So in the past, if you pulled a rare Auto or Sketch card, it was usually somebody special most people would recognize. And you felt like you won the lottery. Now if you pull a rare Silver / Gold/ Ruby, etc.. parallel of base card 36 (at much harder odds than the limited auto), it almost seems as a big let down. Do you put it in its own 9 pocket sleeve to show off? Would you rather show your friends a William Shatner or Leonard Nemoy Auto, or a Ruby Parallel base card?

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:
So in the past, if you pulled a rare Auto or Sketch card, it was usually somebody special most people would recognize. And you felt like you won the lottery. Now if you pull a rare Silver / Gold/ Ruby, etc.. parallel of base card 36 (at much harder odds than the limited auto), it almost seems as a big let down. Do you put it in its own 9 pocket sleeve to show off? Would you rather show your friends a William Shatner or Leonard Nemoy Auto, or a Ruby Parallel base card?

That's very true, I feel the same way about parallels with different colors, sizes, or added foil. I even think that many of those cards are just thrown out by people who don't recognize that they are, in theory, more valuable than the regular base. Certainly if you were looking to impress someone with your card collection, no non-collector would even know the significance of the vast majority of parallels.

Where as certified autograph cards, sketches and relics at least look like something worth owning, even to someone who is not particularily interested in the hobby.

I must agree, that on first sight autograph cards are more impressive than most parallels. However, having at least part of your collection in parallels would be more impressive if the parallels were numbered. To collect even half of the GPK series in parallels of which there are only 50 or 100 wordlwide, that does have its own glow of achievement. Especially if theye were numbered (as a reminder of how rare they actually are).
On the other hand I might also be too susceptible to marketing ploys

I recall back in 1994 when one of the SkyBox Marvel sets had the chase in 3 versions---regular, jumbo packs, and WalMart packs, I believe. There was much outcry over that as those were the days before ebay, so you had to rely upon card shows to find these chase

And then in 1995, SkyBox did the holo series for Superman, which had the red or gold holos (I forget which) that were only thru Wal-Mart, which nobody could reasonably make a set of. I believe some people are still chasing these down, nearly 20 years later

The Superman holograms came in the regular Silver and a not too difficult Gold parallel as I recall. There were hobby and retail boxes, and I think the retails only had the Silver versions. The Hobby had the golds, and a couple of those in each pack, so it's not an especially difficult set to finish.

I don't think the Red Parallel Superman holograms were even planned at first, but Skybox had so many unsold boxes of Superman Holoseries, I'm pretty sure the red parallels were created to help sell off what was left. For $29.99 at Target (perhaps at WalMart, too), you got a regular box of the cards and a packet with 2 random red parallels.

With it being a 50 card set, you can see how hard it would be to assemble. With perfect luck, you'd have needed to buy 25 of those $30 boxes, so $600 for a set of Reds, but again, that's with finding no duplicates in 25 different 2 card packs, a pretty much impossible proposition.

I considered buying one box to get a couple of reds, but passed, because the Superman holoseries wasn't a very good set. The holograms, whatever their color, had a flat, almost gritty finish, and the sculptures created to photograph for purposes of making the 3-D image were too cartoonish. Beyond that, these cards were made smack dab in the middle of the best forgotten era when Superman wore a mullet hairstyle! The set does boast a very cool Holocel which appears to be a clear piece of see through plastic, but viewed in the proper light, is revealed to contain a nifty hologram.

The followup Batman Holoseries was much nicer with smoother surface cards, better sculptures for the 3-D, its own cool Holocel, but with a small Batman Foil logo in the corner, unlike the Superman one which could've benefitted from a similar Superman logo, since without it, it was actually pretty easy to lose that card. (Plus, I'm sure at least a few box breakers, not seeing it in the proper light to view the hologram may have just thought it to be a misprint, and tossed it away!).

The Batman series, which was Hobby Exclusive, unlike the Superman series, also had 6 playable "Overpower" character hologram cards which remain highly collectible to this day. There was a parallel version of the Batman cards with the Title of the card shown on the Hologram in blue foil. These were also only 2 per box, making it a tough set to make since you'd need the 25 boxes and no duplicates to do it, but it's still not as tough as the Superman red set. The reason is there were a lot more boxes of the Batman series with the 2 blues per box than there were the Superman re-packed boxes with the 2 reds per box. Those Superman with Reds were available for only a very short time. The Batman Holoseries boxes remained available for several years after being issued, until the popularity of those Overpower cards led to them really drying up over these last 10 years or so.

In retrospect, I wish I'd picked up a couple of the Supermans with the Reds, but at that time, Target had scores of non-sports boxes near the checkstands discounted to $9.99, $19.99, or $29.99, so it was pretty difficult to justify spending that kind of money on a box of cards with a set I already had just to get 2 red parallels of cards I didn't like all that much in the first place, especially when knowing I'd never realistically be able to get all 50 of them. (And remember, the internet, particularly where buying and selling cards are concerned, really was still in its infancy in those days).

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

I saw Jeff Allendar's checklist on the Superman Holo Set

He refers to the red holos as being in the "Vintage" boxes. So these were through Target ?

He also says there were 2 versions of the hobby boxes, but doesn't say where the 2nd one was available

How hard are the red holos and the bronze chase (which you didn't mention) to find now ??

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
I saw Jeff Allendar's checklist on the Superman Holo Set

He refers to the red holos as being in the "Vintage" boxes. So these were through Target ?

He also says there were 2 versions of the hobby boxes, but doesn't say where the 2nd one was available

How hard are the red holos and the bronze chase (which you didn't mention) to find now ??

The red were from Walmart definitely, not sure about Target. They remain very difficult. I am a specialist DC collector and finally finished the red set only about six months ago. Another DC collector I know has a full set, completed about 3 years ago. Cards do turn up on eBay and prices vary wildly from about $20 each up to $100 but mostly seem to be 30-50. I am in contact with several other DC collectors who are trying to finish this set.

The Bronze took the place of the gold in one of the box types (I think also Walmart but could be wrong as I never broke boxes). These are only slightly easier than red. Part of the problem is that the difference between gold and bronze is only visible if two cards are next to each other. They are cheaper than the reds to pick up on eBay but seem to come up less often.

They had them with the "Vintage" boxes ($9.99 through $29.99) in one of the checkout stands at Target for sure. That's the only place I saw them, and I remember them being there for a couple of weeks. There were a goodly number of them, but they didn't necessarily sell. I wonder if some of them eventually ended up in the shredders as unsold merchandise.

I purchased my box with red holograms at Kmart.

quote:

Originally posted by tangent:
I am a specialist DC collector and finally finished the red set only about six months ago.

Hey Tangent,
I was going to ask "ThoughtOfYouThirteenTimes" since he's also an authority on DC cards, but I'll ask you since your attention is on this thread. Do you happen to have either of those Batman Book and Cassette sets from around 1994 or 1995 that each came with 4 different Skybox cards. One is based on the movie, so it's a photo set, but the other which features Two-Face and the Riddler in their comic book version are art cards.

I can see the top card in the sets I have, and would like to see the other 3 cards in each set. I prefer to leave them sealed if I could since I no longer even have a cassette player. If you have those cards, could you post a picture of them, or else point me to somewhere that I might be able to see them?

Thanks!

A little off topic, but for Topps 2014 Baseball there are 13 different parallels.

http://www.cardboardconnection...s-baseball-parallels

Different ones available at Walmart, Target, Toys R Us. Also different ones in different types of packs (Hobby / Retail / Jumbo).

From a business standpoint It's a great way to get people to buy multiple boxes / packs at multiple places

Wonder if there is anybody who actually comes close to completing most of these parallel sets. I would guess its next to impossible for the sets of 1 / 50 or less

Note to manufacturers - trading cards are about completing your sets, very limited parallels are pointless!

If you disagree with this statement or need to comment - please do, as I am at odds with what's happening with endless amounts of parallel sets. Parallel sets of less than 1/100 are too difficult to complete, and are at odds with my raison d'etre.

quote:

Originally posted by steve j:
Note to manufacturers - trading cards are about completing your sets, very limited parallels are pointless!

If you disagree with this statement or need to comment - please do, as I am at odds with what's happening with endless amounts of parallel sets. Parallel sets of less than 1/100 are too difficult to complete, and are at odds with my raison d'etre.

Seconded

I dont like mini trading card they're really pointless and difficult to store.

As for limited edition if it's one in a few hunded packs so its super rare i dont see the point if its meant to be a whole set?! Making it rarer than some of the 'high end' cards.

I like A parallel set but hate where theres a base set and 3 different coloured parallel sets - thats annoying you just need 4 times the storage and cost for 4 sets that a the same minus a border edge colour or card finish.

I hate things like the Indiana Jones Heritage where the parallels were ridiculously rare and became so over priced there just wasnt any point in the end. Though i didnt much care i really did buy it for the gum to be honest.