A Civil War History Lesson

One of the companies that I like to follow is Cult Stuff out of the U.K. Their sets are usually historical in nature, either based on actual events or famous literature from the past. Some of the sets that they have released include sets built around the Titanic, WWI, Sherlock Holmes and Bram Stocker’s Dracula. It isn’t all history lessons, they recently released a set called Adventures into the Unknown and some older sets are Age of Sorcery and Art of Burlesque so they dabble in the unique too.

In December 2014, I posted about a couple of Civil War uniform cards that I picked up that was part of their 2013 Cult Stuff Civil War Chronicles. There were four uniform pieces in the set plus a bullet redemption, two dark blue and two sky blue. The two I picked up were the more common dark blue wool but I finally came across two of the sky-blue wool relics, which are rarer with the larger pieces being #/60.

Cult Stuff released a Civil War Chronicles Vol. 2 in 2015 where they continued the relics set. The second set includes three uniform relics and documents, six in all. I found a seller selling five of the relic cards, the sixth card is extremely rare and I have seen only one show up as part of a master set.

The Vol. 2 relics include a dark wool relic, a gray liner relic (from inside a soldier’s uniform), a map from the November 1864 London Illustrated News, a piece from the Quartermaster’s invoice from Fort Ward in May 1865 and revenue stamps. The sixth relic is a dual blue wool and gray liner card.

I would like to replace the map relic with one that includes lines from the map as well as picking up one of the bullet cards. I need to look further in to those though to see what kind of bullet is on the card because I would want an unused one, I don’t want a bullet that injured or killed someone in my collection.

A Unique Piece Of History

 

In 2013 Cult Stuff released the Civil War Chronicles, a set based set based on the U.S. Civil War. As a history buff I am drawn to the set because of the connection. Cult Stuff releases their products in a different format than most non-sports card products, they are not in packs or boxes by sealed envelopes like padded mailers. Each Civil War Chronicles pack comes with a complete 36-card base set, a collection of chase cards and one hit. The hits were made up of sketch cards, fabric cards, relic cards or redemption card.

 

The fabric cards contained one of four wool uniform patches. There were the common dark blue wool patches and the rare (numbered) light sky blue wool patches and each had both small and large fabric swatches.

 

I was able to pick up a small dark blue and large dark blue wool patch from a dealer in Ohio for $15 shipped. These usually sell on eBay for $15-25 each so I got a great deal. I am still looking to add the sky blue wool patches but I believe they are numbered to #/40 each so I have a hunt on my hand to find one for a reasonable price. I have seen some very cool Civil War sketch cards but they seem to come around in cycles so picking one up is going to take time.

 

The card design is quite bland but in this case it is not about the design and more about the relic included. These cards go nicely with my Famous Fabrics Horrors Of War relics.

Preview: Famous Fabrics Civil War Set

Next up for Famous Fabrics will be the Civil War release, set to release tomorrow. This product will be a little different compared to other recent Famous Fabrics products, the biggest change would be the pack out and price.

 

Each box will run $1,200-1,300 and contain 6 cards. Each box break will give you one Civil War Cut Signature (1/1), one Original Artwork Painted card (1/1) and four base cards (#/40). There will only be 150 boxes made so this is beyond an extremely rare release.

 

The base cards are limited to #/40 and there are only 15 cards on the checklist, mainly focusing on battles. Each base card will be encased and numbered.

There are 150 cut signatures and they are divided in to three designs; Union Cut Signatures, Confederate Cut Signatures and Gettysburg Commemorative Cut Signatures. Some of the names included on the checklist: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, U.S. Grant, P.G.T. Beauregard and Robert E. Lee. The cards will be encased and number and each design will be a different color so Union signatures are blue, Confederate are gray and Gettysburg are brown.

The Original Artwork Painted cards have a 15 card checklist with each card #/10, though each card is painted individually. I believe Jared Kelley is one of the artists involved in the project. The art cards are dedicated to the 150^th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg so the 15 people included are connected to the battle; Lincoln, J.E.B. Stuart, George Custer, George Meade, George Pickett, James Longstreet, Jefferson Davis, John Buford, John Reynolds, Joseph Hooker, Joshua Chamberlin, Richard Ewell, Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, Winfield Hancock.

 

Goodwin Champions Museum Collection Flag Relics Hit The Bay!

There has been some buzz about Upper Deck’s decision to include a Union flag as relics in the Museum Collection insert in the recently released 2012 Goodwin Champions set. The flag that is being included was a Union Flag that had actually been carried in to battle, though I have not found any information verifying which battle or even which unit carried the flag.

 

The problem with the inclusion of the flag has bothered some collectors, they feel that cutting up a flag and inserting the pieces in to a card is straight unpatriotic, sacrilegious and in poor taste. Many of the collectors who have made these statements are supporting it with the legal description on how to properly retire an American Flag. They point out that our flag should never be used in such a manner and that Upper Deck will receive bad press and negative reactions if they followed through with the decision to include the relics in the set.

 

Some of the responses in defense are just as spirited and seem to be more detailed as to the technical definition of American Flag. One point that seems to be pretty prevalent is that the flag is being described only as a “Union Flag” which could be a national flag or in many cases States and even individual units created their own version of the Stars & Stripes to be carried in to battle as their identifying marker. Others point out that even if this was the flag of the Union Government, it was not the same country, and it was a country divided and therefore is not the same as the United States of America as we know it now.

Upper Deck has stood by their decision to include the relics, they want to introduce American history to a generation of collectors and that from the beginning the inclusion of the flag was with respect and this was there way of giving the flag a second life. Rob Ford, UD Sports Coordinator, pointed out that the vendor they bought the flag from was actually cutting pieces from the flag and selling them to his customers so the flag was quite fragile and shredded by the time they purchased it. When you see how it was received you can see that it is not a museum quality piece and it would not be ideal to give it complete to one lucky collector.


A portion of the flag as received by Upper Deck

 

This is a tough ethical question and while the subject is very different, this is still a similar debate to the arguments we hear when a company cuts up a Babe Ruth bat to insert the chips in to cards. There will always be some for it and some against it. In the end, it is your collection and if you want it (and can afford it) why not own it?

 

With 2012 Goodwin Champions being out for almost two weeks now the big hits are starting to show up for auction. The Union Flag relics are inserted in to standard relic cards so they were inserted in to the packs. I have come across four auctions so far, two are currently active and two have ended. This includes the three-colored flag relic card that Upper Deck has been using on their website/blog and in advertising materials for the Museum Collection.

 

In all honesty I believe that most collectors would be excited to pull one of the flag relic cards. I think Upper Deck took a chance and it may work out well.

 

I rarely talk about my personal beliefs on the blog but to give a little insight in to the man known as "Corky", I believe in ghosts/paranormal activity and I feel that personal items like uniform buttons and insignias carry over energy if the person died while wearing them and I want nothing to do with those button and insignia Museum Collection relics unless I knew for a fact (which is almost impossible to prove in this case) they came from a soldier who did not die on the battlefield. Not that I expect to pull any of these, I am more interested in the It Came From Outer Space Meteorite cards anyway.

 

Current Auction: $449- Auction Link



Current Auction: $305- Auction Link

Auction Ended: Card Sold $465- Auction Link

Auction Ended Early, Not Re-listed Yet: Card Did Not Sell $999- Auction Link