Those of us who collect promo cards and certainly many other card/comic collectors are familiar with the cards that were inserted with Wizard magazine plus the slabbed and sealed variants that were incentives to dealers to order at least a certain number of copies of the magazine. It was a popular magazine running from 1991 or 2011, so even today, there's no shortage of those cards, slabbed/sealed or not, available out there.

Lesser-known are slabbed and sealed cards by other magazines. This brings me to an interesting completed item I saw on Ebay this month. It was called a set of 7 sealed and numbered "Arena Magazine" promo cards. Arena Magazine was a monthly comic book news/interviews publication with some trading card coverage from 1992 to 1994 (longer?). An exclusive promo card was polybagged with all but perhaps the earliest issues. However, the ones inserted with those issues are not the same as the slabbed and sealed cards. The latter have silver or gold foil logos or borders not present on the polybagged cards.

PCE2008 lists some of the slabbed and sealed cards separately under the titles of the cards themselves. Todd might consider adding an "Arena Magazine" listing organizing them all together if he hasn't already.

It's unclear how the slabbed and sealed cards were distributed, but like the Wizard versions, they were likely dealer incentives as well. Since the early 90's, these cards have been seen for sale only occasionally as the magazine didn't run as long so a lot fewer of any of the Arena cards were distributed.

Getting back to the Ebay sale of the 7 cards, this was the first time I've ever seen more than one of the slabbed/sealed cards for sale in one shot. The seller called it a set but there appears to have been at least two others. By my count, there were 14 different unnumbered cards inserted with the magazine (2 with issue #9). I had seen only 6 of the slabbed/sealed ones before seeing the listing (hadn't seen or heard of that "Name that Hero" variant). PCE2008 lists a slabbed/sealed variant of the Blood & Roses promo from Arena #16 and one for the Wildstar promo from Arena #8.

Here's a list of the seven cards in the Ebay listing with images at the bottom of this post:

Evil Ernie
Mighty Man
Name that Hero
Next Men
Parts Unknown II
Trencher
Tribe aka Hannibal card

Also, in Arena #12 there was a giveaway in which you had a chance to win a "Gold Wildstar Trading Card" so I assume that refers to the slabbed/sealed card listed in PCE2008.

As for values, PCE2008 had them selling for $5-10 each. Since then, I haven't seen them going for much more than that - couple of $15 sales here and there with a recent $5 sale. That 7-card lot went for $95 so those cards went for just under $15 on average - a pretty good deal considering how rarely these appear for sale and that Evil Ernie might go for more in a separate BIN/auction. I have only four of them so far.

In 2017, a seller tried to get $20 for a Tribe/Hannibal sealed/slabbed card but I didn't see it sell. An Evil Ernie one was offered for $40 and I watched it for a while. I couldn't find it later so I don't know if the seller decided to keep it or deal it privately. It didn't show up as a completed item. I think an Evil Ernie could go for $20-30.

If anybody else has any comments on these cards, please jump in.

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

Didn't Hero Illustrated have gold variants on some of the cards that came in a soft plastic holder, which were sealed and numbered, as well ?

I think there was an Aliens vs. Predator, maybe others

Yes, I'll have to get to the Hero cards at some point. There was that Aliens vs. Predator 2-card uncut panel with gold foil. That bumped up in value or at least sellers wanted more for it in the past few years.

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
Didn't Hero Illustrated have gold variants on some of the cards that came in a soft plastic holder, which were sealed and numbered, as well ?

I think there was an Aliens vs. Predator, maybe others

On Hero Illustrated, there was also a gold, uncut sheet of the 3 card Cyber Force / Code Name Stryke Force set, I believe.

Were there others ?

Right. I'd have to look at what I have but am pretty sure I don't have that Cyberforce gold foil sheet. I'd have to put in some time just for Hero cards to see if there are others. At the moment, I can't think of any.

Here's the Arena Magazine insert (#12 August 1993 issue) on the left with the slabbed/sealed variant on the right. The Trencher logo is white on the insert but is gold foil on the slabbed/sealed card.

Edit: I didn't know about the sealed cards until finding this one in a bargain box for $1 in the late 90's.

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

Here are the "Next Men" cards. The sealed card differs from the magazine insert by having a silver logo on the front.

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

Here are the two "Hannibal" (promoting the Tribe comics) cards. The logo is white on the magazine insert and silver on the sealed card.