quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
I thought the promos (or in this case, unmarked prototypes) said "Produced & distributed by Impel Marketing, Inc." on the backs. That info was stated in "Comic Cards and their Prices."

The promos from Diamond say that, but the singles from that 20-card cello-pack do not have the Impel line.

Thanks. I'll have to look. I have the Diamond 4-card sheets and maybe one of those unmarked prototypes - might be from a different set.

I see some crazy sales of sealed Marvel Masterpieces (1992) 3-card prototype packs: one sold for $89.99 on July 11; another sold for something less than $175 on June 1.

I guess that means the buyer of a 6-pack lot for $299.99 on July 19 got a good deal. The seller has a photo of the packs and points out the dealer stickers still stuck on them (the price he bought them at)...25 cents each! Those were the common promos for that set. I got singles for a buck a piece and believe I bought a sealed pack for that (or not much more) as well. There were so many available at local shows but I picked up just one or two of them for my collection - might've traded the extras long ago.

Demand has overtaken even the once-abundant supply.

A DC vs. Marvel Mirage promo ended at $500 with 1 bid on July 28.

Another one sold for $361.54 after 16 bids on July 19.

A Simpsons II (Skybox, 1994) mail-in Bartscreen Decoder card sold for $120 on June 30.

Another one went for $250 on June 16.

Not every Simpsons collector mailed in for it back then so the value continues to jump as people realize they want it for their set. Twenty-five years ago, the one that was inserted with a comic was easier to find than this one. I have the comic-inserted one but the mail-in card was always offered for more - more than I wanted to pay.

Slabbed or "raw".?

They were both ungraded. That $250 sale had to have gone to someone who just had to have it. I don't remember what it used to sell for 20 years ago but the comic-inserted decoder card has been a $5-10 card (maybe $10-15 now) so I think it was being offered for something like $30-40 in the past.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/32718...tkp%3ABk9SR5yL-JWLaA

A "Back to the Future III 8-card set sold for somewhere south of $325 on June 28.

Here's another hand-cut card but this one isn't marked as such and it got past the "experts" at PSA - not noted on the slab. This card was cut from rather common Simpsons 4-card sheet and the component cards were never distributed as singles. Of course, the seller points out the low population number and the seller does not take returns.

It sold for $148.88. Buyer beware.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/36559...tkp%3ABk9SR_LcnZeLaA

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

A Marvel Annual 1994 (Fleer Flair, 1994) oversized (6 1/2 x 10 inches) "Omega Red vs. Wolverine" promo Flair Print sold for $150 just yesterday (August 30). This was given out at the Diamond Annual Sales Conference.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/19555...tkp%3ABk9SR6DukpuLaA

You can see a 17-card lot of Simpsons II promos that sold for $172.50 after 14 bids on June 4. It's a mix of 7 B1 Willy "The Dupe" Dipkin promos plus 9 B4 Black Belch promos and a B6 Radioactive Man promo. The seller considered them low-mid grade but somebody took the plunge.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26768...tkp%3ABk9SR_q7vLSLaA

A 2019 Star Wars Celebration Chicago Volunteer 5-card promo set, serial-numbered out of 200, sold for $199.99 on July 26.

An X-Men Ultra '95 6-card Toy Biz variant set of the Suspended Animation cards sold for $199 on August 9. Those were the cards that were inserted with X-Men Classics action figures - each capable of some action. Beast has "Mutant Flipping Power."

Below is the Storm card from the Suspended Animation chase set and below that is the Toy Biz insert.

Here's a very surprising sale. It's a Vampirella Gallery P-5 (Topps, 1995) which sold for $175 as a BIN on July 10. It was inserted in Flux magazine #7. Flux existed only in the mid-90's but it was relatively well-known so the P-5 could be found and wasn't valued any more than the others even by the time PCE2008 was published (value around $3-5 then).

I don't know why it has jumped so high other than it has become very hard-to-find in recent years under my nose so a collector grabbed it.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Here's a very surprising sale.

I don't know why it has jumped so high other than it has become very hard-to-find in recent years under my nose so a collector grabbed it.

I don't know that we should be surprised by any card sale on eBay anymore. Doesn't really matter what kind of card, but we concentrate on non-sport naturally. The prices being posted for some of these sold promos and insert cards and even base cards are just crazy high, to the point where I am starting not to believe some of them are real.

On the other hand, many of the autograph cards that I look at the most have dropped in value and are reasonably priced for people that don't already own them. Maybe after the promo craze the common signer cards will get a boost.

It really seems like there are waves of interest, especially in 90s cards right now. A title takes off and a surge of offers appear and buyers jump at them. I really wonder who is calling the gold rush and if there is any gold in them hills for actual card collectors.

There is a certain element of, "Oh, I haven't seen that card in a while, so I should get it," or if you're getting into Vampirella cards but don't know the market, you might think that's around what it goes for because you haven't seen it for sale before. The next one might sell for less or maybe Vampirella promos are the next crazy thing after the Spongebob speculators have gobbled them all up.

I think we should all keep buying just what we like. It seems sooner or later the crazies are going to want what you happen to have too. You'll just go nuts trying to predict what the next hot thing will be and you'll "invest" in the wrong thing.

I see that 1995 Dragonball Z holochrome promo is still selling high. Two have sold recently for $150 each (one on June 6; the other on August 31). That one seems to go up and down but it's way up again.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
I think we should all keep buying just what we like. It seems sooner or later the crazies are going to want what you happen to have too. You'll just go nuts trying to predict what the next hot thing will be and you'll "invest" in the wrong thing.

Sound advice. Although it's tempting to regret cards we passed over that have now surged in price, it's important to remember why we left them. We didn't want them in the first place, simple as that.

A Star Wars 30th Anniversary 3-card promo set (C1-C3) that was given out at the Star Wars Celebration Europe sold for $175 on July 11. PCE2008 has them at $25 each. I don't know the market on that one.

A 6-card set of the unnumbered (blue backs) promos for the Marvel Masterpieces set (1992) sold for $142.50 after 2 bids on June 20. These are the Silver Surfer, Captain America, Psylocke, Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine cards. The Silver Surfer, Captain America, and Wolverine ones were and have been harder-to-get.