I was wondering if anyone else collects the AD&D trading cards and also what the community in general thinks these cards are worth? I'd also like this thread to be a general trading thread. I saw that there was another thread started about the cards years ago that went on for four pages, but I decided not to resurrect it since there was some hostility between forum members that started in there.

Anyway, there were three sets.

The first set that came out in 1991. You could buy a factory set for $25 that had silver borders, and if you look, you can still get these on ebay for around $25. The 1991 retail set is more expensive however. It spanned two series and had gold borders. Series 1 retail boxes are the rarest and most valuable because (these numbers are taken from Jeff Allender's House of Checklists) there were only 50,000 of each normal card printed, and in addition to this there were 29 rare gold bordered cards in series 1 of which only 3,000 and 4,000 each were printed depending on the card. In the thread from years ago, user Whiskers said that he had "never seen a series 1 box on eBay". In the 1991 series 2 set 160,000 of each common card were printed and 10,000 and 13,000 each of the rare cards. Recently I've been able to buy 2 boxes of 1991 series on ebay one for about $20 and another for $43. I also bid on and didn't win a box that sold for $53. I am not sure which series any of these are because the boxes just say "1991 series, they're all green boxes though. Does anyone know? There are 3 more available online right now, one part of a $200 lot. Another single box a seller is asking $250 for! and one of Amazon the seller is asking $79 for.

The second set came out in 1992, Again there was a silver bordered factory set which is still cheaply available on ebay and a retail set that is more expensive than the factory set (although out of all three years 1992 seems to be the cheapest retail set). The retail set again had gold borders and included rare cards. 115,969 of each common card were printed and 27,763 to 35,684 of each rare card.

The third set came out in 1993 and is what I think the most interesting. The cards were green instead of black, and in addition to the silver-bordered factory set and gold-bordered retail set there was a ruby-bordered set included in the retail packs at 1 card per pack. There was also a 60 card chase set inserted at 1 card per every 2 packs. Although numbered 1 through 60 the chase set is in fact made up of 4 different types of cards, 1 lenticular card, 2 sticker cards, 9 foil cards, and 48 what I call "premium back" cards that have a high quality colored back with blue text. I've already completed one set of these 60 and hope to eventually collect the entire ruby bordered set.

Thanks for your input Zenfinite, I remember reading your debate with Whiskers in the old thread.

But perhaps you're being a tad too pessimistic. The boxes do sell on ebay, especially the 1991 and 1993 boxes so there is at least some demand. AD&D is a big brand, AD&D is always going to be around in some way or another and there's always going to be people who like AD&D stuff. Plus, the 91 and 93  boxes have gotten hard to find. In the old thread from five years ago someone wrote something like "you can find boxes and boxes of these on online websites" well you can't anymore for the 1991 and 1993 retail boxes.

How do people display them? They could put them in a binder of course. Or I've also seen UV shielded card frames that hang on your wall. I've often considered making a framed display like this with all 60 of the chase cards. And the ruby bordered cards look VERY cool. Sometimes I just look at my stacks of ruby parallels (all in non-pvc sleeves) and I just think "wow this is awesome". Also they can be used for gaming, some people use the cards as representations of NPCs. The cards are quite entertaining just to look through and read.

Now I don't think a ruby bordered set would be worth $6,000 and I thought Whiskers was overestimating the value in that old thread, but I thought some others were underestimated the value too.

Have you ever seen the prices of non-sport trading cards from the 60s? Often they're like $1 per card or more. Maybe that could be AD&D cards in twenty years.

I have a theory about collectibles, that they go through two phases. The first is when something is 5-25 years old or so. This is what I call "vintage phase one" where you can't buy them in the store anymore but you can still find them easily on ebay. Next is vintage phase 2 where they just plain get hard to find even on ebay. I believe the 1991 and 1993 retail boxes of AD&D are just now starting to enter phase two.

Also think about this, even if the ruby bordered set is only worth a few hundred, how much would the rare cards of the 1991 retail series be worth considering there's only 3000 printed of some of the cards? That's a really small number. There was a limited edition card set of Cinderella that just came out with only 20,000 of each card made and that's considered "limited" so what would 3,000 of each card make it?

The 60 card chase set from 1993 wasn't in the factory set and it includes a lenticular, foil, and sticker cards. I actually tested one of the stickers by sticking it on something, and after over 20 years it still performed well as a sticker! Another thing I like is that the box design and art is so cool. Especially on the 1993 set where there's a castle being stormed by a necromancer and a bunch of skeletons.

I'll be compiling my own list soon. I'm in the process now of sorting all mine and I still need to order some storage boxes and what they call "team sleeves" to store my sets. But I hope to get my list soon and I have a lot of doubles from the 60 card chase set that I could trade to anyone trying to complete that in exchange for ruby parallels perhaps.

Hey Mars, out of all the 1991 retail cards you have did you get any of the rare cards? From what I read they each have their own number like x out of 3000 but I don't know if that's true.

In regards to the borders objectively I know that it's just a different color but it actually looks really neat having the different colors and personally I think the gold looks a bit cooler than silver and the ruby just looks fantastic.

Hm, I didn't know I had that much power to "make things be worth money" by posting on a message board. That has nothing to do with why I'm posting. I collect these cards myself, these are for me, not to resell, and I collect them primarily because I like them and they have sentimental value to me. When I was in first grade my mom bought me the factory set from B.Dalton's and I would spend hours as a kid sorting and reading through the cards.

You're correct, rarity alone doesn't equal value and you need demand too, but there is at least some demand for these cards. If you put up on auction for a 91 or 93 box on eBay, you will get bids. Take for example this auction that ended yesterday where the buyer paid $53.10 after shipping.  
** expired/removed eBay auction **
Now will you get a ton of money, no, but you will get some, people do want and buy the boxes. Thus, there is *some* demand.

Aren't you part of the demand too? I read your post on the old thread you writing this "I'd like to keep buying boxes of the 1993 packs, to assemble a ruby bordered set, but people still think they are worth money, and I can't get boxes for less than like...$40 after shipping, and screw that lol." It seems if anyone has an "axe to grind" about this it's you.

Well, $40 for a 93 box after shipping would actually be quite a find now. Today it's hard to find the 93 boxes for less than $50 after shipping, if you can find them all, and especially not the 93 series 1 boxes.

I've seen a similar pattern repeat when it comes to other vintage things. Take for example the original (not the new ones) Garbage Pail Kids cheap toys. These were little minifigures of different Garbage Pail Kids that originally retailed for a quarter in a little bag with a piece of candy. 15 years ago  you could find these on ebay relatively cheaply. People would say "oh those, you can easily find them" then gradually the supply starts to dry up. The prices start to rise. The people who have been into collecting Garbage Pail Kids for awhile are suddenly complaining "wow these prices are too high, this is ridiculous" (just like your complaint of paying $40 for a 93 box). That's what I mean about vintage phase 2. Eventually even the factory sets become hard to find and enter vintage phase 2. Also I think it's funny you write "packs and unopened boxes are easily found on eBay with some patience and dedication." So if something is "easy" by definition why would you need "patience and dedication" to do it? "Patience and dedication" are things I more associate with "hard" tasks. Like say, spending 10 minutes everyday for the next year obsessively checking ebay to see when a new auction for a 91/93 box started.

In my opinion the 1993 set is the best set because by then they'd already used up the painting art (which was recycled) in the first two sets so they had to put in a lot more original art in the 93 set, which wasn't as pretty as a Larry Elmore painting or anything, but it was new. The funny thing is as a kid I liked the 1993 set least for that reason, but as an adult I like it best because of that.  It just seems like with the 1993 set they had to get a little more creative, like they have a mini-series of pictures of painted miniatures, a mini-series of ships, etc. They couldn't just chop up all the painting art anymore.

Well technically the above ebay auction for the box wasn't in shrink. That was actually an opened box someone paid $53 for. I believe too that all the green 1991 boxes are second series but again I'm not sure. If so, I have never actually seen a first series 1991 box and have no idea what color it would be.

The 91 and 93 boxes are at least worth more than their retail value currently. I believe they'll be worth even more in the future because if you look at pretty much any non-sport trading card, once it starts getting 35, 40, 50 years old they start getting expensive. For example look at this recently completely auction for two loose cards from the 1966 Lost In Space card set, even with stubbed corners and everything.


** expired/removed eBay auction **


Sooner or later too the factory sets will dry up. It has to happen eventually. The 91 and 93 boxes are already pretty much gone, except for a handful that you can still find. When those factory sets eventually do get unfindable then people will be like "oh yeah remember when TSR made trading card sets, whatever happened to those?" When one comes up for auction it will fetch perhaps $100. Then all the people who've been collecting this for a long time will be like "blah that's too expensive!" because eBay has spoiled them and they still think it's 2005. It may seem like I'm just rambling here but I've seen this exact same thing happen over and over with various other types of collectibles. The first stage is vintage phase 1 when they vintage item is common on eBay and people take it for granted, then comes vintage phase 2 where suddenly the item is hard to find and everyone gets outraged that you can't get them for dirt cheap anymore.