Veronica Mars Trading Cards

Veronica Mars Season 2 Trading Cards Review

April 2, 2015

2007-Inkworks-Veronica-Mars-Season-2-Box

Oh, Veronica Mars, how I miss you so. For its first two seasons, the show gave life in high school a mysterious, romantic, creepy, scandalous, funny and pop culture-infused tint. Part film noir, part coming-of-age comedy, creator Rob Thomas had one of the greatest shows on television, even if only 18 people watched it. One of them must have been Inkworks because they took a chance on the license and put out a pair of loaded sets, at least in the context of the cult show.

Veronica Mars Season 1 was one of the first master sets I put together. Landing the pricey Kirsten Bell autograph in my first box certainly helped matters as I didn’t have to think about throwing down a couple hundred dollars (pre-Inkworks going under and the market getting flooded with them) for one card.

Being the completist that I am, I bailed when the details for Veronica Mars Season 2 came out, though. It`s not that the set wasn’t worth collecting. It was actually the opposite. The follow-up set was simply too daunting an affair to go for a second master set. Instead I`m busting a box way after the fact.

Highlighted by several major levels of chase hits, Veronica Mars Season 2 is a set that gets lost in being too good. You`ve got your autographs, Pieceworks costume cards, autographed Pieceworks and InkPlates, which are the actual printing plates used in making the cards. All-in-all, it compliments the first set very nicely as it fills in many of the main autograph holes. At the same time, it became too big for me to enjoy and try to track down at a reasonable price.

The base set consists of 81 cards. It starts out with episode summaries – normally two cards per episode. There`s also Neptune High profile cards, subsets on the show’s parental units, law enforcers, outlaws, Veronica`s best friend Wallace, and suspect cards. The set is bookended by a header card and a checklist.

Although comprehensive in covering the show, I’ve got a pretty major beef with the base cards – mainly the photography. Most of the images appear to be taken from screen grabs that are blurry and soft. When you put them next to the cards that come from promo shots, there`s no competition. Other sets are made from the same medium yet they have sharp photos all around. It would have been nice if it were the same here.

My box offered great collation. I completed two base sets and had another 20 triples.

Basic inserts follow the boring Inkworks model. Cliffhanger is the predicted nine-card foil puzzle, Justice is the six-card mid-level insert and Bad Boys is the three-card box topper set. I got exactly as I expected with all three sets including a puzzle piece of Veronica Mars`hair. If only I had a hair fetish.

The fun of Veronica Mars Season 2 is in the hits. Kirsten Bell signed again as did the main cast who didn’t sign for the Season 1 set. My signed card was of Kyle Gallner who played a central role in the season`s story. Each box also has a Pieceworks costume card. While there`s no Paris Hilton in Season 2’s set, there is Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Allison Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter as well as Buffy creator Joss Whedon. I got none of them. Instead I got a three-color swatch of a shirt worn by Tessa Thompson who played Jackie Cooper.

For those who like to push the odds, Inkworks added two added levels of hits. Autographed Pieceworks and InkPlates. I didn`t get any signed Pieceworks cards, but I did manage to land a press plate, which are inserted 1:384 packs. Press plates are unique cards used in the printing process. Each card has four different colored plate, making each one a one-of-one. While I was ecstatic to pull one, the image is of a bulletin board. How exciting!

Overall, Veronica Mars Season 2 is a very comprehensive set that offers good unpredictability with the addition of bigger hits. But that`s what scared me off in the first place. My box came from a box of Razor`s repackaged Ink Vault release. Otherwise I still likely would have passed on a box even though Veronica Mars was one of my favorite shows when it was on the air.