What is the prevailing wisdom about these cards? As the attached scans show, these cards are/were available for a coin or two out of streetside vending machines. I bought a number of them and they are all glitter-enhanced.

With topics such as Star Trek and Baywatch I suspect that they are probably not franchise sanctioned.

Has anyone ever catalogued them? Does anyone collect them? Who published them?

They are unnumbered and blank backed so Jeff at House of Cards would have a hard time listing them.

Its cool that you still have sidewalk vending machines with cards. We used to have them in certain chain stores, they generally dispensed various packs, mainly sportscards. Now they got replaced by lottery scratch-offs. Smaller stores still have gumball type machines with 50 cent toys for kids.

Unfortunately those cards appear to be unlicensed rip offs, so they are just novelty items at best. With no copyright or manufacturer you will not find them listed anywhere.

Actually, they do have copyright info, at least the Star Trek ones do. Paramount, 1996 and the company was Pennsylvania Vending. They were sold in vending machines and a larger version was sold in retail stores.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Its cool that you still have sidewalk vending machines with cards. We used to have them in certain chain stores, they generally dispensed various packs, mainly sportscards. Now they got replaced by lottery scratch-offs. Smaller stores still have gumball type machines with 50 cent toys for kids.

Unfortunately those cards appear to be unlicensed rip offs, so they are just novelty items at best. With no copyright or manufacturer you will not find them listed anywhere.

Don't they call them "Broder" cards when they're sports cards, Raven? (I believe named for a guy named Broder who was one of the first people to print up decent looking unlicensed cards and actually get decent distribution for them.)

Besides the first concern with these (someone making a profit from a property and not paying the rightful owners for the use of it), the other problem was, since they were unlicensed, the prevailing suspicion was that the maker of them (or even some other bootlegger, making a copy of a copy) could go make more anytime they wanted, thus the demand would never meet the supply and the card wouldn't be "valuable" (haha, like even any of the real ones that were massively overprinted from around 1986 to at least 1996 ever would be, true of the vast majority of all cards from those years, sports or non-sports).

Another knock on the vending stickers was that they could be pretty poorly made, since there was no real quality control.
In that regard, there were some exceptions, particularly in Super-Heroes sticker cards, and they've acquired some degree of collectability, if not legitimacy.

An example is the early 1990's series of Marvel Comics character stickers which often used the art found on the Skybox cards of that era (The Marvel Universe and Ultra X-Men Skybox sets), but on silver foil or prism stock and often re-colored, usually in sets of 12 or so. With these cards, all now over 20 years old, certain sets are well known and collected.

The interest is understandable, as some are really sharp looking, the manufacturers realizing people expected a nice card for 50 whole cents. They sometimes looked better than the card the art was taken (stolen, if you like) from, and at least some of the cards used images I'm pretty sure hadn't been used on the authorized cards.

Where overproduction fears once made collectors not want these, it is now believed these vending cards are much more limited than the authorized issues, which were made in what we know to be massively gargantuan print runs, often HUNDREDS of thousands of boxes of each set (dwarfing the non-sport print runs of today, where 15,000 is a huge release).

Adding to their air of relative scarcity is that a lot of them were used for their intended purpose, i.e., stuck on something.
With dealers not stocking singles after the releases (if they bought any in the first place), a collector might be able to get a couple of them, but could never finish the set, or even know what size the set was, with decent checklists of them having only been established over these past few years. And now, because printing technology, card stock, coloring techniques, etc., are just different than they were 20 years ago when these were made, it would, ironically, be pretty hard to make identical copies now, so they are finally gaining acceptance as part of a finite run. The bootleg, she is now authentic in that way.

Last year, I purchased a few binders of a sportcard's dealers nonsport junk cards, log ago put away in boxes, and it was all late 80's and early 90's stuff, a pretty cool mix of oddball items including 9 different X-Men vending machine stickers, likely unlicensed, but they are something different after having collected pretty much all of those authorized sets, so I love having them. Now I wouldn't necessarily go and look for any more of these kinds of "iffy" cards, but these are great looking, a very nice binder 9 pocket page. (I actually have 3 more of them from a different series, but they were stuck to the pink plastic binder the cards were in. I cut them out so they have a pink plastic backing. At this point, they're approaching folk art, a long way from a vending machine at the Laundromat.)

Finally, it should be remembered that not all of those vending stickers are bootlegs, some of them are almost certainly licensed. I have some really nice Looney Tunes, Family Guy, and Simpsons ones from the 1990's and early 2000's that have all of the right markings. Some of the Marvel and DC ones from early 1990's very well could have been licensed, too. And I remember a machine at our video store that had Charles Schulz Peanuts stickers. I wish I'd bought some of those. We used to rent Nintendo games there, so it must've been in the 1980's.

Anyone who has any of these and are concerned you could be violating someone's intellectual property with them, please send them all to me and I will send you back the legally made ones so you are rid of the offending presence, your conscience thus cleared.

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
Actually, they do have copyright info, at least the Star Trek ones do. Paramount, 1996 and the company was Pennsylvania Vending. They were sold in vending machines and a larger version was sold in retail stores.

Besides the telling copyright text that is on every sticker in both sets, it's clear an actual art department put them together. Those sets are sharp looking.

Here are those X-Men stickers I mentioned. Pretty nice!

The collecting of unlicensed cards is an individual decision. Although most of them would fall into the catagory of cheap junk, without a doubt I have seen unlicensed cards where the quality is equal to, if not better than, legimate copyrighted products. For people that are big fans of a particular title it's not unreasonable that they would collect whatever they may find on the subject if it looks good.

Having said that, I personally wouldn't touch unlicensed cards knowing what I do now about the manufacturing of authorized product. That is my decision simply because I don't want to contribute to the demand of a blackmarket that is hurting the licensed production of cards. Indeed if unlicensed cards were regarded as the same as authorized, licensed cards we would have no hobby anymore.

Its not just about violating someone's intellectual rights, it's about closing down RA, Breygent, Topps, CZE, and anyone else you can think of who pay huge sums of money to use licensed material. It would allow any nameless person with a graphic artist and a good printer to underprice anything that was licensed. It would destroy all current card value and potential appreciation.

Where are all those Broders of the 1990s now? How many are being bought and sold for big bucks? The stars and rookies never attained any greater value when compared to their matching cards produced by licensed manufacturers. They are novelity items and if someone wants to mingle licensed and unlicensed cards in their card collection, it's up to them, but unlicensed cards will not add value.

You can't have it both ways.

That's pretty much what it comes down to. Beyond the moral question of them, which is not really a question, I wouldn't collect them simply because how could you ever know you had them all? It might not be possible to make complete master sets of the new sets loaded with endless parallels, but on cards from the 1990's before all of that, and especially on smaller sets like these, I either want to get all of the cards in the set, or I wouldn't even bother.

Still, time has an effect on things, the result being that these stickers, 20+ years down the line from their dubious beginnings (, happily not being actively produced or distributed, so no longer hurting legitimate interests), have attained value, despite the fact that they should never be valued at more than the 50 cents they'd be worth for the purposes of decorating some kid's folder or locker. Be interesting to see what, if any, demand there is in the early 90's Marvel and DC stickers around the year 2040 at which time they'll be 50 years old. Something to live for, surely.

(I should mention there is also a very popular series of Horror Movie vending stickers from the late 80's and early 90's, although some of the movies depicted go back further than that. I'm not sure if those are licensed or not, but they definitely have cultivated their own collector base.).

As for those sports Broders, I knew they were junk way back when, but I see how they were able to sell so many of those. Even a cheapskate like me plunked down a buck apiece for those first two Darryl Strawberry in a Dodger uniform cards that were issued, literally a day or two after his signing, and more importantly, months before any official ones were released.
Darryl was pretty much a bust with the Dodgers, his best days already behind him by the time we got him. That was money well spent, me on the Broders and the Dodgers on Darryl. I still have those Darryl cards and the Dodgers still don't have the championship we thought he'd bring us, 23 years down the line. Coincidence? Perhaps it's our own version of the "Curse of the Bambino".

Dodgers fans purchasing Broders of Darryl is surely why every other team is our division has made it to the World Series (some winning!) in the years since we got there. We need to gather them all of those unlicensed cards together and feed them into a woodchipper in the middle of the Dodger Stadium outfield. I'd be willing to try it at this point. I really took that last championship in 1988 for granted, looking back.

They sold a lot of those kinds of cards, though, that's for sure. Bo Jackson was a common subject, and Michael Jordan, too. And a lot of legitimate dealers handled them, which is kind of crazy. How about those ridiculous endless variations of "Bart Knows" cards, which was a play on the "Bo Knows" Nike ad campaign, but with a badly drawn Bart Simpson in the place of Bo? People are still trying to sell those awful things. The ones with the Desert Storm themes are just nauseating, considering how anti-war the creators of the Simpsons were and are.

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

Picked up this nice batch at a swap meet last week for the princely sum of $2. I especially like the "combo" card featuring Marvel and DC logos on the same sticker.

Stores this area are still selling vending stickers. Disney money and One Direction as well as Marvel stickers and tatttoos around. You can get them at Shop Rite and dollar stores.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Picked up this nice batch at a swap meet last week for the princely sum of $2. I especially like the "combo" card featuring Marvel and DC logos on the same sticker.

I'm really interested in the horror prism stickers. Unfortunately I see them going for between $15 and $30 apiece. The only one I have is Scanners, which I found in a dealer's 5 cent box.

There's a lot of interest in those. 80's horror cinema in general, is hugely popular. Some of the original 1980's video releases of horror films (especially when they were issued in the larger sized display boxes, as opposed to slipcovers) can sell for hundreds of dollars, and this is even true when the movies themselves have been remastered and issued on DVD/BluRay.

Where the horror stickers are concerned, I remember when those could still be purchased in vending machines, at places like bowling alleys and supermarkets. I bought one back then and got a die-cut Jason mask from "Friday the 13th" and put it away, not seeing it for a long time. About 5 years ago, I found it and wondered if I could pick up some more, so I checked Ebay, but they weren't common there, even back then. I think I might've gotten 5 or 6 more and just given up.

Then, a couple of years ago, the superb horror magazine "Horror Hound" did a feature on them, with pictures of many of them, so that would've really added fuel to the fire, and they had already greatly stoked interest in the vintage video tapes with their photo-feature series "Video Vault" which focused on different manufacturers/distributor each month until they'd pretty much covered them all. I dearly wish they collect and expand on those and issue that in single book form. It would be an amazing resource, since even some of the "Horror Hound" magazines themselves are out of print and quite valuable! It is a great scream rag, for sure.

Anyway, they won't be easy to find, but I agree, those are some of the cooler ones of these vending machines ever to be issued.

Some scary samples.

A fearsome five pack



A scarifying seven



A terrifying twosome



Norman, is that you?



Creepshow (although here unfortunately with the Creepshow 2 key art. A proper Creepshow sticker would feature the ghoul in a cinema box office window.





And, the most horrific of all. Dare you risk looking into the evil eyes of the...

MAN-DRELLLL!?!?!?!?!

Those horror cards are real killers!
Just the right amout of effort put into the artwork to make them trashy, yet loving artifacts of fear. I may feel like starting a hunt for them soon.
But they're definitely going on my wishlist now.

I didn't realize that these were so prized.

My husband has the Freddy, Jason and Critters ones, I believe, still intact with the thin cardboard each came enclosed in.

I had some South Park ones, but instead of saving them as I should have, I used some to decorate the inside of a shelving unit door.

Hindsight is such a gift.

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

One thing about these stickers that is for sure:

They were sold to be stuck on something, and that's what happened to a lot of them.

The way these kinds of items show up in bulk 20+ years down the line is when some hordes of unsold ones were found, and it doesn't happen as much with these. Most of them ever made were sold, and many of those sold were used.

They still sell stuff like this in machines at our local A&P and at the nearby Babys R Us

The one I want most is Nightbreed and I keep seeing it offered at $29.99. The thing that bugs me is I remember a card show in 1994 where a dealer had hundreds of stickers for 25 cents each. I only bought the Ninja Turtles holograms that I still needed. I bet she had the horror ones too, but I wasn't interested in them back then.

The big problem is that prices are all over the place for these. I've seen them at both high and low end prices depending on the subject matter. Like everything else you can put whatever price you want to sell it for on e-bay but you have to find someone who wants it bad enough to pay top price for them. I don't see older ones for sale often and when I do they are just singles. I do have a number of single duplicates for trade on ARCHIE, 90210, MELROSE PLACE (I THINK-I HAVE ONE OR 2 LEFT)BETTY BOOP, DISNEY, LOONEY TUNES AND A FEW OTHERS. Most of these are licensed-they may all be but I am not sure.

It's also tricky because, as we discussed at length when the thread was first started, some of these are licensed and some aren't. When cards are officially licensed, you have the sense that only a finite number of them are printed over a brief period of time, and that's it. That's what's out there. The chance of a "find" of them in later years doesn't seem so likely.

With unauthorized cards, the cards can be reprinted any time, even to this day, really, if the bootlegger has the technology available to do it, so it's hard to know if you are getting 1980's era "originals" (a real misnomer, I know, where Broder-type cards are concerned.). Beyond that, the people who originally made them may have a pallet of them that'll get dumped onto the market once one of them sees the current interest, or else once someone else buys them, maybe out of long forgotten storage locker that finally made it onto "Storage Wars".

Even so, the most popular of them seem to be the Marvel Impel and Masterpieces sets (absolutely knockoffs, all of them) and the horror line (almost certainly knock-offs, the majority of them for sure).

With Marvel, there are a lot of long-time collectors (20 years+) of Marvel cards, who simply have everything else, so these stickers, which many once scoffed out, myself included, have become more desirable to add to the collection since they are something different, at least, something to chase after you've caught all the rest.

With the horror ones, their driver is they are "cool" looking, for lack of a better term, and appeal to horror collectors in general (as opposed to the Marvel stickers which will appeal more to card collectors).

As for their sometimes amateurish look, such as color schemes that are "off", or font has been done by hand, etc., that very cheesiness somehow makes them even better. I particularly like the ones with garish bright colors, the kind the movie studios (or a proper art department) would never have used on an item advertising or merchandising 1980's horror movies. That era was dark, with lots of carnage, generally speaking, so pastels were avoided in advertising them, but not on these stickers! I also like the ones for more obscure movies.

I wish someone could actually license a set of modern prism sticker like these, done right, with vintage and newer horror films, but that seems highly unlikely. In the meantime, I'm happy with the ones I have, and I'll look to add more, if I can find any for decent prices.

It ain't nothin' but somethin' to do.