Fantasy Art Card Collecting Secrets

By HowExpert

Do you love fantasy, science fiction, and horror art, but can’t afford (or don’t have the space for) prints or originals? Maybe you have a passion for collecting, but sports card sets just aren’t your thing.

Then perhaps the all-but-unknown area of fantasy art cards is for you. There are over 200 different card sets, with such famous names as Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo; and even one dedicated to the grandfather of fantasy art, Maxfield Parrish.

Because so few people are aware they even exist, fantasy art cards are an inexpensive hobby to start, or even complete, a collection.

This guide will give you the ins-and-outs of fantasy art card collection, from how to get started, to how and where to find the best deals, and closing with a comprehensive and complete list of all the available sets from the two major publishers of these cards.

So get your D-ring binders, 9-pocket pages, and top loaders with penny sleeves, and let’s get started!

• Language: English
• Publisher: HowExpert
• Release date: Oct 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370310524

HowExpert

HowExpert publishes quick 'how to' guides on all topics from A to Z by everyday experts.

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Fantasy Art Card Collecting Secrets

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Decide Who You Want To Collect

Chapter 2: Decide How Deep You Want To Go

Chapter 3: Decide How To Store Your Collection

Chapter 4: Where To Buy

Chapter 5: How To Buy

Chapter 6: Bits And Pieces: A Niche Within A Niche

Chapter 7: You’ve Got It All. What Now?

Chapter 8: When Your Hobby Becomes An Investment

Chapter 9: Finally, The Checklist

About the Expert

Introduction

Virtually everyone has heard of baseball trading cards, which have existed now for over 100 years. Most people have probably heard of cards for other sports as well. From football to soccer, auto racing to basketball, and even boxing, the chances are that if there is a fan base for it, there is one or more available card set for it.

In fact, card sets became so popular as a collectible in the 1990s that literally hundreds of card sets based on movies, television, and comic books were released. Companies like Comic Images, Skybox, Cardz, Wildstorm and more jumped on the trading card bandwagon so heavily that by the year 2000 it had collapsed under its own weight of such classics as Desert Storm (Series 1 AND Series 2), Miss Masters’ Spoofy Tunes, and Brain Straining Doodlewonkers.

Needless to say, there have been a lot of duds when it comes to the trading card boom of the 1990’s, and even sports cards have taken their blows as a result of the overproduction. But one often-overlooked realm of that boom has quietly held its popularity and value over the years. This niche is fantasy art trading cards.

Fantasy art trading cards is a bit of a misnomer. The collections that fall under this title actually include every type of speculative art, from the neo-classic swords-and-sorcery styling of Frank Frazetta to the role-playing art of Larry Elmore, the digital works of J.K. Potter to the surrealistic art of Jim Warren, the horror work of Bernie Wrightson and the minimalist work of Moebius, all of them classify under the heading of fantasy art.

This little known niche of the trading card market has existed for over twenty-five years, but the strongest period was 1991-2002, with more sets released from 1993-1996 than all the other years combined. While some sets have been released since 2002, efforts from the publishers have waned to only the most marketable artists or, more commonly, characters such as Vampirella.

Fantasy art cards have a lot in common with sports cards. They are usually printed on similar stock, are the same size, and come in sets that often feature bonus cards (another new trend that started in the 1980’s). But different from sports cards, which have sets consisting of hundreds of cards each and dozens of sets each season, most fantasy card sets are under one hundred cards. With this, and FAR fewer special insert cards than most of sport card sets and almost all of the movie, television, and comic book sets, collecting fantast art cards