Oddball cards

September 30, 2024, 02:14 AM

catskilleagle

Here are three cards from the COZI TV promo set (Manufacturer unknown, undated). It appears to be a 15-card set with 5 classic TV shows represented by 3 cards each (Charlie's Angels, Six Million Dollar Man, The Lone Ranger, Magnum P.I. and Marcus Welby, M.D.). Card fronts show photos of the cast and the backs feature a little trivia.

Though the cards are undated, I believe that the set was made to be given out around the time COZI TV officially launched on January 1, 2013. None of the shows listed above are part of the current line-up on the network but they could have been among those that ran back then.

October 02, 2024, 11:26 PM

Bill Mullins

I've been sending examples of the Air Show Stars cards to various pilots and getting them signed. I got Julie Clark's back, and she enclosed this unexpectedly. I don't recognize it -- does anyone know what set it is from?

November 12, 2024, 02:13 AM

catskilleagle

And one more of those 1996 Red Devil Fireworks cards:

March 04, 2025, 12:56 AM

catskilleagle

Here's what I think is a printer's test card for "The Silver Surfer All-Prism" set that Comic Images ended up doing in 1992. I had never seen it before sometime last year. It has the front and back of card 48 from the set plus a flashy company stamp on the back. It was apparently made to show the prism effect the company, Prismatic Illusions, could create on trading cards, that effect best judged in person rather than in a scan/photograph.

I've seen other printer's test cards (e.g. glow-in-the dark cards Topps considered for its Ren & Stimpy set but ended up going with stickers instead) and they are hard-to-find when you know what you're looking for.

I've never seen another one of these. It's possible it was the only prismatic test card sent to Comic Images for review.

March 20, 2025, 12:55 AM

catskilleagle

Here's a card that you could obtain signed or unsigned. The signed card was available only with the signed limited edition (350 copies) and signed, lettered edition (52 copies) of Stephen King's novella, "Blockade Billy" (Lonely Road Books, 2010). The signed version is actually rarer than that because you could get a different card ("stadium" background instead of the "palm tree" background) with your limited edition. I've read that the signed "palm tree" card is 3 times rarer but I don't know if the publisher ever said that.

That brings us to this unsigned card. A book dealer told me that the publisher, Lonely Road Books, gave some out to dealers with their orders of another book. You can still find unsigned cards for sale.

March 20, 2025, 11:55 AM

cardaddict

March 20, 2025, 12:00 PM

cardaddict

As you can tell, I have time on my hands.

March 21, 2025, 12:23 AM

catskilleagle

That's cool. You got the signed limited edition with the signed Stephen King card and you got the unsigned one too.

I'm a little surprised there are still unsold cards out there but then some sellers are pushing for too much. If one dealer was able to pick up several, there must've been a lot of them when the limited editions were released.

March 21, 2025, 06:59 AM

cardaddict

The bookseller, Cemetery Dance, still has a stockpile of the cards which they occasionally offer for sale. I don't know if they have many left or not.

May 05, 2025, 01:23 AM

catskilleagle

I posted in another thread that there's an article about Pro Line Portraits cards in the latest issue of "Beckett Vintage Collector," a magazine that covers older sports cards and memorabilia. I see it at Barnes & Noble and it's on the shelf right behind NSU so I leaf through sometimes.

quote:
Originally posted by catskilleagle:
We've talked about the Pro Line Portraits set (NFL Properties Inc., 1991) before. Yes, it's a sports set but an unusual one in that it shows photos of pro football players in street clothes instead of their uniforms with back text composed of player quotes rather than their stats. It's more like a celebrity-themed set that way. The set also had random autographs of players, their wives, and a couple of coaches on special unnumbered and embossed cards inserted maybe 2 per case (or more?). The second Pro Line Portraits set released the following year had other celebrity autographs.

Here's a 2-card cello-pack containing other insert cards from the 1991 set. One card in this pack shows Ahmad Rashad and his family (numbered "Pro Line Portraits Collectible 1") and the other shows golfer, Payne Stewart (numbered "Pro Line Portraits Collectible 2"). It's unclear where this pack came from because I've heard the cards were inserted in regular printed packs so this is an odd alternate way to get them. I get the feeling it might have been a special giveaway at a show like The National. I found it in a bargain box about twenty years ago.