Let's talk about them.
Here is a short list of limited edition plates. These are plates where we know how many were made, either because they're numbered or we know the source of the plates.
PREY: Roughly 10.
Moto GP 06: Ten, numbered.
Canadian Launch 54: 46
Canadian Launch Jump In: 158
X05 Canada Big Leaf: 200
X05 Canada Small Leaf: 200
X05 Canada Many Leaves: 200
X06 Canada: 300
Supreme Commander: 250
Rise of the Argonauts: 980
E305 Rings of Light (rare): 500
E305 Rings of Light (common): 5000
Bioshock: 5000
As you know, the plates at the very top of this list go for crazy money, while even plates limited to 5,000 still go for $50-$75 each.
So here's a question for you. Let's say I was going to make some limited edition plates. How many should I make?
See, the thing to consider here is that none of those plates I listed above could actually be BOUGHT anywhere as a limited edition. They were initially free to the original recipients, and the few that made it to the secondary market are the ones that sold for a lot of money. Chances are, if all 980 of "Rise of the Argonauts" had been available to buy at a storefront, there's no way they'd get the $100-$200 a piece they get on eBay.
I've seen less than ten of the Supreme Commander or ROTA plates, even though there are almost a thousand ROTA plates. I have only once seen ONE of the X05 Canada plates, although there are a couple hundred of each out there.
I'm gonna just pick a show. Let's say "Lost." My customs were popular. The show's been around a few years and has a couple more before it's history. And it has a large cast.
So let's say I did this. Let's say I made a dozen plates:
1) Jack
2) Kate
3) Sawyer
4) Locke
5) Kim
6) Sun
7) Hugo
8) Sayid
9) Juliet
10) Desmond
11) Ben
12) Charlie
I could even do more:
13) Charles Widmore
14) Christian Shepard
15) Claire and Aaron
16) Penny Widmore
17) Daniel Faraday
18) Richard Alpert
19) Danielle Rousseau
20) Eloise Hawking
21) Eko
22) Rose and Bernard
23) Michael and Walt
24) Alex and Karl
25) Ana Lucia
26) Libby
27) Boone and Shannon
28) Frank Lapidas
29) Charlotte (red head)
30) Miles (ghost whisperer)
31) Oceanic 815
32) The Hatch
33) The Smoke Monster
34) The Polar Bears
Now I have to think about this like if they were action figures in a box. They'll put a couple each of the popular figures and one each of the lesser figures. If they did a box of only popular figures, the lesser figures would never get made. If they did a box of just lesser figures, stores wouldn't carry them.
What I might do, in order to get some of the minor characters in there, is do it by season, and then maybe by subgroup. For instance, Miles, Charlotte, Daniel and Frank all in one set.
Anyway, I can figure that part out later. In the meantime, here's the question: How many do you make of each "design?"
I could do a set of six plates, and make 500 of them. Invariably, someone would complain that I left someone out. The good part is, it would build anticipation for future plates while increasing the secondary market value of the first wave of plates. The bad part is, if there was a struggle to sell off the first six plates, it might prevent a second six (and the additional characters) from being made, plus it might affect your ability to pay for the cost of using these characters. If you'd made twelve plates out of the gate, that problem might be solved.
Keep this in mind. These are going to go beyond the normal members of these forums. We'd be targeting fans of the show, rather than faceplate collectors (since, let's be honest, there are more of them.) The good part is that, there are almost 30 million Xboxes out there, so selling 300 or 500 or 1,000 of ANYTHING on a faceplate shouldn't be impossible.
So it's out there for discussion: large cast, numerous image options... how many of each plate do you make?
