Babylon 5 Trading Cards

[DuckyStrike01!]

I have a mass amount of Babylon 5 Trading Cards & new never played CCG. I was an Arvid collector and bought many CCG boxes to obtain Autographs. I would prefer to find a homes for fans of this series that would appreciate it. This is not a post or a sales pitch. I don’t sell on eBay or anywhere else. My prices will not be gouging and are way below eBay or any other seller. I bought many boxes over the years so I am the original owner. If you’re truly a fan you will appreciate them for what they are something to enjoy. Serious inquiries only for what’s available. I am also willing to trade for items I may not have also.

 

[Looney]

Hmmmm well I personally have collected some of the CCG cards just from a collector's standpoint. I've never had the ability to engage in the game itself. Sorry I missed your offer DuckyStrike01, but November in particular would have been a terrible time to try to get any money out of me, but that is always true. BUT November was when Christmas was approaching so that hurt your chances.

And who else wants to discuss trading cards with Looney? Anyone? Anyone?

 

[LateArrival]

Have a few random trading cards picked up in lots, but consider them to be tiny versions of press photos. Not sure if other B5 cards are considered trading cards, as picked up a River of Souls and Sleeping in Light set to go with the scripts, plus some of the season sets and trivia cards.

Ordered four cards week, but they haven't arrived yet. Am placing them with some items my credit card recently acquired since it seemed like a nice touch.



Although there is this other card (on Ebay), but who would want it?

 

[Looney]

HAHAHA So what you have there is a mix of the Trading Cards and Collectible Card game cards. I believe I actually have that Abbut card as well. After I collected all the Trading Cards I started collecting some of the CCG cards, but there are A TON of them and they were really meant to be played in the game. Let me know if you want to learn more.

 

[Looney]

I bought this lot of Collectible Card Game cards awhile ago, but I've not had the inspiration to go through and catalog them all. 250 or so.

 

[Springer]

this is an area of Fandom that I need someone to talk with because the release info is so ancient and has been hard for me to come by.

I have a big folder full of hundreds of the CCG cards, but they're in my parents' loft. I have no idea what's rare or not with those. I prefer the trading cards from Fleer Ultra/Skybox/whoever it was who did the final few sets. I'm just working off the checklists for each series, currently looking for the lenticular Women of B5, the cards that have a sample of fabric from the costumes, and autography cards. Oh and the 3D ones but they're very expensive.

I don't have the contextual archive on many of them, like info on the 23K Gold cards and the like.

The what now?!

And I don't know what trading cards you are buying, but they have cost me a fortune.

When it comes to the trading cards I am very cheap! I hang on and wait until there's one that's affordable on eBay. Currently there's a few well priced autograph and costume cards on UK eBay, though at the moment I don't have available funds unfortunately. But I've gotten some bargains by being patient.

 

[Looney]

Amazingly there happens to be a greatly over priced current example of what I am talking about........ Babylon 5 23K Gold Card

These are extremely rare in terms of finding information on and finding availability. I think this is only the 4TH one listed since 2019 or so and I looked for years and years before that and didn't find any. I could have missed them, but yeah they are rarely ever listed. HOWEVER, with this current listing there is confirmation that there are actually a minimum of 0199 cards, as you can see with the serial number. I remember hearing about them back in the late 90s, but I always knew they would be out of my price range, so I didn't keep track. When I started looking into them again many years ago there were just none available and the information is very scarce... VERY SCARCE. Originally I was told there were only 50. Then the rumor was that there were a hundred, but the first 50 were given out to cast and crew. Until this current listing one hundred was the confirmed number, but with 0199 there really is no telling how many there are. BUT as I said, they are very rarely ever listed for sale.

I have actually talked with the Seller of this current card in an attempt to learn all I could. They said there was an ad for them in a "Previews/Diamond" whatever that is back in the 90s, but the Seller no longer has that information. They also told me there is actually 3 grams of gold in every card which might explain why some of them may no longer exist, but that seems a bit ridiculous. Anyway they are kind of the rarest of the rare in terms of how rarely they are offered for sale and information on them is extremely hard to come by. That being said, the Seller is asking way too much. Maybe if it were a lower Serial Number, but what they want is way too much. ..... Please DM me all donation offers so I can buy it because I am not paying that much.

 

[Springer]

Wow, I never even knew those gold cards existed! Amazing to discover new things, even if those cards are forever out of my reach!

Previews is the monthly magazine from Diamond Comics, who have the monopoly on distributing comics to comic shops and collectors (and who are currently in financial difficulty, having had to recently lay off people from their successful toy arm, Diamond Selects). Previews does what the name suggests, previewing all the forthcoming comic releases and associated paraphernalia, including trading cards, so that comic shops could place their orders. So in theory, all you need to do is find the right issue or issues from the late 1990s that has the ad for the gold card, and you'll have the information you need.

Downside is old copies of Previews seem quite expensive on eBay, but maybe if you can get a bulk lot you'll increase your chances of finding the right issue.

 

[Looney]

Yes now that I know what they are they do appear to be quite expensive, possibly because of information like this. I just wish the Seller knew more specifically the issue. I don't even really know that the card was tied to either the Season 4 or Season 5 release, but it says Warner Brothers 1998 so one can assume.

 

[LateArrival]

This sort of rings a bell and did some quick searching. Jan (HiJan!) discovered a gold card existed - and bought it - in December 2021.

I noticed another on ebay - and bought it - in late May 2022. By now it's probably hiding behind some books, but three years ago it sold with tax and shipping for around $45. Card# was somewhere in the 180s and possibly part of a group of ?10,000. Tried looking for more information, and a possibly-older-info website shows a very low res picture of the same card "#??57" with estimated prices to be "Good $34, Mint $40".

 

[Jan]

As a former owner of one of these cards, let me assure y'all that there was nowhere near 3 grams of gold in each card! Not even 1, I'm pretty sure. It's a fun little thing, though.