Hello, everyone....

I hope one of you can enlighten me about some boxes of cards that I have discovered dumped at my local thrift store. Here in Utah, the two big thrift store giants are Deseret Industries and Savers. The Salvation Army is virtually non-existent here because these two other chains dominate the Utah culture here. Goodwill has a tiny presence.

Anyway, the thrift stores are often my go-to places when I am in a treasure-hunting mood. Today, I found out that someone in my neighborhood once owned a comic book & card store that must have gone out of business years ago because the stuff he/she/whomever dumped at the thrift store was not of recent manufacture. The thrift store got rid of the comics first, and now they have stacked their glass cases with the hundred so of boxes of cards they had.

Most of the cards are not worth the purchase - tons of unopened boxes of early 90's sports and non-sports mainly from ProSet and Collect-A-Card. It's the kind of stuff that's either common on that auction site for cheap, or stuff most of us here already have. However, when I say “most of us”…..there were a couple of things that maybe not all of us have. I never completed the Guinness Book of World Records set and frankly the thrift store offered the box for a cheaper price than online. Plus, I also picked up a box of Series II of the NASA Space Shots, also cheaper than online.

So here’s my question…..there were a TON of sealed, never opened boxes of the Series I and Series II of the Musicards sets that supposedly, together, numbered as a complete set from 1-340. The checklist up to Card #260 can found here, courtesy of Jeff Allender (hope this is okay!!): http://www.nslists.com/supmus1.htm. As I read through all the information, I was left confused. There are SEVERAL boxes at my local thrift store (for $7 each) of two types of Boxes:

Series I:



Series II:



This is what I don’t understand. All the reading says that “Series I” has the base set of cards from #1-260. However, Series II is supposedly not the expansion it suggests: the Series II boxes supposedly have an additional 80 cards (hence the cards numbering up to #340); however, the reading on Jeff’s checklist site mentioned above suggests that the packs in those Series II boxes are also mixed up with the initial cards between #1-260. So, what’s the real story here? What do I get if I buy either of the boxes pictured above? And, more importantly, even though the price is supposedly cheap at $7 a pop – is it worth it? If one of you experts out there can guide me as to whether or not it’s worth spending some money on the boxes, that would be great (because I couldn’t find any collated sets online that included the cards numbering #261-340).

Thanks!
Geoff

One more minor question....

There were also a ton of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles boxes (the ones that advertise a set of 3D glasses in every box).....also for $7 each. Are they worth it?

If I remember correctly (and my memory is foggy), series II had some 80 new cards and 80 cards that were in series one were only in series one. So, if you want a complete set of 340 cards you had to get a box of each. You were left with 180 cards that were in both boxes. So, if you dive in expect a lot of dupes.

Young Indy is a nice looking set. If you liked the show, then for 7 bucks it is worth the fun. If you have no interest, then skip it.

You should get both boxes, since you'd need the 2nd series to get those last 80 cards, but also, there should be multiple variations of the 260 cards from Series 1 that are also in Series 2. I'd sort them all at once, so you can compare the dupes for differences.
The first 260 cards, the second time around sometimes featured reverse negatives, differently cropped photos, or even different photos entirely, and a different subject on the same card number in at least one instance (the 86 card features Maxi Priest on one version and a different artist I can't remember on the other).

There is a limited edition hologram, I believe in Series 1. It's a tough pull, but they're in there.

Beyond these, there's another version ProSet MusiCards that were made for the UK, a different set, but in the exact same design, with many of the same subjects along with some artists added that were better known in England at that time (and sometimes only known in England, as it turned out). It was a single series but it is a terrific companion to the US set.

I thought these cards were great fun. They were inexpensive, and it was a big set with modern and alternative Rock, Pop, Metal, Rap, and lots of classic rock, so something for everyone. There was even a scratch off contest card in every pack, as I recall and a coupon toward the merchandise ProSet sold besides cards back then.

I really liked the "Legends" cards, especially John Lennon in NYC, and the vintage rock concert posters, plus there were cards of some of my favorites like Billy Idol, U2, and even Morrissey of the Smiths. The Kiss card was awesome, showing them in their makeup, and I think there's a reverse negative variation of that card.

What is the "x-rated" variant on that card 166, Dread Zeppelin, that Jeff lists ?

If you like busting packs and have an interest in the subjects it should be fun to get a couple of boxes of each at that price.

Are they worth $7 a box? Well no, realistically there is no demand, so they probably aren't worth more than 10 cents a pack, which is the same as nothing.

That doesn't mean you might not enjoy the cards from a collector's standpoint, but it all depends on what worth means to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
What is the "x-rated" variant on that card 166, Dread Zeppelin, that Jeff lists ?

A fellow is wearing loin cloth which has ridden up a bit. It's hard to say if it's what it is what ProSet feared what it might be, but I guess it was close enough to correct the error. They famously corrected a card from one of their football sets back then where a player's dangling belt could (I guess) be mistaken for something else. They were in Texas after all.

These cards are also made with a flat finish, so they're better for autographs than the modern gloss coated cards, so that's something (plus it'd probably be a lot easier to get the autographs from most of these people now than it would have been back then. A few, like Whitney Houston, are deceased and some, like Madonna, are still pretty darn famous).

I remember getting boxes of these for a dollar a piece at the dollar tree not long after their release.

The Young Indy set is great, you should definatly get that one.

quote:

Originally posted by geoffbovey:
So, what’s the real story here? What do I get if I buy either of the boxes pictured above? And, more importantly, even though the price is supposedly cheap at $7 a pop – is it worth it?

As for the second question, that's more than I paid for my boxes on eBay more than 10 years ago, but shipping is higher these days. A lot depends on how much you want to remember rock groups!

The "combined" box (Series II, but only 80 new cards) won't have enough Series I cards to make a complete set, and collation was spotty with both series. In the one Series II box I opened, there were 251 cards in the 1-260 sequence, and I found 220 numbers, so there weren't 80 excluded. I suspect instead that collation was to blame, but since the S-I cards included leftovers, who knows if equal numbers were left over or reprinted? And of course there were the variants, most of which are discussed on the checklist page, and chesspieceface gives some more details above. There might have been three variants for every card in the first printing, with different advertising.

I opened two S-I only boxes and was short of numerical sets by 9 and 4. I did get a complete set of 261-340 in the Mixed box.

The Young Indiana boxes had good collation, generally two complete sets/box (one of my boxes was 1 short of the second set).

I only got a 36-pack lot of the UK edition, so I can't report on collation for that 150-card edition.

Hello! I'm not sure if you'll get this reply but... to the person missing only #s 4 and 9 from the 1st Series set I have them...and since I'm missing over 20 cards I'd be happy to send you the 2 if they'd complete your collection. I actually have doubles of #4 :-)
This is not a scam or spam. I was actually looking for info on the cards and learned from this thread and site in general. I wish I could find my yomtv raps cards but only located about 20 of them...
Anyway... so as long as I don't have to send them via some super expensive method they are yours from Wilm, NC.
Cheers!
Becky Elizabeth

Hi Becky --

Welcome to Card Talk! That is a very nice offer!

Hopefully the original posters see this, but the thread is quite old so they may not.

There is a trading section if there are cards you are looking to trade away or trade for.

Jon

Hi Jon and thanks for the fast welcome

I figured as much about the post being old but you never know. I've always collected cards; sports and non-sports, but when I looked at the "Build Your Set" thread I was lost other than the few Marvel comic card sets. It seems like a lot of newer television shows have trading cards and that is what is being traded... I honestly had no idea some of those shows would ever have cards! Cheers- Becks

Yeah, there are tons of card sets for tons of shows. . . hopefully you find lots of cool stuff!

The folks here are generally pretty friendly so feel free to post up some trades -- you might get some!

Good luck!

It's an unusual set. Even the promos are odd. You can find the numbered ones pretty easily even now. Seven of the ten unnumbered ones (Debby Gibson, Janet Jackson, Lita Ford, MC Hammer, Madonna, Living Colour, Led Zeppelin) were distributed in a 9-card promo pack with 2 Yo! MTV Raps prototypes). One of the other unnumbered promos, Nelson, was distributed only in an oddball 4-card promo pack with the unnumbered Debby Gibson, Led Zeppelin, and MC Hammer so there was an extra way to get those last three but that was a lesser-seen pack. Sometimes, sellers price them about the same as the numbered ones so you can find them rather cheaply if you're patient.

The mystery cards are the unnumbered George Michael and Tina Turner promos. They are rare and no one seems to know how they were distributed. I saw a George Michael for sale last year - didn't see it sell. I haven't seen the Tina Turner card in a few years.

The promo packs are clear cello-packs but Pro Set also gave out cello-packs that contained a 4-card sample of the base cards so don't overpay for one of those. However, there was yet another promo pack with base cards that had an exclusive header card that said "On Sale Now" on the front.

But wait, there's more. Another promo pack had an exclusive "Borden" header card with base cards.

Here's an oddball SuperStars MusiCards promo pack. It looks like a regular pack from the UK release except that it's a cello-pack like the American promo packs. A card that might be an exclusive header shows on the front and a regular UK base card shows on the back.

Here's yet another SuperStars MusiCards promo pack. I've seen only photos of it online so I don't know how many cards it contains but the header is unfamiliar - apparently a Diamond Distributors exclusive. The card showing on the back appears to be a random base card.

I just spotted the rare Tina Turner and George Michael promos on ebay today. They sold for a hefty price.

I looked at those too after you posted. They both sold today for around $40-50. The seller wants a lot for a lot of other easier to find promos. The Michael and Turner cards look reasonable in comparison.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
I just spotted the rare Tina Turner and George Michael promos on ebay today. They sold for a hefty price.

The person asking $ 99 for the UK promo pack also has the exclusive header card for sale separately for $ 69.00

The header seems to be a UK exclusive offer for a binder to keep your cards in, or as they call it, a Collector File.