Marvel Masterpieces 1992-2020

[Bunny Hop]

omg Dyna put that post directly into my veins. Love it.

[DynaEtch]

^^
Glad I didn’t bore the living daylights out of everyone with the long post about card numbering

Not a lot to update, but a couple small pickups, one of which posted in the other thread but wanted to contain these all in this thread. The first this 94MM Carnage holofoil.


I know what some are thinking…Dyna’s at it again, collecting trash. A poor condition card with tons of surface damage. And then posting it on the forum no less.

This of course is not the case, and is an error card. That is not paper loss or scuffs. It is foil, in places where it shouldn’t be. The card is totally smooth, and those bits are reflective foil. It cannot be replicated by altering a regular 94MM carnage holofoil (try to dig into a card…it will be all scratched up, ripped, and indented, showing obvious damage, and certainly not be smooth). This “extra foil spots” error is the second in the genre that I’ve come across, the other being a Cap America from post #283.



I am working on a massive “rainbow” of this specific Carnage holofoil due to all the errors of it (why a huge percentage of error 94MM Holofoils are carnage is a perplexing question). Will try to post the progress on that soon.

This is the other pickup, silly as it is not an error card at all, just an error slab. Second one to date. Compared to the pop of psa graded MM cards out there, the % of upside down error slabs has to be super small considering this is the second I’ve personally come across. Does this have any collectible value at all beyond a normal Hobgoblin PSA 8? Debatable. It realistically doesnt make sense it should. But it does to me….if for only the rarity and weirdness.

[bkcardcollector]

i love this as a former accountant!

[fabiani12333]

I kind of like that Carnage error -- the added foil almost looks like smoke.

[DynaEtch]

Nslist’s page on 94 Masterpieces mentions distinct foil shadings of some powerblasts, but provides no details. https://nslists.com/mrvmas94.htm

After looking into this a little, I do think I see a bona fide different foil color on some, and it’s not a one off, but rather in consistent groupings (so not an error, but a variant). Admittedly it’s pretty hard to tell unless you’re really looking for it, and have several to compare. I am convinced this has nothing to do with fading, and is a manufacturing difference.

I have found a variation on the Cable, Sabretooth, Apocalypse, Archangel, and Magneto thus far. Not sure I see a consistent variant in the others yet. The variation is generally a green turquoise in the background vs a darker blue/purple.











Litmus test…can you spot the different one:



(Top middle)
Does it mean much? Not really. But interesting such a mainstay insert from a 90s marvel set like this has variants that have went fairly undetected. There are a couple possibilities- either the variant was exclusively in jumbo/walmart (or both), sort of like the gold/bronze holofoils, or was just a general printing issue where a color was lacking at some point in the run. Would have to open boxes from the different versions and record results to really know, but I’m leaning towards it was just a general printing phenomenon. In either case, this type of variant is too slight and obscure to garner much interest or see any price differential.

[DynaEtch]

A minor error pickup, this Warlock no foil name (but with top text).


A note on 93MM errors: Being a half-missing foil, you know this will have come from a pack. Completely no foil 93MM errors (“virgin variants”) have been somewhat upended by the recent find that came to market, in which pre-press non-pack inserted cards with no foil now account for many of the ones you see on eBay. There isn’t a huge difference between the two, true error and pre-press, and I’m not convinced most people will take any notice. Maybe if they take extra careful notice they will see that prepress ones don’t have the UV coating, have no imprinted name that you can only see tilted in the light (the above Adam Warlock has it, just can’t see it in scan), and perhaps also not cut perfectly like a card. Otherwise, at superficial glance, they both look the exact same, like a foil-less 93MM card.

Does it matter? I think they are both interesting in their own right, just with separate origins. One from an accidental fluke printing mistake, the other a neat item from the planning/pre-production stage never found in packs. Strictly speaking as an error collector I should only be interested in the former, but when the thing looks so darn similar, it’s hard to really prioritize one. I do think the value of the true no-foil errors from 93MM I painstakingly added over the years (maybe like 18 or so) have lost some value due to precisely the market not being able to (or caring enough to) differentiate the two, therefore a supply increase. So it's a good thing I'm not collecting for value

[JMStang]

Thanks for putting this all together! My favorite set is the 92. Apologies if this is already mentioned but have not made it through all the posts yet.

I pulled this card from a pack in 92 when as a kid. Have not seen one similar. Looks like it could be the over foil error you’ve mentioned. The back is normal.



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[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by JMStang

Thanks for putting this all together! My favorite set is the 92. Apologies if this is already mentioned but have not made it through all the posts yet.

I pulled this card from a pack in 92 when as a kid. Have not seen one similar. Looks like it could be the over foil error you’ve mentioned. The back is normal.



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Woahhh…you are speaking my language here- nice one!

So I think you are exactly right, it’s an over-foil. It is the comparable of the Silver Surfer vs Thanos and Spidey vs Venom over-foils I have.



Total overfoil at far right:


Most noticeable at the bottom of card on the Spidey vs Venom


The effect is even more noticeable on your Wolvie vs Sabretooth with the amount of background space that is covered. Curious to know if any other of the remaining two, Thing vs Hulk or Capt America vs Red Skull over foils have been spotted- might not be easy to spot them if not a lot of ‘background foil’ is there to be overfoiled, but they should exist as the whole uncut sheet would be affected. These are true needles on a haystack compared to the print run.

If you go back to post #237:
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showpo...&postcount=237

I came across an old post on a different forum, Nonsport Update’s, where someone posted a Wolvie vs Sabretooth that looks a lot like yours (assuming not you?). Actually looking closely it does appear the one posted in that post is a completely opaque background foil, vs yours is slightly transparent but clearly overfoiled, so indeed looks like a different card. What might be going on, is something like the Spidey example above where there are different tiers of over-foil (top ones are totally opaque at bottom, and bottom left is overfoiled but slightly transparent).

Awesome to see these, thanks for sharing this (I would be interested obviously if you ever want to move it but understand if you’re just showing it off!)

[JMStang]

You’re welcome, happy to share and get some understanding of it after all these years. The one you mentioned is not mine. Not looking to move it right now but if I do I’ll keep you in mind. Thanks again for the information.


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[DynaEtch]

Good stuff, love to see errors like this, and this one is a doozy. Also impressive you still have it after all these years.

These are true diamonds in the rough, almost impossible odds to pull from a pack.

[JMStang]

Thanks. I remember opening the pack in the card shop not knowing what it was and have an adult offer me $100 for right then. I declined wanting to show it off to my friends. They weren’t too impressed with it though. If they only knew!


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[finfangfan]

I got another cool number 2016 MM Jusko slab back this week. Rocket Raccoon 1499/1499

[DynaEtch]

Nice one finfang…the king of omegas/alphas!

Great character to have it on in Rocket

[DynaEtch]

I follow the original art market (not much of a player in it though with the prices things go for). Jusko’s 1993MM Spider-Man 2099 art went for around $10k in CLink’s auction yesterday.

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/i...077&itemType=1

The ‘18MM Bianchi’s went in the $2-3kish range a piece with some outliers.

It’s not often at all you see an original 93MM painting, they seem largely tucked away in collections. I wasn’t bidding on it, but I thought the Spidey 2099 was a very good deal. Maybe something’s wrong with our hobby when people are paying more for printed green PMG cards (sales in the 12k+ range) than iconic works of art giving rise to the cards. Granted, that Spidey painting is very small, essentially smaller than half a sheet of paper, like a lot of early Jusko paintings. I wonder if that was a large size painting, how much more it would go for. Size does matter to me with Marvel card OA, but not to all. Some don’t care, and just register it as the 1/1 entity corresponding to the card either way. I like a big ol painting though. Anyway congrats to those who won the auctions last night, some great deals.

[DynaEtch]

This inspired me to do a montage of everywhere the Jusko Spidey 2099 was published. Let me know if I’m missing anything.

The 93MM base card


93MM Prepress no foil card (*not* an error card)


Magazine article


Unlicensed Vending Prism Stickers (3 variants- checkered, waves, and cracked ice)


Marvel Masterpieces comic book (this was available summer ‘93 so people saw the art of this card before the card set was released in the fall)


The Box


And a sketch by Jason Adams to add on

[DynaEtch]

Two error additions to report.

First the small potatoes….this 94MM Thing base error (if you wanna guess what it is):


The answer is the gold foil M logo on upper right is missing. I opened a box of 94MM digging for error gold (not recommended, it’s a money pit), and it yielded this single error. Not the most special one, but better than 0 errors. If you look real closely, you can see the imprint of the M- it just didnt get any of the gold foil.

The next is one I’ve been searching for over some time. In fact it is one of my grail errors, I still cannot believe I came across it. Posted ITT above were several no-foil Dyna Etches from 93MM. I had 5, and needed 3 more, #1, #6, and #8 for the whole error set. (Since errors affect entire uncut sheets, the whole set should exist out there in this error). Lo and behold a collection of 93MM pops up for sale, and I thought there was strong potential the Xi’an #8 looked a little different. Problem is you can never really tell from pics about foiling errors for sure, it’s always a gamble. When it came in the mail and I opened it, I was blown away.

Regular Xi’an Dyna Etch



No Foil error



Note in particular the deep reddish orange background of the painting that is buried under all that foil. The name band appears as a basic yellow printed color instead of foil. Shown below compared to the regular issue-





This leaves just 2 more now, Meanstreak and Bloodhawk…two needles in a ginormous haystack…for the set of no-foil errors.

[fabiani12333]

Wow -- that is striking. Cool discovery, Dyna.

[JMStang]

Very cool, like more without the foil since you can see the background.


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[DynaEtch]

Yea it was pretty neat to randomly come across it! It’s one of those things- I knew it existed out there somewhere…but never expected to find it. As I reflect more on collecting, I find I get more enjoyment out of a weird error like this than even the rarest parallel or pmg or $1000 card or whatever else. Maybe that makes me an abnormal collector, I dunno.

Agreed about the no-foils enabling you to see the art more clearly. Don’t get me wrong, I like the jazzed up foil as much as anyone on these inserts, but I like how in this case you can see how the painting really was (another way to do this, besides finding the actual Bob Larkin paintings out there (impossible), is to find the images of these Dyna Etches as printed in the 93 Marvel Masterpieces comic series).

Here are 6 so far, the no-foils compared to regular foil inserts.

[fabiani12333]

Psht, Dyna, those no-foil errors are visually distinct and appealing -- there's nothing weird about collecting them.

[DynaEtch]

Since it’s the 4th, a sampling of 10 of my fav Cap America cards. The rule of course since it’s this thread: it has to be a Marvel Masterpieces card. Who did the best in depicting America’s Avenger? In no particular order…





















I’m not sure anything has surpassed the original…the OG Cap by Jusko in terms of classical depiction. The card screams US of A. The Hildebrant base 94 card I always considered to be 4th of July in a card. The 92 battle spectra has one of the best incorporations of background scenery I’ve seen in a card, as they are shattering through the wooden planks in that classic rivalry. I really like the 2016 Jusko base with Cap’s expression and context, and the stripe banner from Cap America Comics #1 works so dang well on this card. Speaking of that comic, if money was no issue at all, and I could get any single comic of my choosing …it might just be that one. It’s at least top 3 for me.

[jdandns]

Great list of Caps, and tough to argue with any, but I've always been partial to the one that's part of the Steranko triptych in 93MM.



It works beautifully on its own, and taken together, it's sure one of the most inspired depiction of the original Marvel heroes.

[DynaEtch]

How did I forget to add that one to the list!

It really is an awesome Cap by a marvel artist legend. Love the 3 golden Marvel heroes together like that.

[jdandns]

The MM artists work at a high level no matter what, but the iconography of Captain America really does lend to some remarkable portraiture.
(I also really like the other half of the 96MM "Duels" painting which features the Red Skull staring back at Cap, for those unfamiiar.)

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by jdandns

The MM artists work at a high level no matter what, but the iconography of Captain America really does lend to some remarkable portraiture.
(I also really like the other half of the 96MM "Duels" painting which features the Red Skull staring back at Cap, for those unfamiiar.)

It’s the custom cover of my album for 96MM



It really is a nice one. This duel set was done by Boris (I had to turn the cards over to see since Boris and Julie’s styles are so similar and I can barely tell them apart). An all time classic, face to face depiction of the famous rivalry.