Tag Archives: trading cards

Arts and Culture

Why Trading Card Art Matters to Collectors

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close up of yu gi oh cards held in hands
Photo by Jovan Vasiljević on Pexels.com

Trading card art does more than decorate a piece of cardboard. It carries the weight of rarity, condition, and resale value. Collectors examine the artwork before they read the stats printed underneath it. That instinct isn’t sentimental, but trained by years of grading reports, auction results, and print run data.

The Art Is the First Filter

Every collector scans a card the same way. Eyes go to the illustration first, then the border, then the text box. This order matters because the artwork tells you almost everything about a card’s production tier before you flip it over.

Full-art cards, alternate-art variants, and secret rares all rely on illustration to separate themselves from base copies. A base card and its alt-art counterpart can share identical text and identical stats. The only difference is the art treatment, and that difference can multiply the price by ten or more. Gear brands like TitanShield have built entire protective product lines around this exact problem, since high-value art cards need sturdier cases than bulk commons. Continue reading Why Trading Card Art Matters to Collectors →

Arts and Culture

Cobi Moules, New Kid at Lyons Wier Gallery

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NKOTB in Hell
New Kids in Hell: Jordan, Cobi, Donnie, Joey and Jonathan (All Photos By Gail)

An adoring fan’s childhood dreams of being part of the music group he once worshiped come to life in a most engaging way in Cobi Moules new body of work, New Kid, which opened last week at Lyons Wier Gallery. Working with existing images of the wildly popular early ’90s boy band New Kids on The Block — all taken from his collection of fan magazines, fold-out pin ups and trading cards — Moules has meticulously reproduced photographs of  the group —  Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, while inserting himself into these contrived poses in place of fifth member Danny Wood. Thus Cobi Moules becomes the New Kid of the New Kids. Genius.

NKOTB Brick Wall

Growing up as a transgender boy, Cobi reveals that his love and admiration for NKOTB involved passionate fantasies of both being them and being with them; especially his favorite New Kid, Jordan. Because let’s face it, Jordan was the uber hottie, for sure.

New Kid Jordan

Let the homoeroticism begin!

New Kid Hot Dog

New Kid Bike

How fun is this? I mean, who among those reading this didn’t have crazy childhood fantasies about a band you loved? I know that when I was five years old, my plan was to marry Paul McCartney and join the Beatles. I was five.  Obviously that didn’t really work out for me, but that’s all the more reason that seeing Cobi’s adorably ecstatic face peering out from his terrific realist paintings, as he cuddles and cavorts with his favorite childhood band, is secretly thrilling. Because imaginative extrapolation allows the viewer to live through him.

New Kid Joey
Cobi and Joey

New Kid Bus
Cobi and Jonathan

There’s also this fun little animated gif!

New Kids Trading Cards 5

I especially loved the re-imagined collection of NKOTB Trading Cards!

New Kids Trading Cards 1

The one on the right is just insane.

New Kids Trading Cards 3

New Kids Trading Cards 4

So seriously great.

New Kid Group Ladder

I spoke with Cobi at the show’s opening reception, and he is a really nice guy, and obviously hugely talented. I will be interested to see what he does next.

Cobi Moules New Kid
Artist Cobi Moules Photographed at the Opening Reception with One of His New Kid Paintings

Clever, original, uniquely hilarious and very, very sweet, Cobi Mueles’ New Kid is our favorite exhibit of 2016 so far!

Cobi Moules’ New Kid will be on Exhibit Through March 5th, 2016 at Lyons Wier Gallery, Located 542 West 24th Street in the Chelsea Gallery District.

New Kids Street Sign