e-Pack : DC Annual 2023-24

[Chrominator]

Allen Geneta 2023-24 DC Annual Ready for Action Sketch Card Booklets, SKT

[YayNJ]

I was a little surprised to see how little the gold backscatters are going for, considering they are apparently an above average hit

[finfangfan]

Unnumbered stuff has an uphill climb in secondary. I hit a Nightwing gold backscatter in my blaster from Walmart a few months ago that has been sitting at COMC unsold for $15. I’m now undercut with the ePack stuff trickling into COMC now.

[YayNJ]

Yeah, it sucks that unnumbered stuff gets the short end of the stick, especially in cases when it's a lot rarer than a great deal of the numbered stuff that goes for more / sells easier.

[Xiarmadillo]

I like this set as a beginning entry point for DC.
The cards are clean, with nice art rendering. Good selection of characters as well as across various arcs. Gripe as always is with pricing with sealed, which is why I only buy single...all the companies are still trying to charge pandemic pricing (some work, some dont)

[jdandns]

I've never understood why Marvel cards are so much more collected than DC cards, but they are, and I suspect will continue to be. Hopefully, E-Pack and the new Superman Movie/Universe will give them a shot in the arm.

Starting in 1990, both DC and Marvel had great characters to use in card sets that were all made by the same company using the same state of the art technology up through '96 or so, and received the same widespread distribution.

Even so, virtually every DC set in that span was eventually available at clearance prices while only a couple of the Marvel releases didn't sell through. When the non-sports card market softened in '97, even the last few Marvel sets had to be marked down for Fleer/Skybox to be rid of them, but they'd already stopped making DC sets altogether.

DC didn't get another comic related set for a full decade, with DC Legacy and Batman Archives from Rittenhouse in 2007-08, but even then, the same company's Marvel related sets were the better sellers. Despite the substantially lowered print runs of the late 2000's, Batman Archives, only the second set of the hoped-for DC cards revival, was nevertheless available for sale at clearance prices.

DC Comics has heavily embraced variant comic book covers, and released a lot of classics over these last 20 years. I'd like see a "best of the best" card set collecting those, or even better, artist specific sets collecting the DC cover work of standout specialists like Adam Hughes, Jenny Frison, Brian Bolland, Frank Cho, Artgerm, and of course, Alex Ross.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by jdandns

I've never understood why Marvel cards are so much more collected than DC cards, but they are, and I suspect will continue to be. Hopefully, E-Pack and the new Superman Movie/Universe will give them a shot in the arm.

Starting in 1990, both DC and Marvel had great characters to use in card sets that were all made by the same company using the same state of the art technology up through '96 or so, and received the same widespread distribution.

Even so, virtually every DC set in that span was eventually available at clearance prices while only a couple of the Marvel releases didn't sell through. When the non-sports card market softened in '97, even the last few Marvel sets had to be marked down for Fleer/Skybox to be rid of them, but they'd already stopped making DC sets altogether.

DC didn't get another comic related set for a full decade, with DC Legacy and Batman Archives from Rittenhouse in 2007-08, but even then, the same company's Marvel related sets were the better sellers. Despite the substantially lowered print runs of the late 2000's, Batman Archives, only the second set of the hoped-for DC cards revival, was nevertheless available for sale at clearance prices.

DC Comics has heavily embraced variant comic book covers, and released a lot of classics over these last 20 years. I'd like see a "best of the best" card set collecting those, or even better, artist specific sets collecting the DC cover work of standout specialists like Adam Hughes, Jenny Frison, Brian Bolland, Frank Cho, Artgerm, and of course, Alex Ross.

People tend to label people as “haters” when they point out Marvel is more widely collected than DC but what you say accurately reflects the reality of the nonsports hobby. I’m not sure why there is such a big gap between Marvel and DC card collecting but the fact that UD didn’t seek the property until it was losing Marvel shows that even they knew Marvel was the better property to have.

UD might be able to correct the gap between Marvel and DC somewhat… particularly when it releases the higher end sets, but they will have to do so in an environment where Topps will likely be cranking out a ton of Marvel sets.

Collectors ultimately only have so many dollars. I’m not sure how many *new* collectors DC Annual brought into the hobby (or ePack website) but I suspect a lot of these collectors were holdovers from the ePack Marvel days and likely many of whom will also continue to buy Topls Marvel stuff.

[Chrominator]

Just pulled my first hologram

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Chrominator

Just pulled my first hologram

It’s weird how with this set UD just uses “Annual” branding without reference to DC in the hologram. In fact, entire card front makes no mention of DC. Very odd.

Compare your image with an older Marvel Annual hologram…

[jdandns]

Originally Posted by Chrominator

Just pulled my first hologram

Nice card.
Instantly recognizable work from Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, one of the fellows who I listed above that should get their own DC set. I get to go to Comic-Con on the Sunday this year. I'll give them a list of the artists they should give the treatment. That oughta do it.

[Chrominator]

Originally Posted by jdandns

Nice card.
Instantly recognizable work from Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, one of the fellows who I listed above that should get their own DC set. I get to go to Comic-Con on the Sunday this year. I'll give them a list of the artists they should give the treatment. That oughta do it.

Thanks!

I'm a huge Greg Capullo fan myself

[YayNJ]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

It’s weird how with this set UD just uses “Annual” branding without reference to DC in the hologram. In fact, entire card front makes no mention of DC. Very odd.

Compare your image with an older Marvel Annual hologram…

that's more down to Marvels hyper excessive branding demands I'd wager.

[Chrominator]

The magic continues!


Sinestro 2023-24 DC Annual Knight Terrors Green, KT-21

[Rictor]

Marvel is Coca-Cola and DC is Pepsi. It's been that way since the 1960s, when Marvel came around and blew DC out of the water with better art and stories. They became the cool comic company and DC became the old dusty competitor. Somehow even 60 years later, Marvel still has that edge.

The popularity of the Marvel comics and characters carries over from the comics to the movies, trading cards, and other products.

That said, the edge that Marvel has over DC in sales figures isn't a huge one. Marvel sells maybe 20% better than DC, with that fluctuating higher and lower over time. DC has even taken over in sales during times like back when they did the Death of Superman storyline.

[Chrominator]

Perhaps^

I've collected my fair share of Marvel, but Batman is #1 imo.

[YayNJ]

Batman is and always will be #1

after little kids comics, I fell into Detective Comics, 2000AD, Marshall Law, The Last American, Tank Girl...

Marvel just seemed childish after that. If it were music, it would be cheesy pop-punk.

[finfangfan]

I haven’t bought any ePack yet, but I am picking up some cool stuff form this set on COMC.

Just got this cool Ravager plate (Chew cover).

[Chrominator]

That's a beaut^

[jdandns]

Originally Posted by YayNJ

Batman is and always will be #1

after little kids comics, I fell into Detective Comics, 2000AD, Marshall Law, The Last American, Tank Girl...

Marvel just seemed childish after that. If it were music, it would be cheesy pop-punk.

Marshal Law and Last American were Marvel comics, though, albeit it from the Epic line, which was sort of their Vertigo (before DC had a Vertigo line).

Kevin O'Neill was amazing. I finally met him at Comic-Con a few years ago. He was doing sketches. The whole time I was in line I was 50/50 on either a sketch of Marshal or Mr. Hyde from "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", but I ultimately went with Mr. Hyde.

[finfangfan]

I balked at $350 for a Topps Marvel Chrome hobby box at GameStop today, and I ended up picking up DC plates for comparatively cheap on COMC with credit instead.

Here is the second plate I bought today…

[YayNJ]

Originally Posted by jdandns

Marshal Law and Last American were Marvel comics, though, albeit it from the Epic line

Of course, but they had nothing to do with the Marvel 'universe' at all. There were zero ties to any Marvel stories or characters and it didn't have to follow the code. ML then went to Apocalypse, and then to a British publisher, Toxic.. which is the same fate Last American had (British ownership)

I guess I should have added a bit more clarity and said mainstream Marvel.

[jdandns]

Marshal Law Takes Manhattan, the Epic prestige format special, was apparently going to use the actual Marvel heroes and subject them to carnage at the hands of the Marshal and the Punisher, but apparently, the higher-ups got cold feet, and made them change the characters to thinly disguised versions, a la Watchmen, and Punisher became the Persecutor.

Then, only 6 years or so later, and well after Mills & O'Neill had moved on to Toxic with the character, Marvel let the Punisher slaughter the actual Marvel heroes using the same basic story in "The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe", written by Garth Ennis. Since then, they've repeated the story at least a couple more times with Deadpool responsible for the massacre.

[Chrominator]

Anyone know why there's this greyed-out 'Redeem' button for the Knight Terrors cards?

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Chrominator

Anyone know why there's this greyed-out 'Redeem' button for the Knight Terrors cards?

No idea. Maybe at one point they were going to do an achievement for that subset but then they cancelled those plans?

[YayNJ]

I just had someone offer me a 30 cent backscatter in return for one of my glossy black wolverines

lol

trading seems weird for this set