Non-sports: A $2000 Spider-man Card? Marvel Retro Bonkerness

[smapdi]

The Upper Deck effect of issuing new versions of beloved Fleer cards has hit Marvel with "Retro," akin to the NBA product with PMGs, Jambalayas, etc. I first noticed them a few weeks ago when I did my periodic search for Galactus ephemera (Galactus being my favorite Marvel "hero"). A Green Precious Metal Gems #1 /10 of Spider-man sold for $1995 BIN when it came out at the end of August. A Wolverine went for $1500. Others have nearly crested four figures. The reds #/100 and blues #/50 are also very strong. Then the other inserts are also insanely hot. Jamabalayas are three figures for C-list characters, and about $500 for the top names. Lots of other inserts that sell for $10-100. Boxes are $250-300. Then there's a plethora of autographs of comic artists (some real ones, like Arthur Adams, Phil Hoto, Adi Granov, some I've never heard of) and sketch cards (hardly heard of any of the artists) but the sketches are nearly all fully realized and very sharp, not like the Leaf "artist."

My local shop had a sale last weekend, and I noticed they had an opened box of this stuff stuck way off in the corner. Sadly, it wasn't a bulk-rate price at $12.95/pack (though their sale was 15% off packs, IIRC). Toyed with the idea of ripping, but composed myself. Still, it's something different.

I'd love to build a Galactus rainbow from this set, but sadly I cannot see myself paying $200+ for a PMG Green. Thankfully, there isn't a Jambalaya for him, either, although it would be cool.

As an aside, just trying to remember my hobby history, didn't Marvel own Fleer at some point? Did they sell it to UD? Or the other way round?It's all getting jumbled up in my mind.

 

[predatorkj]

Not sure if they ever owned fleer but comic cards are actually insane these days. I remember going on quite the spree during the tail end of my high school years all the way up to about 2006. I was buying every set and insert I could get my hands on and to be quite honest, the market was dead. I was able to land so much and do so very cheaply. But they were actually getting hard to find because people weren't bothering to bring them to shows and I had purchased everything from local comic shops they had. I obviously sold them for peanuts to a local guy when I got out of the hobby. And now of course they are more popular. Typical.

 

[heavy_hitter]

I stopped collecting Marvel Universe cards around 1994-1995. The most expensive card at the time was this Spiderman/Venom hologram.

1993 Marvel Universe IV Spider Man vs Venom H IV Hologram Card Red Gold M | eBay

I didn't know if then, but the hologram also came in rarer tints:

Marvel Universe IV Spider Man vs Venom H IV Hologram Green Blue Deep Blue Violet | eBay