Equally some cards have been issued in the last 10 years marked "Dealer Promo" that have very small print runs thus making phraselogy like promo and prototype mean the same at least by some manufacturers. I have some cigarette sized cards issued in the 1960's that are marked "Reward Card" or "Bonus Card" that clearly promote other card sets from that issuer whereas these days they would be classed as a promo. I suspect the phrase "promo" had yet to enter the cartophilic world at the time.

regards

John

quote:

Originally posted by JOHN LEVITT:
Equally some cards have been issued in the last 10 years marked "Dealer Promo" that have very small print runs thus making phraselogy like promo and prototype mean the same at least by some manufacturers.

I think of those as "favorite son" cards made for select card dealers that somehow qualified or paid for the privilege of getting them and even having their name put on some of them. I find it an unfortunate by product of the modern hobby, although I'm sure others would disagree.

They aren't prototypes. I even hate calling them promos because they are really a form of incentive to support specific dealers when they sell them off. The lines do blur when card collectors try to come up with definitive terms for cards that, accidently or on purpose, don't follow the rules of their definition type.

To me a prototype card in the true sense of it should be rare, unique and desirable to a collector. I wouldn't think there is a long list of them, while there are plenty of true promos and ten times as many fake promos.

Dynamite Cards, also known as Dynamic Forces, has been doing that alot over the past 2-3 years with their Vampirella, Dawn, and Bettie Page cards. Most (but not all) of their card sets have "bonus cards" and promos exclusive to certain dealers, in particular 2 sellers in the UK, who always seem to have exclusive promos on these sets for sale on ebay.

The same company has also been doing cards with their Kickstarters (there seems to be a new campaign every 2 or 3 months) for Elvira, Bettie Page, Deijah Thoris, etc. in which they refer to the cards in their advertisements as PROMO CARDS. However, the ones I have seen for Bettie Page, Vampirella, etc. don't actually say "promo" on them. They are just exclusive cards not available anywhere else...

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
First of all, is that signature a facsimile on the card? I think it looks like it, but would be great if hand signed.

Jeff Allender checklist shows three prototype autograph cards. Barbara, Tracy Lawrence and Billy Ray Cyrus.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
First of all, is that signature a facsimile on the card? I think it looks like it, but would be great if hand signed.

Jeff Allender checklist shows three prototype autograph cards. Barbara, Tracy Lawrence and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Now you sound like an eBay seller describing his iffy autograph card. Is it real or is it Memorex? Remember that one.

Is the prototype that you have hand signed or is it a pre-print/facsimile in the card? It looks like a copied pre-print, but it would be really nice if it was authentic.

Yeah, Allender also separates those three cards as promos and autographed, but as there was no autograph Gold set, I'm still not sure if it means hand signed signatures or just the facsimile autographs added on the prototype cards.

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

Yeah, I remember that commercial. It's how some people of a certain generation remember Ella Fitzgerald but it was "Is is live or is it Memorex?"

I still have a bunch of cassettes and some of them are in one of those carrying cases. I doubt they would still play but I can't bring myself to throw them away. One of them is a "cassingle." Who remembers those?

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
First of all, is that signature a facsimile on the card? I think it looks like it, but would be great if hand signed.

Jeff Allender checklist shows three prototype autograph cards. Barbara, Tracy Lawrence and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Now you sound like an eBay seller describing his iffy autograph card. Is it real or is it Memorex? Remember that one.

Is the prototype that you have hand signed or is it a pre-print/facsimile in the card? It looks like a copied pre-print, but it would be really nice if it was authentic.

Yeah, Allender also separates those three cards as promos and autographed, but as there was no autograph Gold set, I'm still not sure if it means hand signed signatures or just the facsimile autographs added on the prototype cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Now you sound like an eBay seller describing his iffy autograph card. Is it real or is it Memorex? Remember that one.

Hahaha I wrote it that way just for this response!

I am actually about 80/20 for it being authentic but you are right it has a "look" to it. It is not printed and the ink can be clearly noted. I have not seen another one to compare it to for any sort of mechanical signature.

One day I am sure I will submit the thing for authentication and see what comes back. Paid 5 bucks for it and a Clayton Moore signed card (which I have had authenticated) at a local card show on the base in Iceland around 96 or 97. Quite possibly my first non sports autographs.

I guess no matter what I am ahead of the game.

PCE2008 lists an 18-card promo set for the "Witchblade" TV show that was given out at the 2000 San Diego Comic-Con. There was also a 6 x 9-inch promo given out at the same special signing event at the convention. Fans stood in line and you could pick up this card and get it signed by the stars (and a writer/director) of the show in the same line.

PCE2008 has an entry for "Willie Mosconi Card Collection (The Mosconi Estate, undated) and lists promos 2 and 5. These cards appear to be singles from the set that were stamped "PROMO" on the back and they are seldom-seen these days. Here is promo 3.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
PCE2008 lists an 18-card promo set for the "Witchblade" TV show that was given out at the 2000 San Diego Comic-Con. There was also a 6 x 9-inch promo given out at the same special signing event at the convention. Fans stood in line and you could pick up this card and get it signed by the stars (and a writer/director) of the show in the same line.

That signed promo is very cool. I wouldn't mind having that one. But its from 2000 and we just don't see good promotions done like that anymore, even when there was bigger shows pre-COVID.

Re: Witchblade.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of Yancy Butler's career. Over the past 20 years, she's done about two dozen obscure cable and straight-to-video films, most of which no one's ever heard of. I know she had some alcohol and substance abuse issues. She's now in her 50s.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
Re: Witchblade.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of Yancy Butler's career. Over the past 20 years, she's done about two dozen obscure cable and straight-to-video films, most of which no one's ever heard of. I know she had some alcohol and substance abuse issues. She's now in her 50s.

Yeah I have most, if maybe all of those first Witchblade autograph cards, and there was a time when the Butler was over the $100 mark. Now about $40 is high and dropping. I saw one of her Anaconda vs Alligator or some such thing on DVD awhile back and it was really rough to watch, not in a fun way either.

PCE2008 has a separate listing for "Trigun: "Angel Arms" but the card is actually part of what appears to be an 8-card set. A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a seller offering what he called a 7-card set.

Here are two of the cards. Each was inserted just inside the shrinkwrap of "Trigun" VHS tapes. The cards have chromium fronts and the backs are mostly blank but say "Trigun" at the top. They measure 4 x 7 3/8 inches. The card title matches the video title it is packaged with. Here's the checklist:

n.n. "Angel Arms"
n.n. "Gun-Ho-Guns"
n.n. "High Noon"
n.n. "Lost Past"
n.n. "Project Seeds"
n.n. "Puppet Master"
n.n. "$$60,000,000,000 Man"
n.n. "Wolfwood"

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

After posting about the oversized Trigun cards above, David R. alerted me to an auction for several cards that that was missing two of the ones I noted but also showed a different card I hadn't seen before. I found another photo showing that card, "The $$60,000,000,000 Man," with two others listed above. Promo collectors know there is a standard size card (one of a 3-card set, including another larger card, given out at shows in 2000) with the same title and art on the front.

I have edited the post above to account for the 8th card. Who knows, there might be another one.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:


I have edited the post above to account for the 8th card. Who knows, there might be another one.

I have only seen those 8 since the tapes were released. The cards may be oversized but the quality is impressive.

Yes, I don't watch much anime but I thought they were cool-looking chromium cards and the 7-card lot was a great deal so I jumped on it. Finding the 8th card cheap appears to be a challenge.

PCE2008 lists "The Simpsons" 3D cards from CC's snacks as a 30-card set but there are also #31 and 32 cards advertised as rare as noted by Cecil elsewhere on Card Talk. The fronts of cards 1-12 form a complete image when correctly placed together and so do cards 22-30. PCE2008 notes that cards #13-21 are unknown though they exist and presumably form a third image. In my experience cards 1-12 and 22-30 have been easier to find and I still haven't acquired the run of 13-21 nor the two rare cards. However, here are cards #19 and 20:

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

I just stumbled onto a website that shows all the Simpsons CC's cards.


https://spakatak.com/tazos/aus...ccs-lenticular-cards

I have these Simpsons CC cards and the 2 rare ones... ie. #31 and #32

One other thing we can do in this thread is note the source of a promo that was left as an unknown in PCE (Todd marked them as "source n.k."). In the SuperStars MusiCards (Pro Set, 1991) listings Todd showed 8 unnumbered entries with 7 of them known to come from a Pro Set promo pack (now seldom-seen) that also included 2 Yo! MTV Raps prototypes. I found one of those packs years ago but as Todd also noted, it did not include the "Nelson" unnumbered promo which left many collectors wondering where that came from. It was one of the more uncommon promos from the set though you could find it if you hunted around for it.

A few years ago, while looking for another one of the SuperStars MusiCards promos, I found what looked like an oddball cello-pack for the set. It had a Debbie Gibson card on top which I thought could just be a regular card but it had the back of the unnumbered "Led Zeppelin" promo showing on the back. It turned out to be a 4-card pack with 4 unnumbered promos in it: Debby Gibson, MC Hammer, Led Zeppelin and Nelson. Another promo mystery solved. It might have been a pack only some dealers received. You tend to see the unnumbered promos less often than the numbered ones. I see the pack for sale maybe once per year usually offered for between $8 and $20.

Collectors have also known about two other unnumbered promos for the set that weren't listed in PCE2008: George Michael and Tina Turner. I've seen these cards occasionally but I still don't have them. No one seems to know where they came from. I don't think they were they in the regular packs. It's possible that the 4-card promo pack contains different combinations of unnumbered promos but I've always seen it with the Debby Gibson card on top and the Led Zeppelin card on the bottom.

The SuperStars MusiCards set had literally hundreds of regular cards with variants for many, if not all, of the cards plus cards only available in the UK release plus all the promos. There might be at least one more surprise to be found out there.

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