shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 7, 2019 6:12:07 GMT -5
So I was randomly thinking today how much I missed superhero trading cards and wished Marvel still made theirs. Went to look on ebay, and (much to my surprise) they still do!But then I got to thinking: I don't really care about the current MCU. If Marvel made a vintage series, I'd be all over it, but (who am I kidding?) they never will. Well, apparently, they did that too:  (and it's actually the second set of its kind. mrp mentioned the 1998 set on the first page of this thread four years ago) So I'm seriously considering opening this pandora's box and beginning a collection. The only hang-up I have is you can buy the base set online for $10, but if you want the actual packs, it costs over $100 to buy a box. The entire fun is in opening/collecting, but with that much of a price discrepancy for a four year old set, I'm not sure I can justify it to myself. |
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Post by brutalis on Jun 7, 2019 7:35:01 GMT -5
Now those are some really cool looking cards Shax. If they were priced cheaply enough I would grab em up in a heartbeat. That is the problem though. Trading cards have become collectible and are priced out beyond affordability. When you could purchase a box for $20-30 and get nearly 2 complete sets then it was worthwhile. Now, not even interested. I have my binders of the Marvel sets 1, 2, 3, DC sets 1, 2, my GI Joe set, Mars Attacks reprint set, Original incomplete Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back sets when 1st released and the Chuck Jones Looney Tunes Baseball set to enjoy. I pull them out every so often and wonder what it might be like to collect today and then I see the prices at Target and Wal-Mart and walk away. I can't imagine how the kids do it today with the gaming cards and their prices. Sad when such a small, inexpensive fun past time for children has been ruined by greed and overpricing.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Jun 7, 2019 7:38:23 GMT -5
Sad when such a small, inexpensive fun past time for children has been ruined by greed and overpricing. Also keep in mind inflation, the rising cost of card stock and shipping, and (hopefully) fair compensation for the artists, writers/editors, and laborers who made the cards. But, again, you can get the complete base set for $10 on ebay. It's only if you want them new in packs that they are costly. And that's partially attributable to the second hand market and supply/demand. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jun 7, 2019 12:43:25 GMT -5
Huh. Weird. So, psychologically, people want the experience of opening and hunting for things more than they want to own things. That's interesting!
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Jun 7, 2019 12:58:13 GMT -5
Huh. Weird. So, psychologically, people want the experience of opening and hunting for things more than they want to own things. That's interesting! That's consumerism, really. |
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Post by brutalis on Jun 7, 2019 14:02:15 GMT -5
The hunt and cheapness of cards/comics in the past was what made them so fun to collect. You felt as if you had found true treasures in printed gold for nickels and dimes. That you had to purchase individual packs or trade with your friends meant sharing the wonder and joy as they were more than just a simple purchase. We carried the stuff around in our pockets and took them everywhere. Cards and comics were all handled daily if not hourly and the "damage" inflicted was in direct relation to the happiness they were delivering. If I were to lose or have a card or comic torn up then I could readily replace them handily and cost effectively. Not as true today.
The cost of things today seems to be a "bottom line" to companies. There probably is no consideration to finding a way to creating less expensive trading cards or comic books or books or anything these days when all the buyers are willing for paying higher prices. This is why "sales" of comics and other things has gone down in numbers over time. You can and will sell more for a lesser price as long as the product reflects a worth to those consuming it. In the 80's I would spend more in a week on comic books and cards which I now spend in a month to 2 months as I feel there is "less" value and pleasure in what I do purchase.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jun 7, 2019 15:55:35 GMT -5
The cost of things today seems to be a "bottom line" to companies.; Exactly as it always was, yes. Except now we have less child labor, and DC comics isn't laundering money for the mob. |
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Post by urrutiap on Jun 10, 2019 18:33:51 GMT -5
I still have an old trading card long box full of old cards from the Toybiz/Marvel Universe cards to various X-Men card series along with the 1990s Star Wars Galaxy cards along with the glow in the dark Ghost Rider cards. I even got a good big amount of the G.I. Joe card series but I dont have all of the cards for the G.I. Joe series. I even have the old early 1990s Star Trek Next Generation card series.
I have an old trading card photo book of Marvel Masterpieces Series 1 and a little plastic glass set of Marvel Masterpieces II but missing Puma and Wasp.
I also have the last new Halloween themed Garbage Pail Kids cards from last year.
These days I still enjoy looking through all of the cards that I still have.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 10, 2019 21:23:51 GMT -5
Buying packs of cards (any cards) are a lottery ticket these days. For Sports, it's autograph card or 'memorabilia' cards (why a small square from a shirt is exciting I don't get)... for non sport cards like comics it's sketch cards (which are super rare or sometimes even unique).... sometimes even printing plates.
The base sets are often practically disposible, so if you just want the cards buying a 'base' set for anything is usually pretty cheap.
It's probably 10 years ago now, but my favorite set was the Kree-Skrull war one. The cards, when put in a regular 9 card sheet, made comic pages that told a variety of off panel and side stories from the original comic.. great stuff.
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Post by MDG on Jun 11, 2019 14:06:52 GMT -5
One of the things I still have from my childhood is a complete set of Topps Batman cards first series. (I had a good chunk of the 2nd and 3rd as well, but gave them to my cousin for reasons I can't fathom at this point.) And I picked up the reprint that came out around '89 or '90.
I picked up the DC Cosmic cards when they came out in the 90s, but then it seemed a new set of some kind of cards were coming out weekly and the process became exhausting.
I still have that set, though, plus a convention giveaway of the first 5 or 6 cards that are distinguishable from the regular set by lacking numbers.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2019 21:37:36 GMT -5
as a KISS fan, I got into cards very early, with complete Sets of the classic KISS 77 (and 78), and although some of it did translate into my comics collecting: I have the Ultraverse set, and the DC Set that Shaxper showed above? I mainly stuck to the higher end cards, if I were buying boxes of them. one of my all time favorite sets remains the Vertigo cards, of which I have at least 1 full set (and a few partial sets probably), and the binders - all stored away behind boxes of comics of course. . LOL but really, those were STUNNING cards. (I liked the Sandman specific set too)  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2019 23:45:03 GMT -5
as a KISS fan, I got into cards very early, with complete Sets of the classic KISS 77 (and 78), and although some of it did translate into my comics collecting: I have the Ultraverse set, and the DC Set that Shaxper showed above? I mainly stuck to the higher end cards, if I were buying boxes of them. one of my all time favorite sets remains the Vertigo cards, of which I have at least 1 full set (and a few partial sets probably), and the binders - all stored away behind boxes of comics of course. . LOL but really, those were STUNNING cards. (I liked the Sandman specific set too) The Vertigo and Sandman cards were ones I had. I didn't go in big on cards, but I did get some-mostly artist cards like Roger Dean and Frank Frazetta, but things like the Vertigo cards, the deluxe over-sized Star Wars set and the Silver Surfer metallic sets did get a lot of my hard earned comic budget. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2019 23:50:13 GMT -5
The first non-sports cards I remember getting were the Star Wars trading cards circa '77 or '78. I think I had a random pack of Happy Days cards and maybe some Charlie's Angles cards from that time too, but they may have been hand me downs form cousins or neighbors. I remember going out and getting the Star Wars cards.  -M |
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Post by The Captain on Jun 13, 2019 6:26:45 GMT -5
The first non-sports cards I remember getting were the Star Wars trading cards circa '77 or '78. I think I had a random pack of Happy Days cards and maybe some Charlie's Angles cards from that time too, but they may have been hand me downs form cousins or neighbors. I remember going out and getting the Star Wars cards. -M These were my first non-sports cards as well, followed by The Empire Strikes Back sets and eventually ROTJ. The one set that I wished I had been able to find more of was Raiders of the Lost Ark. My parents had taken us to an old-style restaurant that had a glass cabinet under the cash register with all kinds of gum and candy, and on this one visit, there was a box of RotLA packs. I spent my allowance getting 3 or 4 of them, and that was the first and only time I ever saw a box of those packs "in the wild", so I was left with a handful of cards and no way to get more. |
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 16, 2019 17:53:58 GMT -5
From 1975 to '76, I collected Topps' Marvel Super Heroes Sticker Cards. Seeing characters from THE best artists who ever worked for Marvel in poses taken from comics as well as licensing art was pure joy for a young comic fan at the time.     Another great thing about the two sets were not only puzzle pieces on the back that formed classic covers (such as Fantastic Four #100 and Conan the Barbarian #1), but the series used characters from every era of Marvel, not just those being published at the time, hence the reason you could get a card of the Clint Barton Goliath, or even characters partially famous for being dead, like Bucky Barnes. Between this and the 7-Eleven Slurpee cups of both Marvel and DC characters, it was a very fun time to be into superheroes. |
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