Beckett is reporting today that Razor bought Inkworks’ autograph remaining overstock and is releasing them as a repackaged set entitled Ink Archives. There’ll be five packs per box with one autograph in every pack. Cases consist of 12 boxes and 299 cases will make up the print run. The sell sheet says there’ll be more than 400 different cards.
So let’s do a little math, shall we.
5 packs x 12 boxes x 299 cases = 17,940 autographs hitting the market all at the same time. Eek. And when I say all at the same time, I mean it. A dealer on Non-Sport Update’s Card Talk says that Razor is already sold out.
It’s definitely looking like it’s going to be a buyer’s market. From the sounds of things, expect packs to run $20. In all honesty, you’re still going to be better off getting singles off of eBay. While there’s going to be some of the nice cards that are shown on the sell sheet, which is very Three’s Company in that it has John Ritter surrounded by beautiful ladies (and Ozzy Osbourne), there’s also going to be a lot of supporting actors in these packs. Plus, with the quick influx of autographs hitting the market all at the same time, their prices should also soften, thus making some deals to be had. It won’t take many $20 packs to make up the cost of simply going out and getting that $200 Jennifer Garner or $120 Ozzy.
To further add to the market glut, the Razor aquisition appears to only be the remaining Inkworks stock. Other dealers have also acquired stock from Inkworks as well.
From a hobby standpoint, there’s some possible implications that could impact things beyond a flooded autograph market. Razor competes at the much larger sports crowd as compared to the more niche-oriented non-sport market. By putting these cards in the hands of sports collectors it could show a small sample of what it’s like on the other end of the hobby where things are still relatively low-key and simple. That, in turn, could end up bringing an influx of new collectors over and helping the hurting market out. So that could be a small piece of good news to come from one business closing their doors and their extra stock flooding a potentially fragile market.
