Here's a promo phone card from Germany. The word "Muster" on the back means "sample" as in something not for sale. This card promotes a set of phone cards celebrating famous people of the 20th Century (Willy Brandt, Chancellor of West Germany in the 70's in this particular case). The card is undated but was available in the late 90's.

PCE2008 lists three 10-card sets of Eartha Cards, each showcasing animals of a particular region/environment: African Rainforest, Australia, and Coral Reef. These cards, slightly oversized at 2 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches, came from a Stonyfield Farm Yogurt promotion though it's not known if they were inserted with a product or perhaps obtainable through a mailaway offer. The Eartha cards are undated but they were first documented in PCE2003 so they were released some time before.

It turns out there is a fourth set, the Alaska series. Here are 3 singles from that one.

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Here's one of what appears to be a 4-card set of "Twin Peaks" cards that were inserted one per issue of a French magazine. It measures about 3 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches and features actress, Madchen Amick, who played Shelley Johnson on the show. The back text is in French and provides biographical info. The card is undated but notes "Dawson's Creek" as her most recent work so that dates it to the late 90's.

Here's a promo for the hardcover release of the book, "Armed & Dangerous" by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly with Vic Carucci (Doubleday, 1992). It's "widevision" size at 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches. One other unusual thing about this one is that Skybox printed it. Skybox didn't print too many promos for products/events that weren't directly related to sports and non-sports cards.

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Here's another promo phone card from Germany. This one promotes a number of comic titles on the back with illustrations from "Tibor" on the front. "Tibor" is a Tarzan-like character, a millionaire who crash-lands in a remote jungle, suffering amnesia but learns to survive in his new environment.

A friend in Germany sent me some cards in the late 90's after I mentioned that I collected trading cards including those from food products. He sent me a couple of Space Jam and Flipper cards from Kelloggs cereal and a few of these promo phone cards (the famous people one, this one, and another Tibor one).

Another promo phone card given out in Germany in the mid-late 90's. This one has different "Tibor" art.

This unnumbered card comes from the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) set (Impel, 1991). It doesn't have any promotional text on it so I guess it's more of a prototype. Distributors gave it out with a purchase (a case incentive and apparently with just box sales too?) but some were just given away as well. It was also an early hologram in the trading card hobby. In 1991, Impel was including holograms as chase cards in some of their sets that year (Star Trek 25th Anniversary, Marvel Universe II) after starting to do it the previous year (Marvel Universe I).

Here's a promo card for "The Last of the Viking Heroes" (Genesis West) comic series which was released in 1988. This one shows cover art from Issue #5 and is signed by the artist, Michael Thibodeaux, and numbered out of 100. The source is unknown but it appears to have been a show giveaway.

Here's a 4-card Negro League Baseball Players Association promo set (Eclipse, 1992) that was given out at Shea Stadium on June 2, 1992. They feature portraits of Negro League players with art by Paul Lee on fronts and background information on the backs. Eclipse released a boxed set, "Stars of the Negro Leagues," three years earlier. This set doesn't bear any promotional text so it doesn't promote that directly. That set also featured artwork of players.

PCE2008 lists a Negro League prototype from 1993 also by Eclipse. It isn't associated with a set unless it was a late issue related to the 1990 "Stars of the Negro Leagues" set.

This is an 18-card Negro Leagues promo set (Eclipse/Kraft, 1992). It was given out at Lackawanna County Stadium on August 9, 1992. Like the other Negro League cards made by Eclipse, these feature artwork of players - art by John Clapp. 15,000 packs were given out that day.

Here's one of two promos that Waldenbooks stores gave out to promote The Rock's memoir, "The Rock Says" (co-written by Joe Layden, Harper Entertainment, 2000). I hadn't seen this card before seeing it in a search for something else and haven't seen the other one.

Waldenbooks didn't give out cards while I worked there in the 80's. I was there a little too late for the Mickey Mantle card and long gone by the time they gave out the Planet of the Apes and Star Trek cards.

One customer did ask us if he could buy a Star Trek: The Next Generation Enterprise balloon we had as a display. We just gave it to him when the promotion was over.

I saw this card for sale online weeks ago. I would say it was at a crazy price but at least one of The Rock's autograph cards has sold for more than $1000. I see it still for sale and on sale for $800 - down from $1000. It's not an autograph card, so while it may be scarce now, I would be surprised if it went for that.

About a year and half ago, I posted a scan of an unreleased Ren & Stimpy glow-in-the-dark test card that Topps did in 1993 (printer given on the back). Here's another one.





Topps didn't end up using glow-in-the-dark cards in the set that came out in '94.

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Here are the unnumbered header and card 009 from the 11-card "Limited Cars Limited Cards" set (Volkswagen of America, 2007). The cards were given to you in a clear plastic wrapper when you bought a Volkswagen at a dealership in 2007-2008. They measure 4 x 6 inches and promote earlier VW's going back to '69, a few 2007 models, and an upcoming 2008 model. Numbered cards are 001-0010.

This is a 6-card set (Skybox/Paramount Pictures, 1993) that was inserted only with the "Starfleet Collection Limited Edition" set. The collection included all 6 Star Trek movies that had been made up to that time with one card for each movie. Three of the cards are holograms.

Sellers tend to ask a lot more for just the cards than what you can buy the collection for. You might find some subset of the items (maybe missing the watch) for $60-75 these days which is less than it used to go for. All the Trekkies already have it.

The PCE2008 lists three cards from the Marvel Comics Live and in Person set (Marvel Entertainment Group) from 1992. It turns out there was also at least one card given out the following year. I don't know how it was distributed but it must have been in a more limited way than the 1992 cards because I've seen it maybe just once. It might have been given out at just one show or special event.

PCE2008 lists a Marvel Super Heroes Live & In Person promo from 1996. Here's one that was from 1995.

Here's an 8-card promo set (Atari Games, 1994) for the Primal Rage video game. It's a separate set from the action figure cards. These show the "Toys 'R Us" logo on the front and were likely handed out at those stores either as a pre-order bonus or in-store giveaway.

I mentioned finding an "Olympic Innovator's Collection" (3M, 1991) 5-card promo pack at a local flea market in another thread. It's a known set but I noticed it's not in PCE2008. The pack includes a blank-backed header plus four cards that each honor a legendary Olympic athlete (Dick Fosbury, Sonja Henie, Kip Keino, and Olga Korbut). It's one of the early modern-era promo sets. I'd only seen a few of the singles until finding this pack.

I didn't know there was also a regular set done by 3M until David R. told me he'd seen other cards. The promos are unnumbered with the text all in English and a 1991 copyright. The regular cards are numbered with French and English text and a 1992 copyright. I'm not sure how they were distributed but the promos say on the back how you can send away for the complete collection for just a buck.

I guess I could've posted this in the Non-Sports/Sports thread but Olympic Cards have a history of being included with non-sports.

I see somebody trying to get $4000 for this card. Sorry but hipsters are chasing other things now.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
PCE2008 lists a Marvel Super Heroes Live & In Person promo from 1996. Here's one that was from 1995.