When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards. When I became a young teen, this morphed into collecting comic book related card sets. Now I own a cardboard box full of cards which are nearly worthless. At various comic conventions I’ll see some of the sets I spent so much time trying to complete as a kid for sale for next to nothing.
Admittedly, I’ve been out of the game for a long time now. But they’ve caught my attention with the new Indiana Jones Heritage cards released by Topps.
The 90-card series will span the most memorable scenes from the original Indiana Jones trilogy with retro-inspired branding and packaging (complete with vintage gray-back card stock and bubble gum in every pack). While this is pretty cool by itself, that’s not exactly what caught my attention. It was the inclusion of Sketch cards… Apparently, an impressive roster of well-known illustrators contributed original, one-of-a-kind Indiana Jones sketch cards which are inserted at random.
I want to be completely clear, because at first glance you might think that the cards you find randomly inserted within the packs are reproductions or reprints, that is NOT the case… These cards are:
One of a Kind
Original Sketches
of Classic Indiana Jones Characters and Moments.
These are NOT Reproductions.
These are the Actual Original Sketches.
Isn’t that cool? If anything would get me to start collecting cards again, it would be this. You can learn more about the cards in the video below:
And these sketch cards are very rare. One collector found a total of seven sketch cards out of three sealed cases (24 boxes). Some of these cards are selling for up to $300 on ebay. Check out some of the sketch cards from 12 of the 76 artists after the jump.
Joe Corroney:
Jessica Hickman:
Kevin Graham:
Grant Gould:
Russ Walks:
Allison Sohn:
Jeff Chandler:
Cat Staggs:
Mark McHaley:
Kilian Plunkett:
Cynthia Cummens:
Mark Raats:
John Watkins-Chow:
Photo credits: IndySketchCards, StarWars.com
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March 19th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Those are pretty stinking awesome! But, like you, I gave up card collecting a long time ago. But I was there in the thick of it, who knows, you may have some of the collections I designed and produced for Marvel/Fleer back in the day.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:52 am
These are some really cool sketches, and it’s a great opportunity for collectors.
The flip side is that the artists get paid one dollar, sometimes 1.50 per card. Which adds up to 2 or 3 hundred dollars for many MANY hours of work.
and in reality I know several artists who have done this and not gotten paid at all. Their only compensation is that they get to keep a few cards and HOPE that they sell for a decent amount.
The cards are themed around brands that artists are very loyal to, and many see it as an “honor” to draw them. Meanwhile the collectors and card producers rake in a profit from their loyalty.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Very true, Random.Word. Topps really takes advantage of the artists (one of the above artists is a good friend of mine) paying them very little for each card ($1-$1.50). Support these guys at cons - they deserve it for all the hard work and very little payment.