of the new Doctor Who set from Topps as well since I would definitely want the entire series of that.

So I guess I collect cards again! It's been 18 years since I bought my last set. Old habits die hard, I guess.

[YHSCraig]

Way to go VinventVegaFFF! Same thing happened to me when I picked up one box of LOST cards from rittenhouse. 4 autographs a box and ai was hooked again. After that I went overboard with boxes from all sorts of movies and tv shows. Those Hobbit cards look awesome! I collected Battlestar, Warehouse 13, Terminator, and more. I've scaled back a good bit but if you're looking for a great forum for buy/sell/trade check out blowoutcards.com

[VincentVegaFFF]

Thanks. I've seen a few of those Lost cards in the local comic shop. Very nice cards and everyone in the show is pretty cool, I would be happy with anyone's autograph. I'll try to be selective with the lines I follow and how much I need to complete the line. I know these things can quickly get out of hand.

Thanks for the website link. I'll keep on eye out for certain cards there, the prices look a bit better than eBay.

[VincentVegaFFF]

The success of the Kickstarter for the board game seems to have spurred Cryptozoic to give us some more details about the trading cards they're making, including a look at the binder, boxes and packs.

https://www.cryptozoic.com/ghostbusters-trading-cards

Binder looks nice. I like the simple design. The animation cells are a cool idea as well. The base set is surprisingly small though, since that its meant to cover both films, RGB and the comics. I'm guessing theres going to be quite a few chase sets. The art cards for this should be awesome. The list of autographs will determine how many boxes/cases I order but I'm excited for this one!

[YHSCraig]

This is very awesome news! I am really excited about this set. The binder is really cool and even though the base set is small, I am going for sketches, autos, and printing plates. Oh and those animation cell cards should be pretty awesome.

I am guessing, based on past sets from Cryptozoic, that the autograph list will be somewhere between 15-20 people. I would say that as far as the main 4 go, Ernie is a lock and I wouldn't be surprised to see Danny in there. I think Dan and Sigourney will be the two best autos and will probably fall about 1 per case. Any other guess guys? Here is my educated guess so far

Ernie Hudson
Dan Aykroyd
Annie Potts
William Atherton
Ray Parker Jr.
Peter Macnicol
Slavitza Jovan
David Margulies
Reginald VelJohnson
Harris Yulin
Kurt Fuller

[VincentVegaFFF]

That list looks good. I'm guessing the rest will be the cast of RGB and writers and artists from the IDW series. Ivan Reitman might be a possibility as well.

[fixer79]

Animation cel cards? That's a first... :s

[GhostJay]

Ok, I'm sold on this. Cryptozoic makes great card sets. And is great at offering binders which not everyone does.

I think you list is pretty solid Craig.

[GhostJay]

Come to think of it, it would be great to see some of the voice actors from The Real Ghostbusters as part of the autograph cards. They could have Frank Welker with Ray and Slimer variant cards.

[VincentVegaFFF]

The first card for this set is now out! Promo card P1 if you're searching for it on Ebay. There's a few up there and they're pretty cheap. The card features the No Ghost logo on a white background.

[YHSCraig]

Looks like this set has been delayed until q4 2015.

[Heroic35]

Dammit. I was waiting. I suppose this set is waiting to be mixed with the other GB reboot merch. Most summer movies start promo items around December.

[fixer79]

Aaand the cards are delayed again...

https://www.cryptozoic.com/ghostbusters-trading-cards

Q2 2016?! But I'll be old by then!

[Doctor Venkman]

Starting to get frustrated with the amount of times this has been delayed. It's annoying.

Interesting that they finally posted some samples of some sketch cards though. I may not end up buying as many of these as I originally planned.

[GhostJay]

The delay of this series has been terrible. Still looking forward to getting it, and seeing who they get for autograph signers.

[fixer79]

Hmm... Can't say I'm happy to see they cut up animation cels to create these 'authentic animation cel' cards...

[EctoVR6]

Hmm... Can't say I'm happy to see they cut up animation cels to create these 'authentic animation cel' cards...

Not sure if you were into marvel in the 90's but they did the same thing with Spiderman cards, they transparent cards and called them animation cell cards. They are clear and look a lot like the real thing, but there is 2 major factors:

1. The company would be burnt at the stack for actually making them from real cells.

2. If you collect a full set and then go and look at someone else's set you'd have different cards in the set, making it to were no one ever had a truly complete set. All the cells have to match exactly or people complain.

I say have fun collecting the set and don't fret I can almost guarantee that the cells are authentic reproductions.

Watch comic book men or read the last Kevin Smith book and he talks about how in the 80's and 90's we thought we were sitting on gold with trading cards and then they aren't worth the paper their printed on. Much like baseball cards.

[YHSCraig]

The autograph list is starting to reveal itself!

[Doctor Venkman]

The artwork cards really do nothing for me. I appreciate the artwork, but it's not something that I feel enhances the collection.

The autograph list better get way better real quick... Seriously? The Cop from GB2? That's really lame if you ask me. I would hope that they'll have the big names, but the reveals so far (and I realize they may just be teasing a few) are really underwhelming.

Overall, this, combined with the constant delays, have made my interest in the set drop drastically.

But for those who were interested in cases, they're going to be around $850-$900.
http://www.dacardworld.com/entertainmen ... ozoic-2015

Makes sense. 12 boxes in a case x 24 packs in a box = roughly $3.05 per pack of cards. Not going to get much cheaper than that.

[d_osborn]

I'm not a big trading card guy at all, but the Kurt Fuller autograph card is hilarious!

[GhostJay]

I'm gonna collect the autograph cards, and a base set. And I'll be stoked if I get a Kurt Fuller card with anything else written on it.

Release the dam set already!

[ShiftyHenry]

Cool story. I wrote William Atherton a letter with a request...i didn't actually ask for an autograph, just an answer. I didn't get the answer but I got an autograph...and it's his signature card from this set! Pretty neat seeing they're not out yet!

[BigTime72]

Here's the official autograph list. Some are gems, others...may not be as sought after.

Autograph signers:
William Atherton as Walter Peck
Dave Florek as Cop
Kurt Fuller as Jack Hardemeyer
Jennifer Runyon as College Student
Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz
Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore
Maurice LaMarche as Dr. Egon Spengler
Dave Coulier as Dr. Peter Venkman
Michael Ensign as Hotel Manager
John Rothman as Library Administrator
Harris Yulin as Judge Stephen Wexler
Larry King as Himself
Day Aykroyd as Dr. Raymond Stantz
Arsenio Hall as Winston Zeddemore