The thing with swatches and cards of such is its impossible to know if it was from a costume used in the production, an unused extra or just some random material cut to a small size and put with a card with some nice fancy COA.
If you were to cut open the card change out the fabric material and seal it back no one would be the wiser if you could do it without it being obvious. The fabric is the easiest part to fake and teh hardest to verify in the card.
I'm not sure why anyone would bother to go through all that trouble for a crappy 1" (sometimes less) piece of fabric. However, I did see some costume cards on eBay this week that have larger swatches and which contain whole Western Costume Co. tags--now, someone with evil intent could buy those and sew the authentic labels into another costume to create a forgery.
I think the resurrection of this thread has inspired me to finally get around to taking some pictures of the Halle Berry
Catwoman costume I have--well, what's left of it after Inkworks cut it up for their Pieceworks cards. :facepalm
Catwoman is certainly a poor film (though I think it's so bad it can be enjoyed for its camp value), and the Halle Berry version of this outfit is surely the least iconic, but to cut up a screen-used superhero costume so that a couple hundred people can have a tiny square is pretty awful IMHO. I even have some internal Inkworks paperwork that shows how many swatches they got out of what they cut up--and it sure doesn't seem worth it. Costumes which have any collectibility should be in displays with other film (or in this case, perhaps superhero) memorabilia, not destroyed to satisfy a few people who'd probably be just as happy with autograph cards.
I just don't buy the argument that it's okay because some people can't afford whole costumes. Not everyone can afford a painting by an artist they like, either; that doesn't mean that we should cut up some of their paintings into 1" squares and mount them to cards to sell so that everyone can afford one. I myself have about 500 items on my eBay watch lists right now (including completed auctions), of which I can afford maybe two. I can't always afford something I want from a favorite film/show, character, or actor, so I save and wait for something in my price range--not always a big recognizable hero costume, but if I really want it I can usually get something, and every once in a while I luck out and get the piece I want most of all. Sometimes I can't get anything. But I'd never want something I can't afford cut into little bits so that I can buy one; I'd rather have something lesser that's whole, or retain the dream of someday owning The Big Item.
And what really hurts is seeing an item you were an underbidder on get butchered for cards. Yes, that's happened to me, and some others. A company that makes costume cards bought lots from the Christies
Star Trek Auction a few years ago, as an example, and afterwards many people remarked that if they'd known all those costumes would be destroyed they'd have tried their best to bid more. These lots included one-of-a-kind hero costumes from memorable episodes. And just last week I saw a more minor item, an Amy Adams worn Dennit Racing polo from
Talladega Nights, that had been cut into costume cards--and I have to wonder if it's the same one I put in a low bid for a couple years back when it was auctioned by Reel Clothes. If I'd known, I'd have gladly bid a lot more just to save it from obliteration. Ah well...
And then there are cases like that of
Veronica Mars. It's one of the best TV shows of the past decade and I'd love to own a screen-worn costume from one of my favorite characters--I'd trade almost anything in my collection for an authentic Veronica or Lilly costume. But aside from a handful of items sold for charity while the show still ran, I don't know of any authentic main-character costumes which have hit the market. However, many dozens of great items were destroyed for costume cards. :sick
Sunday or Monday I'm going to finally post some pictures of what I like to call "The Sad Remains of Catwoman." Surprisingly, there's enough left of the top half of the costume that it would be worth it to have a local leather worker reconstruct the missing pieces (mainly the bra cups) and reattach all the belt-straps, zippers, and metal bits that were removed but which are all still here. But for me at least, it puts it in perspective to see a very nice costume treated like garbage.
