Here's a promo that wasn't sent to dealers and it wasn't a giveaway at a show. It's the "Spider-Man: The Venom factor" card (Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc., 1994) which was available only as an insert with the first printing of the hardcover novel of the same name. It was enclosed in a plastic holder attached to the inside front cover of the novel.

Many collectors didn't know about it right away but by the time we did hear about it, the hardcover was in the bargain section of bookstores so you could get the book with the card for about five bucks. Even today, you can find it for around ten bucks.

Here's the 7-card "Valiant Era Chromium Card Set" (Voyager Communications, Inc., 1994). It's an oddball set because all but one of the cards were available only by redemption and the seventh card was available only as a comic book insert.

The six chromium cards were numbered CH1, two CH2's, (no CH3), CH4, CH5, CH6) and they arrived in a clear plastic box with a chromium sticker on it identifying the set. The seventh card, CH7, was inserted with the comic, Ninjak #13.

I bought my 6-card boxed set at a local collectibles show maybe 10-15 years ago - got it for $7.99 as you can see. It still sells around that. The 14-card set you mailed away is harder to find and it's not easy tracking down sealed issues of the comics at a cheap price per issue. I saw a set sold for $30 recently but another went for $70. I was surprised at that high-end but that buyer was willing to bite the bullet to get them all in one shot at $5 per card. You can find singles for a couple of bucks each here and there if you're willing to wait.

Some time ago, I bought a 2-card Pro Line Portraits 2 (NFL Properties, Inc., 1992) promo pack for just a few bucks. The Pro Line Portraits sets are technically football card sets but they are highly unusual football cards in that they show players in street clothes or workout gear and the card backs doe not show stats. We've talked about these cards before in different threads because some of the cards feature non-players such as players' wives and celebrities so some nonsports collectors have some of these cards too.

I didn't open the pack for a while but then I did earlier this year. I thought the Kathy Lee Gifford card on the top was just a card from the set but it's actually a sample version with "SAMPLE" printed in smaller letters below the inset photo. The other card has just text describing the sets.

I get the feeling the promo pack was distributed in a limited way because I hardly ever see it for sale. The TCDB site doesn't list it.

I loved collecting those as a football fan, and also for the various non-sports subjects in there. The Martin Mull card is great.

The '92 edition might have been the very first box of packs type-product that essentially guaranteed an autograph in every box.