Category: Trading Cards

Birthday Aquisitions #2: Trading Cards

March 14, 2017

As you know, I’m a bit of a fan of (non sports) trading cards. And since hardly anyone releases any of worth these days, I occasionally pick up old boxes. Or five at the same time, as I did for my birthday!

Such things are cheap these days, and for boxes shown here, almost a song. None of these were over $20, some under $10 🙂

Fantasy art trading cards were big business in the early 1990s, and it seemed everyone that had ever done a game or novel cover had their own set. Including this guy I’ve never heard of – Lee Macleod – who got his 50 card set released by Cardz in 1994.

The art isn’t great, and the ‘tekchrome bonus card in every pack’ is a bog-standard chrome card. There are no other chase cards in the packs. But the cards have artist commentary which is nice, and with such a small set size I should certainly complete at least one in the box.

I know virtually nothing about Venus Swimwear Model Search (Star, 1994) and apparently neither did they, since nowhere on the box or pack does it list how many cards in the set or if there are chases. I bought it since it was only $7 for the box!

As it turns out, it’s 100 cards (all bikini shots of ‘professional’ models) with no chase. Pretty mundane set, compared to today where at the very least autographs and the like would be included. At least the copy on the backs of the cards is silly 🙂

I’m not really a fan of gambling but I believe the theory that trading cards are successful in part due to the gambling urge. “Will I get that rare chase card in this pack?” This must be why it can be fun to open even a box of cards for a show I’m not remotely a fan of, like Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (Pro Set, 1992)!

This was another very cheap box and to be honest I was won over by the 3D card in every pack! Spoiler alert: they’re crap 🙂

It seemed that FPG and Comic Images competed in the fantasy art card market and both had many solid licenses (and truth be told, I bought many packs back then). Both produced high quality sets with desirable chase cards but once they had exhausted the ‘big guns’ the sets came from less famous guys like James Warhola (FPG, 1995).

While I’ve not really heard of this guy, the art is high quality, the comments on the back readable and the set includes metallic chase cards! I haven’t opened one yet, but there should be a few in the box and knowing FPG they will be high quality.

Everyone knows Frazetta (II; Comic Images, 1993) and unsurprisingly given his lifetime of work he had multiple sets back in the day.

What needs to be said about his art? He’s one of the kings of fantasy and was very likely an inspiration for every other fantasy artist that ever got a card set. The cards are beautiful, there’s two types of chase card, and I know I’ll have fun tearing into these!

Incidentally as you can see I have lots of packs! If you want some, let me know.

Con Haul

October 31, 2016

I’m shamelessly borrowing a post format from AW here; everything I purchased at the local comic con I attended yesterday. I arrived with $106.50 on me, and left with nothing! Here’s the swag…

A pack of Voltron tattoos from 1984. The guy that sold them to me (from a mostly full box) seemed surprised when I said I’d use them. ($2)

Three packs of trading cards. As should be obvious by now, I can’t pass up non-sports cards. At $1/pack these were a bit pricey though. ($3)

A stuffed stegosaurus. I bought this for KLS from the girl who made it. This is actually the second one I’ve bought over the years, although this one is cuter and fatter! ($7)

A Japanese money box ‘sound bank’. I haven’t opened it yet. I think it’s a tiny bank that plays a sound effect from Super Mario Bros. when you put coins in. ($5)

Loads of comics. The average cost was just under $0.50 each. I tend to gravitate to non superhero stuff pre 1990 if possible. That’s the first eleven issues of Indy! ($14.50 in total)

An Avalon Hill fantasy board game from 1979. Yes it’s complete, and yes it will be played. The rules seem delightfully complex! ($10)

A fat Rilakkuma thing. I overpaid for this, but it was my white whale in a UFO catcher in CA early this year. Plus it’s cute! ($40)

Dungeons & Dragons lite-brite set (from 1983). Yes it’s unopened and yes it will remain that way! How could I have passed up such a curiosity! ($15)

Not a bad load of loot is it? For those keeping tabs this totals to only $96.50. What about the other $10 you ask? That was the admission fee.

After a string of disappointing years the con roared back this year and impressed me to no end. Next time I’ll be sure to have more cash with me 🙂

A Good Investment

July 15, 2016

Back in 1996, specifically on March 26, I purchased this gameboy game:

It was the first Yu-Gi-Oh game released in the USA, and was pretty good for it’s time. Here’s some screenshots:

Obviously the USA version is subtitled, but you get the idea. I played the game, enjoyed it, put it in a box and forgot about it.

Look again at the cover, specifically the blurb at the bottom right: “3 Limited Edition Official Game Cards Insider!” Now I didn’t actually play the card game when I bought this (and never have) so the cards were little more than a curiosity to me. And for at least a decade they remained in the box with the game, unopened and unplayed.

Some years ago I removed them when I collected all the cards I had all over the place and put them into card boxes. Even at the time though I didn’t take moment to consider if any of them had value, although I was remotely aware that some of the cards I had acquired over the years must have been rare if only due to their age.

After this post, something triggered in me and I went and dug up my old Yu-Gi-Oh cards – including not just the three in this game but others that had come in other games or free with magazines – and looked up to see if any of them had value.

That’s when I did a double take!

That photo shows two of the cards that came with Dark Duel Stories. These were my cards, the exact ones that lived under a bed for almost 20 years. These two cards alone were each ‘worth’ over $100, by which I mean there were dealers on the internet prepared to pay me at least that much for them!

I’ve never actually sold anything of mine, but this was too good to refuse. After a quick chat with the guy that runs my local game store (who declined to buy them himself) I packaged up the three promos and a MTG card that I had pulled from a booster 9 years ago and sent them away to one of the leading secondary market websites. Here’s what I sold:

And about two weeks later my cheque arrived for an astonishing $460!

Individually, I got $20 for Exodia, $100 for Tarmogoyf, $100 for Dark Magician and an amazing $240 for Blue Eyes White Dragon!

Doing the math, based on the $20 cost of Dark Duel Stories and the $3.50 cost of the Magic booster, this works out to returns of 15.5% (over 20 years) and a whopping 45% (over 9) respectively. I should have bought 100 copies of Dark Duel stories 🙂

I was in denial this sale would go through until I actually received the cheque, because it’s hard to believe there is such value in Yu-Gi-Oh cards. But I have learned that the cards included with the game I purchased 20 years ago are amongst the ‘holy grails’ of collecting, specifically the ‘Blue Eyes’ since it was the first promo card released in the USA and has such a flashy foil effect on it.

I hope it eventually goes to someone that has wanted it for years and loves it. Even if it costs him $500 🙂

Now what should I do with the money?

Robot Claw