I was really into them when Old School 1 came out, and tried to get a complete set (which was possible with that release, because it was only one artists and a limited number of characters). The whole "blue line" debacle of OS2 sketches was a setback for me, as I thought that was a really lame, misleading approach by Topps. Things improved with OS3 when more artists were brought in to load-level (so they weren't killing poor Jay with sketch demands), but I've gotten to where I now am just focused on sketches for the postcard sets. For me they work best in that context because A): there are bio cards with those sets, so the sketches have more meaning when placed with some info about the artist the drew it, B): the postcards are a completely different size from a regular trading card, so the smaller sketch just looks nice as a companion piece, and C): there are only 3 to 6 titles per postcard set, and you can theoretically obtain a sketch for every postcard without spending tons of cash.
The quality has gone up substantially on the whole, but I do feel that there should be a minimum level of sketch competence and effort applied to every card in these expensive LE sets. That's really the one item that drives the demand on the postcards, and with the prices continuing to escalate, so should the overall quality. If you're spending $53 plus tax on a postcard set, the sketch ought to have a decent amount of detail and thought put into it. Granted that's somewhat subjective, but I think we can all agree on which sketches are sub-standard to the collector population as a whole.
