Carroll Shelby autographed card $$$$

[p0intNsh00t]

Hey all
I found this forum while doing a search for SVO Mustang parts. I found it interesting so I thought I would register as I have a question I was hoping someone could answer.
In the early 90's there was a company that went by the name of COLLECT-A-CARD, They released a series of cards called MUSTANG CARDS. I think the regular set contained 100 card and the subset contained 9 cards
I have a card from the subset that has a picture of Carroll standing among 3, AC Cobras with the # 97, 96, 98 on them, across the hood of the 3 cars bears his signature. There is also a Cobra Snake in the upper left corner. The snake is embossed and looks to be made of 24k Gold Leaf, The back side of the card gives information about how Carroll got started in racing. It also says in the upper left corner 2-9 and on the right corner it reads 429(in ink) of 2500

I was wondering if someone could tell me the value of this item? As I said earlier. I got this in the early 90's then it was listed in a in a sport card price guide as being valued @ $500.00 plus.
I put the card in a screw type plastic card holder and tucked it away in a dark place. Recently I ran across it again as I was going through some keep sake stuff, it made me curious as to it's current value. So i thought this would be a good place to ask as I have done several searches but found nothing about it.

For those interested here is a link to a picture hosting site where I have placed a few pictures of it. http://p0intnsh00t.smugmug.com/galle...68437355_M5L23

Thanks
P0intNsh00t

[shelby6t5]

First of all, Welcome!
I doubt the $500.00 claim, but one never knows.
The info you have is correct, as far as I know - I have the complete set, and bonus cards. When I get back from vacation I will take a look @ the info I have @ home - I think I may have an uncut sheet of cards as well, but that may be anther product line.

Mike

[tesgt350]

Hello and welcome to the Site. The Value of the Card is basicly what someone is willing to Pay. I know the Card is a Collectible and is worth a pretty penny. All I can say is Keep an eye on Ebay and see what people are bidding on them.

David.

[Brian K. Green]

I've got 5 sets of these.

[OVERRIDE]

Carroll has been autographing items for years now . So that will bring the price down. If was hard to get his autograph then mybe $500.

[p0intNsh00t]

I've got 5 sets of these.

I have several set's of these cards myself. I put this stuff away years ago. I didn't want to get the cards out to check the co name and stuff so I listed as "I THOUGHT" As for the price of the card. I know it was listed as $500 + then. I noticed most have down played the card and said it is probably valued @ less. I also noticed the cards you have in the picture is Silver and not GOLD!

I guess I will hold on to it for a little bit longer as I did get a email from another member who had the following to say....

PointnShoot
What you have is very rare!!
These cards were a subset of 9 cards. There were sets that had the Silver snake in the upper left corner(unsigned or autographed) from the factory. (much more common than a signed Gold set)
Also some sets with the Gold Snake in the upper left corner.
If memory serves me correctly Carroll Shelby autographed 2500 Gold cards to be Randomly inserted in the original factory packaging. These would be the only gold cards.
Yes, what you have is a very rare and valuable card.


Again the GOLD card #429 of 2500 is rare and valuable. I personally wouldn't part with it, but I don't think $500 to $1000 is out of line. There are some pretty serious collectors out in the E-Bay world.

I have 3 or 4 of the Silver sets but not autographed.Some day hope to find an Autographed Gold Card. Very Cool

Hope this helps.
Avid Shelby Fan and Collector

***************

[Brian K. Green]

I have been collecting Shelby memoribilia for about 20+ years now. I only have 2 of the Gold Snake autographed cards. They are very hard to find. I personally had Carroll autograph my complete sets of Silver snake cards. Here is a pic of my 2 Gold cards.......

[bmhurry]

I have a complete set of 8 of the Gold Cobra cards with signature. From what I have read, there were 9 cards set to be released, but number 9 never came out. There was a limited production of 2500 of these and each one is hand signed on the front and hand numbered on the back. Anyone know a value? Any interested buyers out there?

[1969Mach1]

Do you still have these cards? I may have a friend who may be interested in acquiring them. Drop me a line or respond here. llee98058@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Larry

[Montana Musclecards]

Do you still have these cards? I may have a friend who may be interested in acquiring them. Drop me a line or respond here. llee98058@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Larry

Hello Larry & all the others who have posted questions about these super rare cards,

In the early 1990's a company called Performance Years Quality Card Company produced "wax boxes" of Mustang cards for public consumption which were sold only through a dealer network. I was one of those dealers.
The cards produced which could be opened from these "wax boxes" (limited in print to 2000 sealed & numbered cases-20 boxes to a case) were a 110 card base set, 9 card Shelby "Silver Cobra" subset, a special SP-1 (short print) card, and the super hard to get; one of 8 different "Gold Cobra" hand signed (front) and numbered (rear) cards. I was a large dealer of these "wax boxes" and talked at length with Chris Casperson who was the President of PYQCC about the project. I knew some day these rare cards would take off in collectability beyond the initial buying frenzy they produced in 1992, so I wanted to know as much about them as possible. I found out that there was no #9 card in the "Gold Cobra" set because Carroll didn't want any possibility unauthentic cards being circulated, and the GOLD COBRA stamp on the front of those cards (#1-8) would satisfy this authentication. Hence, because the #9 card has no COBRA stamp, he initially didn't sign any of those for this rare set. Of the 2500 cards he signed and numbered over the course of a few days, Carroll made a list of how many of each card was signed (example...card #1 had signatures numbered 1 through 355) but, unfortunately this list was some how lost by Chris. (I wanted a copy of this for my records, but never got it)
I was truely obsessed with collecting these "Gold Cobra" cards, and found them at a rate of 1 card per 2 cases (40 wax boxes)
I have more info if you are still interested, but yes, I do have a complete set of these super rare cards and have sold individual cards for as much as $750 each (some cards are more rare to get/desirable than others) years before Carroll died. I can only imagine what they are really worth today.
Thanks for Shelby Forums to allow this story to get out.
Scott

[Brian K. Green]

Do you still have these cards? I may have a friend who may be interested in acquiring them. Drop me a line or respond here. llee98058@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Larry

Yes I still have them. I am not interested in selling them however. As for my reply to the previous comment, I had these signed by Carroll with a deal that I made with him personally.

[p0intNsh00t]

I still have the 429 /2500 card, I might be interested in selling it if you would like to make an offer send me a private message.

Do you still have these cards? I may have a friend who may be interested in acquiring them. Drop me a line or respond here. llee98058@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Larry

[aden045]

I have a card from the subset that has a picture of Carroll standing among 3, AC Cobras with the # 97, 96, 98 on them, across the hood of the 3 cars bears his signature. There is also a Cobra Snake in the upper left corner. The snake is embossed and looks to be made of 24k Gold Leaf, The back side of the card gives information about how Carroll got started in racing. It also says in the upper left corner 2-9 and on the right corner it reads 429(in ink) of 2500

I was wondering if someone could tell me the value of this item? As I said earlier. I got this in the early 90's then it was listed in a in a sport card price guide as being valued @ $500.00 plus. ??????????????

[Montana Musclecards]

Since the cards were made, I've always wondered how many possible "sets" of the 8 cards existed. Chris Casperson was President of the now defunct Performance Years Collector Card Company. He was a great source of info for me back in the early '90's. I'm not sure where Chris can be reached now, but he is a gear head and my money bets he is involved with collector automobiles in some way. I have not done any research about him in many years, so maybe now is a good time?
I would like to open a sub-forum with the idea of collecting the card number (xxxx of 2500) for each card (#1-8) that he signed. This would tell us exactly how many of each card was signed, and also how many total sets could have been assembled. Card number 7 seems to be a card signed in the most volume. I will check my cards and see what my highest card #7 autograph number is and post that info later...seems like I recall a number like 2237 (which would mean there could not be more than 263 sets) This has always been a mystery to me, and I would like to solve it for sure if possible...one thing is sure though...Having a complete set is extremely rare and a true Carroll Shelby collector should see the value in something like this.
My belief is there are less than 100 sets out there...simply because there are countless people who were satisfied with finding just one of the cards let alone trying to make a set of them. I know of one customer who opened over 60 wax boxes (Series 1 was supposed to have 1 Gold Cobra card per 2 cases of 20 wax boxes) before finding a Gold Cobra card. I also know of a customer who purchased one wax box out of a fresh case of Series 2 (there was always one Gold Cobra card per case of 20 wax boxes in Series 2) and found the card after opening just a few packs.

I would recommend if you do have one or more, you get them insured, and kept in a place where sunlight cannot damage the blue ball point pen signatures. Since Carroll cannot sign anymore, and the rarity of finding them is near impossible, I would value the individual cards between $500 to $1,000 each. I base this on rare trading card autographs from the late Dale Earnhardt. As to what a set could be worth, I firmly believe the right collector would give at least $5,000 for a mint set in a nice display.

I'm sure by now I might have forgot as many facts as I retained, however, I did keep good notes over the years and should be able to find an answer to additional questions you may have. Feel free to write anytime!

Scott

[mrmustang]

Since the cards were made, I've always wondered how many possible "sets" of the 8 cards existed. Chris Casperson was President of the now defunct Performance Years Collector Card Company. He was a great source of info for me back in the early '90's. I'm not sure where Chris can be reached now, but he is a gear head and my money bets he is involved with collector automobiles in some way. I have not done any research about him in many years, so maybe now is a good time?
I would like to open a sub-forum with the idea of collecting the card number (xxxx of 2500) for each card (#1-8) that he signed. This would tell us exactly how many of each card was signed, and also how many total sets could have been assembled. Card number 7 seems to be a card signed in the most volume. I will check my cards and see what my highest card #7 autograph number is and post that info later...seems like I recall a number like 2237 (which would mean there could not be more than 263 sets) This has always been a mystery to me, and I would like to solve it for sure if possible...one thing is sure though...Having a complete set is extremely rare and a true Carroll Shelby collector should see the value in something like this.
My belief is there are less than 100 sets out there...simply because there are countless people who were satisfied with finding just one of the cards let alone trying to make a set of them. I know of one customer who opened over 60 wax boxes (Series 1 was supposed to have 1 Gold Cobra card per 2 cases of 20 wax boxes) before finding a Gold Cobra card. I also know of a customer who purchased one wax box out of a fresh case of Series 2 (there was always one Gold Cobra card per case of 20 wax boxes in Series 2) and found the card after opening just a few packs.

I would recommend if you do have one or more, you get them insured, and kept in a place where sunlight cannot damage the blue ball point pen signatures. Since Carroll cannot sign anymore, and the rarity of finding them is near impossible, I would value the individual cards between $500 to $1,000 each. I base this on rare trading card autographs from the late Dale Earnhardt. As to what a set could be worth, I firmly believe the right collector would give at least $5,000 for a mint set in a nice display.

I'm sure by now I might have forgot as many facts as I retained, however, I did keep good notes over the years and should be able to find an answer to additional questions you may have. Feel free to write anytime!

Scott

Scott,

Not certain where you got your valuation (since you cannot be a neutral third party in this case), but slabbed and graded they go for around $50-$100 each when I have seen them on Ebay


Bill S.

[Coralsnake]

I agree with Bill. It's worth what someone will pay for it. In other words, you need someone to agree with you on your valuation. You would be better suited to base your estimate of value off known sales as opposed to your feelings. Otherwise, it looks like you are just trying to manipulate the prices.

I firmly believe the right collector would give at least $5,000 for a mint set in a nice display.

Shelby's autograph really has very little intrinsic value, because he signed so many items. If you can't determine the total number of cards of made, it will be harder to establish the value. For all we know you could have six pallets of these cards in your garage.

[Kazi]

Great info from Montana, but you guys are tough with some of his observations.
Looks to be about $200 a card on this ebay set.
Maybe higher now...?
It may be worth a lot more to someone who has the bucks and wants them.
$1mill for a Hemi cuda? Now that's nuts to me, but...........

[mrmustang]

Great info from Montana, but you guys are tough with some of his observations.
Looks to be about $200 a card on this ebay set.
Maybe higher now...?
It may be worth a lot more to someone who has the bucks and wants them.
$1mill for a Hemi cuda? Now that's nuts to me, but...........

There are some of us who have been collecting stuff like this for 30+ years, unlike a few of you newbies who jump in with "wow look at what I have and this is what they are valued at" kind of tough to be neutral when you have quick financial gain on your mind.Of course you grasp at straws on outdated auctions such as you have posted above (funny how your very first post here, and you just happen to have a screen capture from that auction ). Yet they now only go for what I quoted above, so one dated auction vs many after that shows what the current prices are, not the one semi manipulated auction from 2012.




Bill S.