Does anyone have or heard of a source for box/case production numbers of older marvel related (1986 - 1996) card sets. Trying to get a feel for scarceness of card production.

Thanx

I'm no expert but based on the time period there were large production numbers. This was a time in Non-sports where there were no hobby boxes and no special inserts save for 'chase' cards.

The Marvel sets from 1986-1989 from Comic Images were limited in relation to those from 1990-1996 (from Impel, Skybox, and Fleer), but even those Comic Images sets were made with higher production runs than modern Marvel cards.

That era of cards you're referring to, though, didn't really end until 1998, and the final few sets (1997 Fleer Ultra Spider-Man, 1998 Silver Age, 1998 Creators collction) had production numbers much more in line with modern sets, i.e, much lower than just a year or two previous. All three of those sets were hobby exclusive (with no retail edition to pad the numbers like virtually all other sets from 1990-1996) and Silver Age and Creators boxes were even individually numbered. There were 12,000 Silver Age boxes and I want to say 16,000 Creators Collection, but even those numbers were a mere sliver of the gigantic production runs of those from earlier years (particularly 1992-1995 when boxes were generally issued by the hundreds of thousands each). Even so, the runs for Silver Age and Creators were more than enought to meet the rapidly dwindling demand as neither of those sets sold out and could even be found at clearance prices through 1999.

Topps issued Marvel Legends and an Incredible Hulk Comic book themed set in 2001 or so and those had larger runs than the final Fleer/Skybox sets, but still less than the boom years, particularly 1992-1995 which all had truly mammoth production runs.

When Upper Deck relaunched the Marvel Masterpieces line in 2007, those boxes were numbered to 12,000, and with it's Marvel sets that followed (and are continuing), Rittenhouse usually makes around 10,000 boxes of each which is on the high end of production runs for their various sets, but still a tiny percentage of the sets from heart of the Skybox era.

chesspieceface is correct.

For the Comic Images all the 1992 have a big run.

For the cards from Impel/SkyBox and Fleer is very difficult to have numbers, but it is clear they made big numbers from 1991 to 1996. Their focus was made people buy their products to complete their base sets because a box not always guarantee you a set (like GiJoe 1991, Marvel Metal, Marvel Flair 1994, etc).

For example in the Marvel Masterpieces 1992 the gold stamp give you #XXXXX from 350,000 boxes. Also lets not forget Fleer focus in a moment to make "variant" boxes (that sometimes include different chase/insert or promo cards) for different markets.

About Rittehouse (Neo Comic Images), I'm not sure if their box numbers are only for the ones that includes Sketch or Autograph Card because I found a seller in eBay that claims to sell "promo" boxes that are sealed factory.