How are trading cards made?

[promoking]

Mod, if this topic has been covered, please delete thread.


This article was written many years ago by a Fleer/ Skybox Representative to help with the question above. I am reproducing a condensed version here.


The theme discussed is Marvel OverPower, but the basic process and decision-making is the same for most all trading cards and collectible card games.


"The decision to determine what trading cards would be made by Fleer /Skybox International (this may be true for other trading card companies as well), was made based on input from the company's "Team members". Who was hot in the Marvel Comics universe, for example, and who were some old favorites was also taken into account.


To choose art that would appear on the cards, Ron Perazza conceived the art direction and contacted the pool of pencillers (who did the sketches) and computer colorists (who colored the sketches).



Cards are built in blocks by an outside design agency. In blocks, meaning that on one piece of paper, there will be a total of 8-12 cards total (called "blocks" for blocks of cards). The cards on those blocks are built on a computer where the design agency adds type and enhancements to the computer-colored artwork. Pretty much everything except the pencil sketches is done on computers. Once all of the blocks are built, meaning that all the cards have artwork and text combined, those blocks are sent to a printer to be placed on a "form."


The form consists of several blocks of cards. To print an entire run of Marvel OverPower, it generally takes about 3-4 forms. The forms consist of common, uncommon, rare and very rare cards. Before the form goes to press, it is reviewed one final time to check for typos and to color-correct the art. After that time -- it's time to go to press.


Once the cards go to press, the press sheets (formerly forms) containing the cards are trimmed to cut out all of the cards on the form. From there, the cards are sent to the collator where they are collated to be placed in packs (called a "pack-out"). From there, the packs are placed in boxes, shrink-wrapped and are placed in larger boxes that hold many OverPower boxes. Then the large boxes are sent to distributors to be sent to retailers."

[Rictor]

Most artists these days sketch on a tablet. I think most card design is done in-house these days also because budgets are way smaller. The card artwork is done by freelancers, which is how it's always been.

I've never heard anyone use the term card blocks. Only card sheets/uncut sheets. Before everything went digital, printing trading cards was a much more complicated and expensive process.

When I worked at my first newspaper, they had just moved from old school typesetting and printing to computers. They went from the press taking up an entire warehouse to it basically fitting in one tiny room. Also meant they eliminated a ton of jobs. Probably a good thing because that's when the internet started the slow death of print.

[PoPCulture]

Another major change since this was written. The last sentence would now be written… “Then the large boxes are sent to distributors to be marked up 400% over MSRP and sold to customers."

[DynaEtch]

Interesting. I do think some of that process is particular to OverPower since apparently it used digital coloring. Some Marvel sets in the 90s were hand colored, not computer colored (e.g. 1992 Impel X-men was colored by Paul Mounts by hand using various mediums, and Jim Lee's black line art was transferred onto the colored version*). Plus all the painted card artwork such as Masterpieces...coloring is done with the paint (I wonder how those cards are made, Fleer/Skybox would just scan the painting and then it would be printed? I dont think it's digitally changed much at all although I could be wrong). There are some 90s marvel sets that did use obvious digital coloring such as 94 and 95 Flair.

On the printing side, I read an article in an old card magazine that said some sets like 1994 Fleer Ultra X-men (and I believe 94 MM) went with 6-color printing ('Hexachrome') instead of the usual 4 color CMYK (key for black). Im not an expert on printing or graphics, but apparently the 6 color printing allowed for deeper blues and violets, which does stand out flipping through the sets. I dont think newer sets do that, it's just CMYK usually.

*as discussed in the 1992 Impel Jim Lee book.

[HeyRelaxGuy]

Originally Posted by Rictor

I've never heard anyone use the term card blocks. Only card sheets/uncut sheets. Before everything went digital, printing trading cards was a much more complicated and expensive process.

I've never heard of "blocks" either.

Yes, the printing process decades ago was a lot more complicated. However, from a research point-of-view, vintage printing is a lot more interesting (and fun) to study. Everything had to be adjusted manually on the printing press and that's why no two cards look the same. Let's take a look at the Johnny Unitas rookie, for example. You are going to find differences in color, centering, registration, cut, etc. It's just incredible. Oh, and finding a nice example can be a real b*tch too!

And there is also the designing process as well. Long ago, Topps was using the Flexichrome process, which is a very difficult thing to do. Whereas today, you can do the most amazing things on Photoshop in just a few minutes.

[promoking]

Originally Posted by HeyRelaxGuy

I've never heard of "blocks" either.

Yes, the printing process decades ago was a lot more complicated. However, from a research point-of-view, vintage printing is a lot more interesting (and fun) to study. Everything had to be adjusted manually on the printing press and that's why no two cards look the same.

I had never heard of blocks either.

This lady whose name was Kathy, apparently was a big shot over at FLEER/SKYBOX around the time the Marvel Overpower TCG was released, as she was chosen to give that interview to the Non-Sport Update magazine, a publication which still exists after 30 years of publishing.


Interestingly, years ago, I acquired an internal binder from Skybox with all sorts of memos, even handwritten notes; sample cards and chock full of other goodies such as how to deal with customer returns etc.. However, none of the names mentioned allude to a "Kathy" and unfortunately, the article doesn't mention her last name.


HeyRelaxGuy, I also like learning about the processes involved and the internal operations of trading card companies. I once owned the printing plate for the 1991 Marvel Universe II Spider-man hologram. It came in a white plastic case and was made of reflective mirror like glass and was really awesome to peer into with all the colors emanating from the holo image.

[jjcan]

I never saw the printing done for the uncut sheets when I worked at Upper Deck in 1991 during college. They just moved to Carlsbad, but I did work the line where the sheets where flipped and stacked to send to the FMC and Guillotine cutters.

Fun days were when we cut the hank aaron holograms. Lol.

We use to hand catch the cards to A frames and then the Hoppers would get loaded into the giant belts and Wrapper spools was always interesting how it was done.

of course this is all the 1991 junk wax, and even the small box sets were hand packed.

the biggest hits back then were the Heroes autos sigs and you could tell when those went in, Security would drop them in.

Did not stay past 1992, but I know they changed the process with more inserts and hits along the way, my brother stayed till 1997 and they did their packouts alot different.