I recently found out about the (partial) Fossil print run with 1999-2000 copyright, and I was wondering:
How does the rarity of these compare to the 1999-2000 Base Set run? I see the base set ones pop up on ebay pretty regularly, but the fossil ones seem to be much less common, aside from the cards included in the Thunderstorm deck.
I’m sure I don’t have the funds to jump into these anytime soon, just curious.
1999-2000 Fossil is much more scarce in my experience, living in Australia (the origin of these cards), I’m yet to see even a common 1999-2000 fossil card come up for sale
the red logo packs have popped up recently though, one individual seemed to own at least 2 boxes and has been selling them off slowly
Sorry for the delay (finals yo) but I want to affirm what acebren has said and add that the rarity is unknown, but the scarcity is high. In themselves the cards may or may not be exceedingly rare. We can’t know the print quantity. Context suggests it was much lower than sister runs of the same set though.
But the scarcity is certainly up there. While there has been a gradual uptick in availability relative to when they were first being hunted in the current decade, that uptick has disappointed the demand time and again.
I would also direct you to our article on it and clarify that it isn’t technically a partial set as the whole set shares the unique texturing. But you are right that only part of the set has the same copyright variation.
It’s a cool set. If you see a card pop up and you like it, feel good grabbing it if you have the spare change at the moment. And I’m sorry a more informative answer cannot exist.
I asked probably about 100 people when I was trying to collect them about a year ago. I contacted just about every ebay seller in AU/UK and all the big and medium ones in the US. I called/emailed all of the card shops in Australia, put up messages on lots of forums, asked the card warehouses to look. A lot of it was moot. I only found one person to that had a couple of rares and the uncommon/common set that I bought and have since sold… I could be part of the reason why some came out of hiding but who knows. I would say they are not very popular to begin with just because who cares about the fossil set which attributes to the scarcity but just as an opinion I would say there was less printed as well.
I have 8 rares in PSA 8 and higher condition. everyone is after them D:
That’s the nature of collecting. Everyone is after everything.
And that’s the beauty of an auction. It puts money where mouths are.
I can take a hint hmmmm…
If the time comes, I think it is a smart way to go.
Wow, interesting, thanks for the info everyone!
And thanks for the clarification on it actually being a full set - so is that “unique texturing” specific to the ones from fossil booster packs? Because I have some of the 1999-2000 ones from the Thunderstorm deck (and a handful of Base Set 1999-2000 cards as well), and they all seem to be the same texture as the rest of my collection.
Yes, it is specific to just the booster packs.
Okay, so after starting this thread saying “I probably won’t collect these”… naturally, I’ve immediately started trying to collect them. I managed to buy a couple of commons on ebay, and I see the texture difference now. But that brings me to a new question.
The holos from this run, despite having normal copyright info, are supposed to have the same smoother texture, right? But all holos have a smoother texture than non-holos, and it’s actually very similar to the Australian print run.
This picture isn’t great, but I tried to catch the light in a way that shows the texture. In the middle is a card from the Australian run, sandwiched between an unlimited holo on the left and an unlimited non-holo on the right.
The two on the left look very similar, so I’d imagine a regular holo and an Australian run holo would be nearly indistinguishable from each other as well. However, I think I’ve found the most noticeable difference:
On the back side, all unlimited run cards look the same, while the Australian one really stands out. So, are the holos from that run smooth on both sides like this too?
I knew there was a stock variant but had never seen it for myself, thanks for the info!