In this thread I would like to get your opinion in determining which promos are very rare yet do not necessarily get the recognition they deserve.
Undoubtedly, all of the promos listed in the glossy color pages of the latest PCE are very rare. So those don't count.
However, there are some others which I believe are extremely rare as well but most people have probably never heard of them or if they have they're still looking.
Below is a list of the 10 promo cards or sets that in my opinion deserve to be labeled very rare:
1) Twilight Zone Artist Proof (only 500 exist)
2) The Avengers A0 (only 10 exist)
3) Coca-Cola Artist proofs of the Gold cards ( only 10 of each exist)
4) Disney premium SP1
5) Anastasia 3 card acetate set (Similar to the Disney ones)
6) Piemmeci 15 promo card Movie Posters set
7) 1996 (not 92) Presidential Candidates card set (unreleased)
8)Small Soldiers Behind the Scenes promo pack
Given out at grand opening of movie
9) David Letterman Late Show Pinnacle promo card(1,000 exist)
10)Hawaiian Tropic/Hooters 30 card promo set (2,500 sets exist).
11) E.T Widevision lenticular card

BTW, the info on the ones that say that so many cards or sets exist is listed on the cards themselves. I didn't make these numbers up .
I'm interested in knowing what other promo cards/sets you believe are very rare either because you have been looking for a long time and can't find it/them or you've had to pay thru the nose (American saying) to get it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: promoking,

The ones i never understood are the Hammer Horror Market square promos.

Apart from the set of 3 that i purchased i have never seen these for sale anywhere and yet the NSU price guide says they are $2 each and worthless.

Pretty much any of the promos that come in action figures are difficult, particularly now that most figure collectors leave the box intact. I am thinking particularly of the Stargate DTP-1 but I'm sure there's many others.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
The ones i never understood are the Hammer Horror Market square promos.

Apart from the set of 3 that i purchased i have never seen these for sale anywhere and yet the NSU price guide says they are $2 each and worthless.

If memory serves, those cards were not licensed. If that's the case, that's why NSU has them priced at nothing.

Are we talking promos that were produced to promote cards sets only? I have stuff to promote comic books that I've only ever seen once, and that was when I bought them. I love those little finds.

Quote:
Originally posted by PCE:
Are we talking promos that were produced to promote cards sets only?

I was mostly referring to promos that were produced to promote card sets only. I guess the David letterman and Anastasia cards don't fit in that category, but feel free to bring up ANY very hard to find promo that promotes anything!

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
The ones i never understood are the Hammer Horror Market square promos.

Apart from the set of 3 that i purchased i have never seen these for sale anywhere and yet the NSU price guide says they are $2 each and worthless.

If memory serves, those cards were not licensed. If that's the case, that's why NSU has them priced at nothing.

Thanks, i never knew that.

If we are including non-card set promotions, I have a lenticular promo card issued in the UK in 2001 to Barclays Bank & Legal and General staff to promote a (short lived) collaboration between the 2 companies. They are slightly smaller than standard cards and feature a childs face wearing a diving mask appearing as if by magic under water. As far as I am aware they were issued to branch managers (I was one then) with a pack explaining the changes & implications. I recently discovered this at the bottom of a box when I was clearing out my loft & is a nice addition to my promo binder. I have not seen another & I presume that most would have ended up in the dustbin.

BTW if anyone wants to post a pic. of their card(s)in the promo identi-card thread I would love to see what some of these cards look like.

i just posted a scan of a set called "johnny Gruesome". I believe it to be rare, but of course, no one cares much about the original art stuff these days.

Here is the card I was referring to above,lenticular cards are hard to capture:

And here is the back:

Albert, can you give us more info on items # 1, 3, and 9 on your list ? I have never heard of any of them

Where exactly was the Disney Premium SP1 distributed ?

I agree, the Hawaiian Tropic 30 card set is very tough to complete. Seems that certain numbers are much easier to find than others.

My vote for tough promos to find-- P01 and P02 for the 1994 unreleased Blackball Comics set by SkyBox. Good luck finding those ! I have seen the Lion King SB1 and the 101 Dalmations Pet Smart promo pop up more often.

The witchblade P-UK must be a rare thing

David,
The Twilight Zone card is probably a reprint set. Not sure if it is licensed or not. I have never seen another one other than the one I own.
My favorites are the coca Cola Artist proofs. They are actually listed in NSU. I was very lucky to have gone after them right before Skybox went out of business. They were very expensive and I am still missing one from Series II. They're the same as the gold cards themselves but instead of the number --- of serial #, it says one of 10 Artist's Proof cards. The Honus Wagner was especially tough.
The Disney SP1 card were never distributed to the best of my knowledge. They were produced since the one I have is part of an uncut sheet. I have not seen it as a single and my guess is that for some reason they were not distributed that way. I didn't think the card existed for the longest time.
I found the david Letterman card on Ebay several years ago. I don' know much about it other than it was produced by pinnacle.
I would like to mention another very obscure card. At the 2001 Philly Show, there was an uncut promo sheet of the Time Line of the U.S National Guard. The sheet has a gold sticker which says National Guard Exclusive Promo and is numbered X of 10. So presumably only 10 exist.

I know of one obscure people that most people have never seen. Unfortunately, I don't own it. I have just a scan of the card.

Back around 1999, Comic Images did a card set for HOT WHEELS, which had 2 promos, #ed, I believe, PR1 and PR2. I am going from memory.

A year or so afterwards, someone showed me an unnumbered promo for the set. Totally different image on the front from the other 2 promos, but it was definitely for the Comic Images set. And the back said prototype on it. Has anyone else seen this card ?

This thread is titled, "Rare and obscure promo cards".

I can't verify this but it seems to me that some of the cards mentioned here may be internal prototypes, never meant to be used for promotional purposes i.e proofs of concept and therefore not promos.

quote:

The Avengers A0 (only 10 exist)

This is a mis-statement. Only 10 copies of this card were hand numbered. In fact, this card was produced on the same press sheet as the A7 promo which is limited to 100 hand numbered cards. There are/were (who knows what happened to the excess cards) as many of both cards as there were for the other four (I think) cards on that sheet. Sheets still exist, only one person knows how many. Were the excess cards destroyed?

To date, the card and/or sheet are still very scarce and need not be taken off this list. Don't be surprised, though, to see five A0 hand-numbered #1 of 10 promos on eBay at the same time ten years from now.

OK, you have my interest piqued. Who's the mystery person?

Albert, was that question directed to me ?

Here are a bunch of promo items that you don't see often:

CREATORS MASTER SERIES (SkyBox) sell sheet. Notice the depiction of the ultra rare P0 promo, which almost no one has seen (including me)

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/4763/creatorsyg5.jpg

CYBERFORCE (Topps) oversized, 5 x 7" promo--not listed in PCE ! For the 1995 set, front and back depicted. VERY hard to find !

(front) http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5520/cyberforce1il3.jpg

(back)

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3479/cyberforce2hh0.jpg

DISNEY PRINCESSES prototype sheet (front and back shown)

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7916/disneyfrontbd6.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5108/disneybackiv7.jpg

DISNEY A MAGICAL PARTNERSHIP promo
(front and back)

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/5397/disneyfrontwx9.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7166/disneybackeu6.jpg

SPEED RACER P3 plus that oddball swami promo
(fronts and backs) The latter is not in PCE

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/8264/promos1ic9.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/2908/promos2us9.jpg


ROLLING STONES (Cornerstone) There are actually 10 promos total. All 5 come in black and in white. I have them all, but am only posting the black ones here.

(Fronts)

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/4796/stonesfrontsju7.jpg

(Backs)

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6/stonesbackssl0.jpg

STAR WARS GALAXY MAGAZINE promo SW1--the ultra rare variant ! Said to be the rarest Star Wars promo ever ! All I have is the scan, unfortunately, not the actual card.

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4623/starwarsrg7.jpg

SANDMAN prototypes. I think these are actually
paper, and not card stock.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7065/sandmantn8.jpg