Here's an oddball card. It has the same images of Shaquille O'Neal and Cindy Crawford on the front and back but with a gold foil background on one side and a blue background on the other. I found it in a bargain box twenty years ago for 50 cents or a buck - might have even been a throw-in because I bought other cards. There are no markings nor text to identify the source. I don't recall the two celebrities promoting the same project back then. It appears to be an unlicensed card though someone went to a lot of trouble to print it.

Here's a set I always thought was oddball. It's the "Stars and Stripes" 3-card set of holograms (Lime Rock International, Inc., 1992) honoring Dennis Conner's sailboat racing team although the #3 card is about Conner's involvement in Indy car racing. The original packaging of the set states that 100,000 sets were made along with 3000 promotional cards and 100 uncut sheets. I don't recall seeing any promos for it.

As far as I know, the company didn't do any other 3-card sets.

One kind of oddball card is the unsigned autograph card. Comic Images used to send some to dealers as samples, but usually, an unsigned autograph card reaches the market only after the company goes out of business (leftover, unused stock). These cards tend to be grouped with promos because they are samples distinct from the base and chase cards from the set but some collectors consider them more like unfinished cards while other wish they had remained unreleased because someone could forge a signature on them and put them into circulation as the real deal.

Here's an unsigned Michael Whelan II: Other Worlds (Comic Images, 1995) autograph card:

Whelan looks like he's having a bad day.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Here's an oddball card. It has the same images of Shaquille O'Neal and Cindy Crawford on the front and back but with a gold foil background on one side and a blue background on the other. I found it in a bargain box twenty years ago for 50 cents or a buck - might have even been a throw-in because I bought other cards. There are no markings nor text to identify the source. I don't recall the two celebrities promoting the same project back then. It appears to be an unlicensed card though someone went to a lot of trouble to print it.

This is a classic example of a Broder card.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Here's an oddball card. It has the same images of Shaquille O'Neal and Cindy Crawford on the front and back but with a gold foil background on one side and a blue background on the other. I found it in a bargain box twenty years ago for 50 cents or a buck - might have even been a throw-in because I bought other cards. There are no markings nor text to identify the source. I don't recall the two celebrities promoting the same project back then. It appears to be an unlicensed card though someone went to a lot of trouble to print it.

This is a classic example of a Broder card.

Right, in that timeframe Shaquille O'Neal and Bo Jackson were pictured on all sorts of cards and they sold for at least a couple bucks, sometimes a lot more if they slapped "promo" on it and found novice collectors.

I don't know how strict the criteria for "oddball" card mention is, but some stuff just doesn't qualify as collectible, even though some people may keep them. I never had many, but I threw away my few "Broders" years ago.

I feel like we should point out the Broders so people don't think they have a rare/valuable "Shaq and Cindy" card in the future. I've seen some Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan cards that I suspect are unlicensed and have been told that some outwardly legitimate cards like Rockstreet and Flash International cards are Broders as well.

Yeah, my definition of "oddball" is open. I hope to see what others consider their oddball cards. It can be an unusual type of chase card. Yesterday, I was thinking about the "Tall Boy" (widevision-size) card that Dart Flipcards included in its standard-size sets obtainable via a mailaway offer. It can be just a weird card out there by itself that doesn't get listed anywhere especially anything that is debatable as a promo. It can be a small manufacturer set that was made in the 90's and would be unlikely to be made today. I was thinking about that "Dactyls" set from 1992, an imaginative collection of scenes following the adventures of a race of interdimensionally-mobile and time-traveling pterodactyl-people.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Here's an oddball card. It has the same images of Shaquille O'Neal and Cindy Crawford on the front and back but with a gold foil background on one side and a blue background on the other. I found it in a bargain box twenty years ago for 50 cents or a buck - might have even been a throw-in because I bought other cards. There are no markings nor text to identify the source. I don't recall the two celebrities promoting the same project back then. It appears to be an unlicensed card though someone went to a lot of trouble to print it.

This is a classic example of a Broder card.

Right, in that timeframe Shaquille O'Neal and Bo Jackson were pictured on all sorts of cards and they sold for at least a couple bucks, sometimes a lot more if they slapped "promo" on it and found novice collectors.

I don't know how strict the criteria for "oddball" card mention is, but some stuff just doesn't qualify as collectible, even though some people may keep them. I never had many, but I threw away my few "Broders" years ago.

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

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
As far as I know, the company didn't do any other 3-card sets

Didnt they do the Todd Berenstein 3 card holo set?

Hi Todd,

As you may know, PCE2008 lists a 3-card prototype set. I did find a 3-card factory set under the title, "Art of Curves - Signature Series" (Lime Rock, 1994) that was separate from the "Art of Curves" set. Allender lists both.

Seeing that made me wonder if there was another. I thought it might have been Steve Rude but couldn't find a mention of it.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
As far as I know, the company didn't do any other 3-card sets

Didnt they do the Todd Berenstein 3 card holo set?

Here's an oddball. It's W3 from the 3-card "wood" chase set from the "Hershey's Trading Cards: The Collector's Series" (Dart Flipcards, 1995) but there's a twist with this one. It's an unfinished sample version at a stage before the old Hershey's syrup ad image was printed on the front in the space provided. The back is identical to the finished card. It's likely an unused leftover ordinarily thrown away but this one reached the market sometime after the company went out of business.

If you look around, you'll find similar cards from other sets on the market - cards that may or may not have been pulled from packs. They are also missing some kind of printing/treatment like a foil border or marking/lettering. To some, they're interesting variants. To others, they are just incomplete versions of cards they already have.

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

Here's what the finished card looks like:

Here are more examples of unfinished cards that have reached the market over the years. These are samples of the 4-card 24kt gold signature series chase subset from The Beatles (Sports Time, 1996) trading card set. These differ from the rare ones in the packs (seeded 1 per 144 packs according to Allender) in that they don't have the gold foil signatures on the fronts. There are also samples like these of the 3-card gold foil signature subset from the Marilyn Monroe set by the same company.

Again, some collectors wanted to add them to their collections because they are variants that exist while others felt like they already had them. They aren't really promos but they are the kind of thing that has been documented in the Promo Card Encyclopedia (PCE) because they are unlikely to be listed elsewhere. These cards appeared on the market after the company went out of business.

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

Here's a dual-image lenticular card with no sign of its origin nor a date. It shows a human eye and says, "Fun Creations for Family and Kids" along with kanji characters beneath probably providing translations in two Asian languages. When you tilt the card toward you, the eye closes and the English word, "Fun," changes to "Cool" and you can see the kanji characters change as well. The card measures 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches and has a blank back. It may be a sample from a lenticular product manufacturer to show prospective clients one of the kinds of products it can make.

Here's a 1998 Wizard World ticket that looks and feels like a trading card because it has X-Men art on the front and it's on chromium-coated card stock. It's even listed in PCE2008 though Todd pointed out that it's not really a card. At 2 1/4 x 3 1/2 inches, it's just a little smaller than a standard trading card - an interesting promo piece in any case.

I saw one from a different year for sale a few years ago but someone else got it.

Here's a mystery card that was given out by California State Parks though no one seems to know where it was given out nor whether it was one of a set of cards. It shows and provides information about the California's State Marine Mammal, the gray whale. The card is undated and bears no indication of how old it is.

It could be described as a promo as it promotes environmental awareness in general and celebrates an interesting animal. I assume it was a giveaway at some event.

I bought it as part of a lot of oddball cards and promos a couple of years ago. The seller also got it as part of a lot and had no information about its source.

This is a Coca-Cola Series 3 (Collect-A-Card, 1995) artist proof card variant of the rare gold Norman Rockwell card. That card is rare enough, obtainable back in the 90's by redemption card (1 per 3600 packs) and serial-numbered out of 1000 but the artist proof is not numbered with just 10 or less made and it says "Artist Proof" where the serial number would be. For one of the four Coca-Cola series, I was told just 7 were made but I never got confirmation on the number made for any of them other than that the number was always stated to be 10 or less. I was told the company sent them to distributors.

I have seen very few of those for sale and Collect-A-Card made artist proofs of the gold cards in other sets too (Harley, Easyriders). Twenty years ago, I had a Coca-Cola Series 1 artist proof of the Honus Wagner gold card but sold it a few years after that. I have seen a Series 3 one offered for over $7000 with the seller lowering it to something over $3000 recently. The big Coca-Cola collectors still with us probably already have the ones they want. However, I think if a seller offered one for $1200, he might get one or two offers between $600 and $1000. Yes, they are quite rare with real gold content but they are too young for most antique collectors and are too old-fashioned for collectors who are more into superheroes or other TV/movie-related stuff.

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

Here's an oddball card from last year, a Charles Bukowski relic card which has an excerpt from one of his poems embedded in it. It was mentioned as being available early last year only as a giveaway from Mhoponhop with only 150 printed.

This one appears to be a business card of someone who wanted it to be like a baseball card. It's even standard card size. I've seen a few of these from different companies.

Here's both sides of a lenticular from the 4-card "Surf's Up" set (Disney/Pixar, 2007) which promotes the animated movie of the same name. They were inserted one per package of Airheads candy. Each measures 1 1/4 x 4 5/16 and is in the shape of a surfboard. Each has a tiny punch-out circle on one end so it might have been intended to be hung on a hook like a Christmas tree ornament. I haven't seen the packaging so I don't know what they were referred to as in the promotion.

These items might not be considered as cards to many collectors because of the odd shape but the only people that seem to have kept them are card collectors especially those that like lenticular motion cards.

Here's a 2003 promo card for an organization, Sykesville & Patapsco Railway Inc., celebrating 10 years of maintaining a model railroad display in Maryland. It's an example of the numerous cards that have been printed over the years to promote various local attractions and points of interest.