Apparently these were issued by FOX in packs of 5 cards to commemorate the 400th episode of the TV show. From the numbering on the back, it looks like there are at least 36 cards in the set. I had never heard of these. Does anyone have any info please?

Apparently the only cards released were in the "Promotional Packs", like the one you posted to TC Vaults. A sharper image is in a closed eBay auction, and it says the pack contains 6 Fugitive Cards, Youth Awareness or Tribute or Special cards, 1 Missing Child card, and 1 Sweepstakes card.

I see two closed auctions from 2007 called a "9-card Promo Set" and these are identical, so maybe there were only those 9 cards released. Four of these are in separate auctions, also all from this set of 9.

The set got some discussion because of the "Missing Child" card was of Jaycee Lee Dugard, and she was found in 2009. This link has posts from one of the group who created the set, and the TV Show was successful in blocking the set. The correspondent said they still had "uncut sheets, demo cards in foil packs & other various materials with sponsorships from Larry Bird and other sport celebs." The "demo cards in foil packs" supports the idea that the promo packs might have all been the same, if the insides were demos. Another commenter said "I have a couple sets from the 1st and only run".

The image I see for the 9 cards is low-res enough that I can't read the names of the 5 Fugitive Cards, but the other four are the ones in individual auctions:

Missing - Jaycee Lee Dugard
Michael Newton - Author [Tribute Card]
Checklist of Youth Awareness Cards [189-200]
Reward - $400,000.00 [Sweepstakes Card]

The cards are unnumbered, and except for the Jaycee card are overprinted with "Promotional Card" (tribute and YA) or "Prototype" (sweepstakes).

Those were from 1992. I note there was one from 1996 "America's Most Wanted All-Star Trading Cards - Collectors Set of 10". I figured it was the earlier one from the "at least 36 cards" note, and my post above might be interesting but I don't think it was the ones you were looking for.

Jeff,
Any thoughts on how the 1996 cards were distributed?

If memory serves me (which it doesn't much these days) The earlier set with the Jaycee card was a scam. There was supposed to be a Larry Bird promo and it was found he had nothing to do with the set. I don't believe a set was produced. I remember an article in Sports Card Digest about it.

According to the 'testimony' of one of the people involved with the earlier set (see the link I posted above), it was a serious project and even had FBI officials saying they thought it was a good idea to publicize the Missing. (A newspaper article in the Arizona Republic is cited; I couldn't find on the internet to check the context.) The TV show production company sued to keep the unauthorized-by-them set from being released.

Here's a news-service article about the series before it was ultimately canceled.

quote:

Originally posted by promoking:
Jeff,
Any thoughts on how the 1996 cards were distributed?

No definitive clue. I guess I can post the link for a completed, sold auction.

It looks like it's the stuff you were talking about - The packs are headed with "Celebrating 400 Captures" and the copyright is for STF Productions, the people who produced the show and held the copyright. (Apparently STF became a division of Fox Television Stations Inc., and its 1996 address is smack dab in the middle of the Fox lot, incidentally 3 blocks from our family restaurant from the 1940s). One legal motion against AMW said "STF appears to be a chameleon, choosing the address it needs for its particular agenda at any one time." Basically, they now operate out of Murdoch offices in the DC area.

I couldn't find any other references to "All-Star Trading Cards" so I think that was merely a subtitle for the set. I might have been misled thinking it was a smaller promo set because the packs are marked "Collectors Set of 10."

Saw the topic and realized I had the original pack in my office still from back then. We actually had pre-ordered a case of these and never did get the money back. Figured it was a scam.

Anyway, I have the pack here, and the cards in it are:
Missing: Jaycee Lee Dugard
Wanted: Haywood Cook
Wanted: John Willis Winfree
Wanted: Gwendolen Carol Dowell Benton
Wanted: Dennis Schley Lilly
Wanted: Tomas Sanchez Gonzalez
Tribute: Michael Newton, Author
Checklist: 189-200.

Pre-ordering and not getting your money back by now indeed turns it into a scam, even if it was incompetence to begin with.

In a bizarre twist: the name of the VP of the 1992 proposed-card-set company is in one of the links. Somebody else from the same city with the same name was arrested in 2007 for a string of burglaries -- after being recognized from surveillance photos aired on the "Chandler's [AZ] Most Wanted" cable TV show.

Eight years later, I just ran across this thread and can add that there is another card in the pack not listed, an instant win game marked "PROTOTYPE" on the back.

Back in the late 90's-early 2000's (the glory days of promo collecting), the 9-card pack wasn't always available but you could track one down without too much trouble. Every promo collector wanted one and those that collected history/true crime cards wanted a pack too.

quote:

Originally posted by Victory_is_Mine!!:
Saw the topic and realized I had the original pack in my office still from back then. We actually had pre-ordered a case of these and never did get the money back. Figured it was a scam.

Anyway, I have the pack here, and the cards in it are:
Missing: Jaycee Lee Dugard
Wanted: Haywood Cook
Wanted: John Willis Winfree
Wanted: Gwendolen Carol Dowell Benton
Wanted: Dennis Schley Lilly
Wanted: Tomas Sanchez Gonzalez
Tribute: Michael Newton, Author
Checklist: 189-200.

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

I recently received this set in a big bundle of promos.Very cool, don't have any other info other than what is in PCE page 10. sorry mate.

I have a spare Tribute card...