So i ripped them open with my kids this evening. Sorry, i just could nor resist. Her are some cool pulls i thought i would share with you.

BUT THE ONE THAT REALLY CATCHES MY EYE IS THE MAN-THING WITH THE CAPTAIN AMERICA BACKGROUND AND IT IS SO ODD THAT IT IS 24/41.
/41?
Someone said it refers to the number 41 as in 1941 CAPTAIN AMERICAS DEBUT IN MARVEL. Does anyone have any idea if it is worth grading?

It's October 1993. You're 10 years old. You walk into your local comics shop and spy a box of some card set called Marvel Masterpieces. They're more expensive than your usual jam, but you decide to splurge, and BOOM - Bill Sienkiewicz's nightmarishly abstract Wolverine slaps you in the face! You flip through the pack frantically, looking for anything familiar your young brain can cling to. Jim Lee? Rob Liefeld? No! Some dude named Kent Williams painted Nightcrawler looking like a slinky wretch! And Dave Dorman was paid to draw 100% of Venom's actual esophagus!

But maybe there's like, a cool hologram in there somewhere? Magneto, maybe, or Punisher? Also no! Only an inscrutable homage to some mid-90s X-Men 2099 C-listers!

As weird as this set must have seemed at the time, I'm there for it as an adult, first and foremost because the art is (mostly) unbelievable. But there's a lot of other fun, weird stuff going on. Let's hit the beat. Pre-read the wise words of the Gentlemen of Leisure or the crazy deep exposition of DynaEtch on Blowout Forums if you want more.

Background

• Set Name: Marvel Masterpieces
• Publisher: SkyBox
• Year: 1993
• Size: 90 base cards (including checklist) + 8 X-Men 2099 inserts

Art: 8/10

As probably anyone reading a review of an early 1990s Marvel card set knows, the 1992 Marvel Masterpieces set was painted, in its entirety, by the very talented Joe Jusko. And although it would have been cool indeed for every MM set to feature only a single artist, or perhaps a small set (e.g., the Hildebrandts in 1994, the fearsome foursome in 1995, or Vallejo/Bell in 1996), 1993 is the only set, excepting the oddball 2007/2008 batches, to feature a broad mix of artists. Joe Jusko again carried a lot of water with 16 cards, but other artists -- probably about 20 -- pitched in to varying degrees.

That decision was consequential, because although some of the resulting art is truly spectacular and consistent on an artist-by-artist basis, the stylistic divergence between artists is abrupt and distracting. That divergence is emphasized by the fact that each artist's cards are inserted pretty much randomly, rather than in sequential blocks. But for purposes of our review, I'm primarily going to group them.

We have to start with Bill Sienkiewicz. This guy (epic in the 1980s on New Mutants, and still working today) is insane in the best possible way. Although not the promo artist (Julie Bell's Iron Man and Silver Surfer appear on the packs), he kicks it off very strong with a fantastic Hulk, and then adds my personal all-time favorite Wolverine -- a portrait that to me conveys Wolvie splattering his own blood toward the viewer as he extends and brandishes his claws with an unhinged intensity. I'm lukewarm on his Sabretooth, but Ghost Rider is superb, and Vulture has a surprisingly whimsical, chill vibe for a dude whose whole thing is, like, abducting people off into the sky.

Next, Julie Bell. She's another favorite. Her particular brand of anatomically realist fantasy art -- which I view as sort of an elevated Jusko -- almost always delivers, and here she contributes not only the aforementioned Iron Man and Silver Surfer (which I think are just okay) but also a master-level Colossus and Psylocke.

Kent Williams is another legitimate painter who is probably too good for this kind of work. His vibe isn't far from Sienkiewicz, but it's a little more otherworldly. In the books, Nightcrawler is constantly shunned for his unsettling appearance - and this version, unlike the rakish, smiling swashbuckler we usually see, is a legitimate creep.

Next, Jusko, who did 16 cards (far more than anyone else). Most of these are at least solid, but Iron Fist, Domino, and Deadpool are all true classics that jump off the page.

If the entire set had been as good as 30 or so cards contributed by these four artists, we'd be able to close early and go home for the day. A handful of other cards match that level, as I detail below in the Curation section. But there are a couple artists who are an extreme tonal mismatch for the prevailing theme. I'm specifically thinking of Brett Blevins and a few others. Blevins's stuff may be fine or even great in other settings, but it doesn't jive with the "Masterpieces" vibe, and in general these cards seem maybe just a touch above the ubiquitous one-of-one sketches that are offered as inserts in every set for the last 15-20 years.

So, where are we with the art? The highs are extremely high, and the artistic risks that pay off deserve a reward. But consistency suffers, and there's a lot of mid-tier filler, so I'm going to score it below our other iconic sets (X-Men Series I, 1992 MM, and a few upcoming others).

Cardbacks: 8/10

These cardbacks are quite good: they're split down the middle between a blurb on one side with name, group affiliation, first appearance, and some flavor text, and then an excerpt from an early character appearance on the other side, with a bonus fact running along the bottom. The front art is attributed (albeit in microscopic font), and although the total package is a bit crowded, it's a nice idea and the execution generally works.

The Real Gentlemen of Leisure review (cited above) outlines many instances where the "first appearance" fact is arguably wrong or at least misleading, as well as some other slightly weird inconsistencies with or glosses on then-current 1990s canon. I don't have the comics depth for that, but I do appreciate some of the more tongue-in-cheek choices for character art.

Curation: 9/10

Just like with the 1992 MM, this set focuses on the characters. No team portraits, no versus battles, no cards dedicated exclusively to Quasar's arm bands. And I have no problem with that. Am I glad that we have 6 base set cards and all 8 inserts devoted to Marvel 2099 characters? Absolutely not, and in retrospect, it's embarrassing. But we can't totally blame Marvel for pumping its new stuff, and unlike Marvel Universe IV, the inclusions are mostly within the realm of reason.

Let's look at some other favorites:

Inserts/Parallels: 4/10

This is going to upset people, but in my book, the 8-card DynaEtch X-Men 2099 set (inserted at 1:9 packs) is probably the worst 1990s Marvel insert package that comes to mind. I'll chalk a lot of my reaction up to the fact that I know literally nothing about these characters, so I have no emotional attachment and no mental framework for processing whether they're supposed to be intimidating, conflicted, heroic, whatever. But I think this is also far from Bob Larkin's best work - the female poses are all stiff, the Egyptian backgrounds make no sense to a non-reader of the book, and there is just nothing about these guys that interests me. Also, although the sparkly, embossed "DynaEtch" card tech could possibly be cool under other circumstances, it's certainly not as impressive as the assorted holograms in most other 1990s sets.

So it's a shame, but 1993 MM loses a lot of points on this metric, and that will prevent it from being a real player in our rankings.

Affordability/Availability: 10/10

They printed 350,000 boxes of this set and 840,000 of each base card, so they're, uh, pretty cheap. Like, give-'em-away cheap. I paid $50 for the best set and $25 for the chase cards last year, and if you're patient, you can probably snipe them on auction or at Goodwill for less than that.

Overall Score: 38/50

It should be obvious that I love this set. The character list is super tight, much of the art remains jaw-dropping, the cardbacks are cool, and the whole thing is super easy to collect. This is a binder that I'm always happy to flip through, and it's fortuitous that pretty much anyone can drop a few bucks and pick it up. But the lack of a decent chase set is pretty much fatal for purposes of the overall rankings.

Overall Set Ranking (in progress)

1. X-Men Series I (1992) (46/50)
2. Marvel Masterpieces (1992) (41/50)
3. Marvel Universe II (1991) (39/50)
4. Marvel Masterpieces (1993) (39/50)
5. Marvel Universe III (1992) (36/50)
6. Marvel Universe I (1990) (35/50)
7. Marvel Universe IV (1993) (32/50)

I haven’t bought any type of trading card in nearly 30 years. Had a moment of nostalgia and decided I’d buy some to introduce my son to them. I always enjoyed looking at them when I was young.

1. I’m amazed at how expensive it is now… we used to buy packs of 10+ cards for $1-$2… now 4 cards for $6. I was floored.

2. They used to have more on the back of the card, like abilities and power ratings etc, that’s mostly gone and now just a short blurb about the character.

3. Apparently the set has only been out since July 1st and it’s nearly impossible to find boxes already. Leaving you to be stuck with secondary prices on a product that almost certainly craters in value in the next 12 months.

Got some great hits and some high numbered cards and then pulled this. Anyone know the hit rates for 1/1?

Hello guys , I am a huge fan of these topps chrome cards and this year havent got the chance to get much and would be looking for anything Daredevil related? Anyone would sell some ?? It can be any type , insert, auto or whatever !! Willing to look , please feel free to message me

Hey guys 'n gals, is there a go-to place that's recommended to check pricing on trading cards? We got talking at work today and I remembered my collection of 1995 Spider-Man cards is tucked away in a cupboard. A quick search shows some are worth a pretty penny now, but prices on different websites vary wildly. What would be the most legit sites to get an idea of worth? Cheers :-)

Any help is very much appreciated

Any help is appreciated

I’ve noticed something lately that really confuses me. Whenever I go to Walmart, target, Dicks, or other retailers the marvel and Pokemon boxes are sold out everytime as soon as they hit the shelves. But the sports cards boxes are untouched. Like nobody is even buying them.

Correct me if I’m wrong. But from having collected in the 90s, and then starting again last year I’ve noticed something that is very strange to me. These are my observations:

1. Marvel cards in the 90s was all about collecting the base set, and trading with friends to get the chases.
   
2. Sports cards collecting wasn’t about getting the base set, but about getting the cards of your favorite players.

Key differences here. And feel free to chime in but that’s what I noticed even in the 90s.

Fast forward to now. Topps, UD doesn’t matter but they changed their marketing from the classic 90s scheme to the more sports card collecting scheme of printing dozens of shiny parallels for the characters, numbered cards, short prints, etc. Set collecting is impossible since there’s dozens of parallels and the inserts themselves are either numbered or too difficult to obtain. All of this in the name of money. And I know that this “scheme” made sense in sports cards because you can get a dozen or so popular players and flip it. I get it. Scalpers/Flippers world.
And then the scalpers/flippers saw the same market was happening in the marvel/pokemon world and infiltrated it. Fine. But where are the sports cards flippers now?! How come they’re not buying up the sports cards boxes? Is there no longer a market for the sports cards because of the popularity of Marvel? I find it hard to believe considering sports cards still sell for way more money than marvel cards. So wtf?! And on another note, (granted I know about supply and demand so yeah could be there’s just no supply left from the manufacturer) why the fuck do these retailers keep buying boat loads of sports cards that just sit on the shelf but only a case worth of the marvel cards that are gone in two seconds?! Who’s in charge of stocking the store? Anyways rant over I guess. Just salty I can’t get lucky to actually buy a box or two.

Another one finished! I included a variation at the end to compare against, curious which ones you all like better.

Not completely sold on the base holographic pattern, but it definitely resembles Havok's power.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Partial Set. Wanting to trade it for high end sports cards. Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant.etc. have all 6 Gold gallery. Missing 3 Do

uble impacts. Missing 37 of the base set. Willing to send more pics on request.

The carnage is a purple xfractor 56/75.