I recently realized that oversized costume cards, were not only a bigger swatch, but also the card itself being much bigger.

Came to remember when I first saw those new types of cards. It was extraordinary to touch a piece of fabric, worn on my favorite show back then.
It was 2002, and Angel season 3 just had its first piecework cards, from Inkworks.

I was wondering, which ones were the first ever costume cards made?

Good question and it would probably require a bit of research to narrow it down to a couple of products, probably appearing around the same time.

But if I were to guess, the first swatch cards were probably made in sports cards of the early 90's. They used to be just called swatches. Then it became jerseys or uniforms and eventually relic got to be the blanket term for any type of clothing.

The non-sport costume card started as a swatch too. Then it went to material and eventually relic. With non-sport cards, material was also eventually identified as personal clothing, screen worn costumes and material from costumes, which could be from any leftover fabric rolls.

I totally agree that I really like the oversized swatches. Most costume cards, or whatever you want to call them, are not interesting, especially once they became a standard box hit. Since they were made in abundance and are usually one-color jobs, the vast majority are incredibly cheap. There are exceptions for limited cards or variants, that may cost a nice price.

Multiple swatch cards also cost more, but it's hardly worth it once you go beyond the duals and triples. Both Breygent and CZE put out cast cards with 6 - 11 swatches as I recall. and they went for big bucks, but really looked like a bunch of tiny square cutouts.

So I didn't answer your question, but non-sport has always followed closely behind sports cards in making premium hits. Only with sketch cards do I feel non-sport had the leading innovation because that's where the artists worked. For me, I think my earliest non-sport costume cards must have come from Inkworks, possibly Buffy.

2002 might be a good time frame. Nothing from Inkworks had them until then and Lord of the Rings didn't have them until the first update edition also in 2002.

American Pie had the Elvis swatch in 2001

Farscape had them in 2000

We had a similar discussion last year talking about "firsts."

http://nonsportupdate.infopop....4605353/m/9717056596

I'm not sure NSU nor The Wrapper has done an article about that before. It would be interesting as a "card history" reference. I like that NSU has been going back not so long ago (90's) and long ago (50's) but maybe it's time to look at the history of 3D/lenticulars/costume cards/other chase. I have a feeling something like that has been written before. If you spend any time at all going back through 90's back issues, you run into an article you completely forgot about and enjoy all over again.