Collecting Marvel Cards in the 90s

As a kid in the 90's, one of my favorite activities was collecting Marvel trading cards. X-Men and Spider-Man were some of the most poplar and this was before they started making blockbuster movies for comic characters.

Every week or so, my friends and I would ask our parents to drive us to the comic book store to buy packs of cards. We would then trade cards with each other to try to collect all the cards and complete the sets. I was also interested in art at the time so it was fun to see all the artwork for each character.

Collecting full sets was not an easy task, especially at that age and at that time. There was no internet so you could not just buy whatever you needed online like it is today. You had to work hard and trade with your friends in order to get the complete sets.

I saved most of the cards hoping some day they might be worth something. Unfortunately, many cards were produced at that time so they are not very rare. Most sets can be found on eBay now for around $25-$30 which might even be less than they cost when they were first released. Based on this, I will probably hold on to them for now as the sentimental value is worth more.

Some of the sets I still have include:

Marvel Universe Series 1 1990

Marvel Universe Series 3 1992

Marvel Masterpieces 1992

Marvel Masterpieces 1994

Fleer Ultra Spiderman 1995

Marvel Fleer Ultra 1994

Marvel Fleer Ultra 1995

X-Men Series 2 1993

After doing a little research on the current market for Marvel cards, I found that they are still releasing new sets and in fact there is a new Marvel Masterpieces set for 2016. This caught my interest especially since the artwork is done by Joe Jusko who did the art for the original Marvel Masterpieces in 1992. Apparently the new set is more limited and more expensive at $150-$200 for a box. Given the cost, I do not plan on collecting but it is nice to see they are still releasing new sets.

Did you collect Marvel cards in the 90's? Which sets were your favorite?