I recently saw this card for sale. It is touted as having been a giveaway with a beach towel purchase from Walmart in 1994. 6 different cards, one for each towel. I'd never heard of this promotion.

Now, Walmart also sold boxes of these cards. Are the 6 Limited Edition Subset cards found in the boxes identical to the sealed beach towel cards?

TRIPTYCH FRONT TRIPTYCH BACK

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

They look very, very similar, down to what appears to be red foil letters.
I have a set from packs, but the picture of the towel card is probably too small to compare them fully.

Chesspieceface,

Thanks for taking the time to compare them!


A close up of the front and back.

TRIPTYCH CLOSE UP

https://hosting.photobucket.co...eight=320&fit=bounds

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

Sorry for the delay. For purposes of comparison, here's the pictures of my own set, which were definitely pack-pulled.

They seem to be identical. So, no need to chase them as newfound promos except perhaps in the cello pack, when they appear. I wonder if they'll be featured in PCE2023?

Sorry to bump this old thread.

I am attempting to meta-collect 94 Fleer Ultra X-Men, as in getting everything from this set. The team triptych-in-beach towels is an interesting topic and info is basically non-existent on it. I bought the complete set of 6 in cellophane on eBay, and they are in transit to me. I do not think they will differ at all from the regular pack inserted triptych’s.




For those keeping track..3 ways to get the Team Triptychs: Walmart 94 Ultra X-men packs, these sealed cellophane ones from X-Men beach towels, and lastly in those comic multi-packs, discussed here: https://nonsportupdate.infopop...4605453/m/3497014207

Since the cellophane looks the same in all the examples I’ve seen (not many), I do think they are official and came like this . The only reference I have besides this thread on the cellophane ones is an eBay seller who is claiming they came from X-men beach towels at Walmart in the mid 90s. I have asked the seller for more info/source on that but didn’t get an answer.

Does anyone have any hard evidence they came from beach towels? I managed to find and purchase this 90s X-men unopened beach towel on eBay- near miracle this thing even exists unopened:





I bought it specifically because it may be the source of the Triptychs as an outside chance. Unfortunately there is no triptych card in/on it anywhere…though that does not preclude it was attached somewhere and long since removed. There are 4 separate lines of evidence that are in agreement with it being the source:

1. It’s X-Men related (Gambit)
2. It’s from Walmart, which seems to be associated with these Team Triptychs
3. It’s dated 1994, the year of the set
4. It’s a beach towel, as that other ebay listing claims is the source.

It would be awesome if this really is an example of where they came from, but it’s very uncertain..not even sure where the card would go in the towel. Anyway…if anyone knows for sure where these came from/the brand of towel…would be interested to know.

Edit: sorry for the blurry first pic..was from the listing and didn’t realize the resolution was that bad.

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

Just to update this- I got the complete set of cellophane triptychs in hand- they are identical to the regular pack inserted triptychs (as expected).



So they are not promo cards per se. My philosophy with these though is the Triptych-sealed-in-packet is a different collectible unit than the card itself, and that collectible unit is a promo. As alluded to by promoking above. I believe in cases similar to this you will see the market prices reflect that distinction as well…for example I had to pay a lot more for these than just a set of opened triptychs.

You and Todd Jordan share that philosophy of chase cards or even base cards repackaged for promotional use being a different item than just the card(s). There are cello-packs of "Yo! MTV Raps" base cards that were given out. Some collectors kept at least one pack unopened because it was a different way the set was promoted even though they were the same cards that were in the regular packs and stored it with their set.

I've also seen a Marvel action figure with a Marvel Annual '95 base card included. You might want to keep the item unopened to preserve whatever novelty of the card that would be lost if you removed it.

Exactly. And they should be considered distinct collectibles because each has its own and different supply. The supply of the opened 95 Flair Annual base card is enormous. The supply of the card still sealed in the action figure will be a lot less. The supply of the 94 triptychs in cellophane seems to be very small indeed (not surprising if coming from X-men towels at Walmart and kids getting that are opening for the card). Think I saw maybe one other ebay listing tops besides the above set with them over the last year.

Could really apply this philosophy to most 90s promos that came in magazines. Although the market often does not differentiate the promo from promo-in-magazines. Sometimes it does. One example being the 92 Marvel Masterpieces Wolverine blue back promo- finding that sealed in an Oct ‘92 Up n Coming magazine should be a lot more than the promo itself.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
You and Todd Jordan share that philosophy of chase cards or even base cards repackaged for promotional use being a different item than just the card(s). There are cello-packs of "Yo! MTV Raps" base cards that were given out. Some collectors kept at least one pack unopened because it was a different way the set was promoted even though they were the same cards that were in the regular packs and stored it with their set.

I've also seen a Marvel action figure with a Marvel Annual '95 base card included. You might want to keep the item unopened to preserve whatever novelty of the card that would be lost if you removed it.

On the topic of 94 Fleer Ultra X-Men…I am heavily getting into this set and collecting it because it’s one of the most nostalgic sets from my youth.

We all know the triptychs and silver x-overs came from Walmart packs, the Greatest Battles came from jumbo packs. I was wondering… is this one of the first, if not first time in cards where a set had parallel retail pack channels with exclusive inserts for those packs? I’m probably way off..but where has it happened before this, even in sports cards? Nowadays retail exclusive parallels and inserts is second nature in both sports and non-sports…but prior to 1994?

I do think it’s the first time in Marvel cards it had it. 1994 seems to be the year they went to retail exclusive subsets (1994 Marvel Universe powerblast, Fleer Amazing Spiderman gold webs, and Masterpieces Holofoils)..but 94 Fleer Ultra X-Men would have predated all of those as it came out in January-early Feb ‘94