The one that sold for $189 is for tho old 1993 Marvel Masterpices II set. I'm pretty sure there's only one version of that card. Art is by Dave Dorman.

There is another Marvel Masterpieces II Venom promo, but that was for the 2008 Upper Deck set. It is numbered P8 on back, and the art is credited to Michael Golden.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
The one that sold for $189 is for tho old 1993 Marvel Masterpices II set. I'm pretty sure there's only one version of that card. Art is by Dave Dorman.

There is another Marvel Masterpieces II Venom promo, but that was for the 2008 Upper Deck set. It is numbered P8 on back, and the art is credited to Michael Golden.

I have for the longest time been trying to track down the scarcer “gray printing” of the 93MM Venom Promo. For the single reason it is listed on Jeff Allender’s nslists page for 93MM. According to that it is #P8 and supposedly the scarcer version.

I have never seen this card ever and the numbering of P8 makes no sense for that promo. I am of the same thought as you- there is no variant of this 93MM Venom promo. But I never connected the dots with the 2008MM series 2, that would finally explain why it says that on the nslists page. There may have been some confusion because the title of both pages, 1993MM and 2008MM series 2, are “Marvel Masterpieces 2”. And the P8 is an actual Venom promo for 2008MM 2 as you said, which would be a pretty large coincidence to not be that from that confusion. So that is interesting.

As for the value of the 93MM Venom Promo, $189 is a bit on the high side, but it is definitely the rarest of the 93MM promos and value for a raw copy ranges widely from like $50-125 usually. It’s unclear where exactly it came from- nslists says SDCC but I suspect it may have been the National.

Ask the member named "DynaEtch" at the Blowout Cards Forum about the 1993 MM Venom promo and he should be able to let you know about all known versions of it or any other promo from that set, and where they came from. He specializes in collecting all facets of the MM line.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Ask the member named "DynaEtch" at the Blowout Cards Forum about the 1993 MM Venom promo and he should be able to let you know about all known versions of it or any other promo from that set, and where they came from. He specializes in collecting all facets of the MM line.

That would be me haha. Nah I think you cleared that up regarding the P8. It makes perfect sense the Venom promo P8 was just confused between the two sets. If there was a grey printing of the 93MM one, it wouldn’t be P8 and may have been a fluke printing anomaly at most. But I do not think there was an actual intended variant of that card as I’ve never seen it- just one version.

Oh and it says on the card back the front painting is Julie Bell’s Psylocke, as do all the other 93MM no # promos- an uncorrected error!

Yeah, that explains why none of us have found it. Here's the one I have (got it 20-something years ago for a buck in a comic dealers bargain box and it's signed by Dorman):

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
The one that sold for $189 is for tho old 1993 Marvel Masterpices II set. I'm pretty sure there's only one version of that card. Art is by Dave Dorman.

There is another Marvel Masterpieces II Venom promo, but that was for the 2008 Upper Deck set. It is numbered P8 on back, and the art is credited to Michael Golden.

Speaking of Marvel...one of those X-Men Cash X-Plosion scratch-off cards sold on Ebay on 2-22-25 for $157.50 after 12 bids. I wouldn't have predicted that much. As noted by PCE2008, these cards resemble the 1992 Marvel Masterpieces cards but they have scratch-off areas on the back. The source of the cards is unknown but might have been inserted with some kind(s) of cookies as it says "M.D. Nissin Biscuit Corp." on the back.

Someone got a great deal on that. For a 92MM Cash X-plosion, $157 is pretty low, especially since it was Hulk and unscratched. They are scarce and you almost never see them. Wish I would have seen that auction, bummer.

The ‘Lucky Me’ on the back suggests it was indeed from a food product, a noodle brand out of Philippines. The company did noodle and biscuit products. Being an international food promo probably explains why they are so hard to find these days, particularly in the US.

I don't think I've ever seen one of these before or at least not since the 90's. Glenn might have had one for sale in one of this price lists back then.

Interesting note on the "Lucky Me." I had thought it might be from cookies in the UK because cookies in the US are called "biscuits" in the UK.

Here are the images resized a little and combined into one for current and future reference:

quote:

Originally posted by wolverine651:
Someone got a great deal on that. For a 92MM Cash X-plosion, $157 is pretty low, especially since it was Hulk and unscratched. They are scarce and you almost never see them. Wish I would have seen that auction, bummer.

The ‘Lucky Me’ on the back suggests it was indeed from a food product, a noodle brand out of Philippines. The company did noodle and biscuit products. Being an international food promo probably explains why they are so hard to find these days, particularly in the US.

If you look up Lucky Me! noodles there is a Wikipedia page on it (same text branding as on the reverse of the Hulk), says it’s an instant noodle made by Monde Nissin company out of the Philippines.

I have just two of these X-Plosions, a Psylocke and Archangel, and they came from a seller in the Philippines, so that lines up with the above. I almost never see them on the market, and someone got a total steal for that Hulk- one of the best in the set. To give an idea, I had a third one, more common character- Invisible Woman, which also had some damage including roller marks across the card (clearly described in listing)- and sold it for $340 not too long ago.

I’m aware of one super collector who has the whole set of 72 somehow (the numbering does not match the 92MM and is only 72 vs 100 card set). Pretty sure it must have been found in one find because it’s basically impossible to piece together this set as singles on the market.

Back of my Psylocke-

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wolverine651,

Sometimes, you can get lucky if you write to the company. They might not respond or they might send you any extras they have lying around.

quote:

Originally posted by wolverine651:
If you look up Lucky Me! noodles there is a Wikipedia page on it (same text branding as on the reverse of the Hulk), says it’s an instant noodle made by Monde Nissin company out of the Philippines.

I have just two of these X-Plosions, a Psylocke and Archangel, and they came from a seller in the Philippines, so that lines up with the above. I almost never see them on the market, and someone got a total steal for that Hulk- one of the best in the set. To give an idea, I had a third one, more common character- Invisible Woman, which also had some damage including roller marks across the card (clearly described in listing)- and sold it for $340 not too long ago.

I’m aware of one super collector who has the whole set of 72 somehow (the numbering does not match the 92MM and is only 72 vs 100 card set). Pretty sure it must have been found in one find because it’s basically impossible to piece together this set as singles on the market.

Back of my Psylocke-

A 4-card set of those Hercules lenticular from Stouffers plus the mailaway jumbo card/poster sold for $175 on 1-14-25.

I think it was last year that I saw a couple of singles go for $10-15 - pretty much what they've been selling at over the past several years.

A Wolverine From Then 'Til Now 2 (slightly oversized) prism promo sold for $178.95 on 1-18-25. The listing refers to it as the "angles variation," there being two variations. The "angles variation" has also been called the "broken glass" variation/variant. The other one shows the prism effect as vertical rows of shapes. I see someone calling that the "waves variation" as well.

As noted in PCE2008 there is a 4-card strip including the Wolverine card with Spider-Man, Savage Dragon, and Punisher. I have that strip with the four having the broken glass effect and also a 2-card strip of just Punisher and Savage Dragon. I interpret the latter as being a 4-card strip that someone cut down to get the Spider-Man and Wolverine cards - perhaps to keep with their base sets - and decided to sell the other half. I think I found that for less than $10 at a local show years ago when fewer collectors were interested in uncut strips or oversized cards.

I have new price data on 92MM scratch offs- bought an astounding 49 card lot for $1500 on ebay, BUT avg condition is poor, with lots of surface stains,darkened backs, and torn corners. An interesting question is does condition matter that much when so rare, and most examples that do surface seem to have moderate to significant wear.

I am curious if people think that was a good deal or not. On one hand it's only $30 a card which is way low for these. But they're in poor-fair.

49 of the 72 card set-






To end any doubts where they came from, it was an instant noodle out of the Philippines (pic taken from online)

I'd lean towards very good deal, because they are so rare, and I see you have Wolvie, Spidey, Hulk, and Psylocke, which are all big ones in that set.
Are all of them unscratched, too? And were these issued in something like our own "Top Ramen" packets, where it's just a brick of dried noodles in a plastic wrapper along with a little flavor packet? If so, you can certainly see how the incidental damage occured to them, even when someone was trying to be careful with them as was probably the case with the person who collected this lot.

$1,500 today would still buy a lot of actual Ramen though, and these days, I might've just gone for the noodles.

Yeah, I have to agree with Chesspiece - good buy. If Marvel is your thing and you have a particular interest in these Xplosion cards and you have the money, it would be hard to pass on that even if at least half the cards were beat-up.

We've all paid up for something particularly rare - something we've wanted for years/decades and we thought we'd never see again and maybe missed a chance years ago. And it's not just the cards. Now, you can add to the set's checklist. That's added value not everybody thinks about.

Thank you for the input. That was my thought too- no matter how bad the condition, and it is bad in most cases, cards like this almost never come up and it’s worth it for a rarity.
To Chesspiece- yes I believe it’s an instant noodle just like Ramen. Most are surprisingly unscratched, but some are scratched. The lot does have what I consider the top cards in the set- Spider-Man, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Psylocke, Hulk, and Cap America (all the 6 cards made into promos for 92MM actually). But to give you an idea of the damage…









That Wolverine has basically a torn off corner. Multiple cards have marks like on the Spider-Man, and some backs are very darkened. Some even have literal dirt on them (at least I hope it’s dirt). You don’t see people paying this kind of money often for a short stack of actual Poor cards in this hobby, but the specialness of the cards is why I did. If the only way I can get a Wolverine scratch off is one that’s beat to all h*ll…well better than nothing I guess.

My dilemma: How do I go about finishing this set (i.e. the remaining 23 cards)…since they don’t just pop up for sale. It may be a pipe dream.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wolverine651,

These cards are hardly or never seen for sale , If you are a marvel collector go for it
Is there any room for negotiation in the deal

Deal was already made and I bought it, was just wondering how I did. I probably should have haggled more for a lower price considering the condition, but as mentioned above just gotta pay up for something that comes up once in eons. The downside to a purchase like this is it’s only 49/72 of the set- so I have a lot, not a whole set, and probably cannot finish this set, which bugs me as a completionist. Seeing as that’s the case I may even try to move a few to help make a dent in the cost, but I’m primarily a marvel masterpieces collector and these are grails for me, so will hold onto most. Poor condition or not!

quote:

Originally posted by piko:
These cards are hardly or never seen for sale , If you are a marvel collector go for it
Is there any room for negotiation in the deal

Excellent find! I searched for decades for even 1 of these, in multiple locations, with no success. To have found that many at once is unbelievable! As the saying goes "you done real good". Congrats!

I would suggest not to let any go until you have another in-hand. Given the extreme rarity, you may never see the one you move again!

quote:

Originally posted by wolverine651:
Deal was already made and I bought it, was just wondering how I did. I probably should have haggled more for a lower price considering the condition, but as mentioned above just gotta pay up for something that comes up once in eons. The downside to a purchase like this is it’s only 49/72 of the set- so I have a lot, not a whole set, and probably cannot finish this set, which bugs me as a completionist. Seeing as that’s the case I may even try to move a few to help make a dent in the cost, but I’m primarily a marvel masterpieces collector and these are grails for me, so will hold onto most. Poor condition or not!

quote:

Originally posted by piko:
These cards are hardly or never seen for sale , If you are a marvel collector go for it
Is there any room for negotiation in the deal