Player collectors..."phantom" cards never made?

In my supercollecting quest over the last 20 years there have been several Trent Dilfer cards that exist according to Beckett and are part of a set which clearly exists, yet I have never seen one despite all manner of searching. I'm not talking about 1/1's or 1/5 cards or anything, but cards that there is no fathomable reason I shouldn't have seen than other than they weren't made for some unknown reason or they were extremely short-printed.

Do other player collectors have similar cards they can't find for some reason? Maybe they're even from the same sets? Mine are:

1995 Pacific Blue 344 (These weren't as rare as the later "Platinum Blue" inserts - supposedly about 1 in 4 retail packs and there are 70 cards from the set on COMC so not super rare, but I have never once seen a Dilfer)

1997 Pacific Philadelphia Silver 187 (Rarer than the above card at 2:37 packs, but about 75% of the set is on COMC so not rare at all...yet never seen a Dilfer)

1997 Studio Postcard Portraits 7 (Though I don't think this entire set exists, has anybody seen their player? Supposedly measures 4" x 6" instead of 8" x 10".

1998 Skybox Thunder Rave/150 118 (Have seen plenty of 1998 Super Raves/25 and many 1997 Raves/150, but ZERO 1998 Raves/150. Something's wrong here.)

1999 Collector's Edge Advantage Millennium Blue 140 (I have all of his Millennium Reds and Blues from the other 1999 Edge sets, but I have never seen an Advantage Millennium Blue veteran card, only rookies. I think this is an error by Beckett but if anybody has a veteran Millennium Blue from this set please chime in.)


What are you weirdly missing for your players?

I recognize your name from when I was actively searching eBay with my dad for Dilfer cards (eghii).

I'm also missing some cards that are alleged to exist by Lord Beckett himself...

Bettis
1993 Action Packed Mint....I understand they are rare but with Bettis rookies being so popular...someone has to have one out there.

1995 Collector's Choice Crash the Game Silver TD Redemption #C16 ...seriously. I can find tons of these in gold...there are tons of the Silver Set variations but none that say Touchdown on the side. I've seen them listed on the Beckett marketplace but all the sellers say they don't say touchdown. Well then you don't have the TD Redemption now do you?

1995 Upper Deck/GTE Phone Card NFC #1 ...enough said...don't even know what I'm looking for.

I'm with you on the 98 Skybox Rave...also haven't seen it. I'm assuming you have but did you check with my dad? I know he has found a lot of obscure stuff and obtained a number of other peoples Dilfer collections and maybe has come across the stuff you need?

srt4eh said:

I recognize your name from when I was actively searching eBay with my dad for Dilfer cards (eghii).

I'm also missing some cards that are alleged to exist by Lord Beckett himself...

Bettis
1993 Action Packed Mint....I understand they are rare but with Bettis rookies being so popular...someone has to have one out there.

1995 Collector's Choice Crash the Game Silver TD Redemption #C16 ...seriously. I can find tons of these in gold...there are tons of the Silver Set variations but none that say Touchdown on the side. I've seen them listed on the Beckett marketplace but all the sellers say they don't say touchdown. Well then you don't have the TD Redemption now do you?

1995 Upper Deck/GTE Phone Card NFC #1 ...enough said...don't even know what I'm looking for.

I'm with you on the 98 Skybox Rave...also haven't seen it. I'm assuming you have but did you check with my dad? I know he has found a lot of obscure stuff and obtained a number of other peoples Dilfer collections and maybe has come across the stuff you need?

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bookmarking this because I need to check my Crash cards...

srt4eh said:

I recognize your name from when I was actively searching eBay with my dad for Dilfer cards (eghii).

I'm also missing some cards that are alleged to exist by Lord Beckett himself...

Bettis
1993 Action Packed Mint....I understand they are rare but with Bettis rookies being so popular...someone has to have one out there.

1995 Collector's Choice Crash the Game Silver TD Redemption #C16 ...seriously. I can find tons of these in gold...there are tons of the Silver Set variations but none that say Touchdown on the side. I've seen them listed on the Beckett marketplace but all the sellers say they don't say touchdown. Well then you don't have the TD Redemption now do you?

1995 Upper Deck/GTE Phone Card NFC #1 ...enough said...don't even know what I'm looking for.

I'm with you on the 98 Skybox Rave...also haven't seen it. I'm assuming you have but did you check with my dad? I know he has found a lot of obscure stuff and obtained a number of other peoples Dilfer collections and maybe has come across the stuff you need?

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Yep that's me, nice to see you around! I had a few emails with Ed last year, I should probably get back in touch with him about picking up some doubles but I do know he hadn't fully organized his collection at that time.

He's in the process of moving currently so it's likely still not organized. If I was back home I would conquer that task but....I'm not. lol

I am a HUGE Reggie Bush collector & maybe you've seen me on many other sites as I've posted many times on this topic.
Yes I'm talking about this one!!
2006 Ultra Target Exclusive Rookie Autographs #203 Reggie Bush SP



I know its retail which makes it even harder to get since not a lot of people went or go that route. By now one would think I'd get a story or two about "I know a guy who has it/seen it", at least but nope, nothing. I've hit up a lot of "high rollers" who have a lot his 1/1s & /5 RCs & they haven't seen nor heard of any out there.
Mind you, I've seen many of his rare cards show up in the past few years as they've FINALLY given up the HYPE TRAIN RIDE! :ugeek: For example these extremely rare auto RCs(below). Honestly the only time you probably ever seen these were when they were promo pics for their products! Even these scarce cards have managed to show up more than once in just the past few years!!! (And these I both have)


2006 Upper Deck Rookie Futures Jersey Autographs #RFRB Reggie Bush/10



2006 Upper Deck Rookie Premiere Autographs #2 Reggie Bush SP



I've talked to many many people over the years about the Target Exclusive Auto RCs. Just YESTERDAY I received confirmation yet again that a huge Luck 13 collector had never seen the Reggie Bush version nor a Matt Leinart version for that matter. With all that being said I was given a little hope once I seen this!!




So I guess I just have to keep holding the faith!!
And I guess "technically" its not a phantom then......

At least you have a picture of it...I'd still call it a phantom though....

2000 Playoff Prestige Checklist Auto's of Kevin Faulk #CL80 & Charlie Garner #CL88 , it was supposed to be a 31 card set, 1 for each team (at the time) & a nice checklist of all team commons & inserts on the back. I've been stuck at 29 cards for years, Playoff claimed some years back that all cards were released. I've never seen these 2

pudge27t said:

I am a HUGE Reggie Bush collector & maybe you've seen me on many other sites as I've posted many times on this topic.

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I'm confused, where are the 3 pics from if the cards may not exist? It seems like they were made.

Dilferules said:

I'm confused, where are the 3 pics from if the cards may not exist? It seems like they were made.

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1st pic is the card I am talking about. I grabbed the picture from beckett website to show people what it looks like, "supposedly". Also I have never seen it, nor heard of anyone seeing!
The 2nd & 3rd pics are cards I own as I stated.
The thing is, idk if its a glitch on the website of beckett but sometimes it shows as being on the POP report & sometimes it doesn't.

Oh duh guess my reading comprehension is off. One the first one, since somebody must have uploaded that image to Beckett then I imagine the card must exist. There's even a back scan, so it's probably not something from a sell sheet.

I didn't think the 97 Upper Deck MVP card of Bettis existed....but...today I just bought one on eBay. Woohoo

srt4eh said:

I didn't think the 97 Upper Deck MVP card of Bettis existed....but...today I just bought one on eBay. Woohoo

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Well how long have you been looking though?

Dilferules said:

In my supercollecting quest over the last 20 years there have been several Trent Dilfer cards that exist according to Beckett and are part of a set which clearly exists, yet I have never seen one despite all manner of searching. I'm not talking about 1/1's or 1/5 cards or anything, but cards that there is no fathomable reason I shouldn't have seen than other than they weren't made for some unknown reason or they were extremely short-printed.

Do other player collectors have similar cards they can't find for some reason? Maybe they're even from the same sets? Mine are:

1995 Pacific Blue 344 (These weren't as rare as the later "Platinum Blue" inserts - supposedly about 1 in 4 retail packs and there are 70 cards from the set on COMC so not super rare, but I have never once seen a Dilfer)

1997 Pacific Philadelphia Silver 187 (Rarer than the above card at 2:37 packs, but about 75% of the set is on COMC so not rare at all...yet never seen a Dilfer)

1997 Studio Postcard Portraits 7 (Though I don't think this entire set exists, has anybody seen their player? Supposedly measures 4" x 6" instead of 8" x 10".

1998 Skybox Thunder Rave/150 118 (Have seen plenty of 1998 Super Raves/25 and many 1997 Raves/150, but ZERO 1998 Raves/150. Something's wrong here.)

1999 Collector's Edge Advantage Millennium Blue 140 (I have all of his Millennium Reds and Blues from the other 1999 Edge sets, but I have never seen an Advantage Millennium Blue veteran card, only rookies. I think this is an error by Beckett but if anybody has a veteran Millennium Blue from this set please chime in.)


What are you weirdly missing for your players?

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I believe those were issued in like a factory set or a Shop at Home type set format, if I'm not mistaken. I know they weren't in packs, because I bought the XXXX outta Advantage and never saw one and do remember seeing them on either, like I said, SAH or QVC in a set.

The Pacific stuff is probably still sitting in boxes, either sealed or in 3,200 ct boxes 'cause folks just think the stuff isn't worth anything to anyone out there.

srt4eh said:

I didn't think the 97 Upper Deck MVP card of Bettis existed....but...today I just bought one on eBay. Woohoo

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pudge27t said:

Well how long have you been looking though?

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I had been looking for that same Collins for about 14 years ... until I found mind

55_marlins_sp said:

I believe those were issued in like a factory set or a Shop at Home type set format, if I'm not mistaken. I know they weren't in packs, because I bought the XXXX outta Advantage and never saw one and do remember seeing them on either, like I said, SAH or QVC in a set.

The Pacific stuff is probably still sitting in boxes, either sealed or in 3,200 ct boxes 'cause folks just think the stuff isn't worth anything to anyone out there.

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Yeah I remember the Millenniums being sold on Shop at Home by the legendary Don West. I guess they didn't sell a lot of them because they put a bunch in some of those Target blister packs of cards ($5.99 for 100 cards! and such), I picked up a couple hundred buying those things a year or two after the set came out and made some money selling them on eBay and Yahoo auctions. There were Blue and red variations for the sets, except that for Advantage I never have seen a Blue veteran, only rookies.

For the couple of Pacific cards that could be the case but I've been looking for those two since the sets came out and never seen one, while picking up all similar inserts super easy. There's something weird going on with those, but I hold out hope of finding them some day. It took me over 10 years to find a 1999 Pacific Red Trent Dilfer so you never know.

AmishDave said:

I had been looking for that same Collins for about 14 years ... until I found mind

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I hope it doesn't take me that long. Then again, was it retail or hobby?

In many years, I have yet to see a 1990 Dallas Cowboys Team Issue #8 Randy Shannon.