The year was 1993 and a 13-year old Mario Alejandro walked into Sunshine Comics in Sunrise, Florida with $15 dollars to blow. The choices were simple: Marvel Universe Series 4 loose packs or any Jose Canseco I did not have in my collection of about 40. The problem was that in 1993, Jose was still a big star whose cards commanded big money. Knowing I would never be able to afford what the owner had on display, I headed towards the comic cards to bust as many packs as I could afford.
Next to me was a kid around my age that I had seen shop at the store many times. He had purchased almost all the packs in the box and was going through them like they were going out of style. After a few minutes of going through my stash I noticed that the kid next to me had been silent for a few minutes. I looked over to him only to find the infamous Spiderman vs. Venom hologram card in his hand.
Back then I did not know how rare the card was but I had heard rumblings that it was THE card to own from the set. Before I could even ask the kid to see it, he had traded it in for 10 more packs of Marvel Universe and $10 dollars. I wish I had known that the odds of pulling this chase card was 1:180 packs or roughly about one in five boxes. I really didn’t think anything of it until the next weekend when I found the very same hologram card on display with a sticker that read “$115 dollars”.
I am not one to laugh at anyone’s misfortune but I must admit that I did not feel bad when the comic shop shut down for business and ultimately became a Subway restaurant around 1995. Today this card, despite not being extremely rare still sells for respectable prices on the secondary market. Copies sell for as low as $25 to as high as $40 depending on the condition and whether or not they are graded or raw.
Yes, people even get these cards graded…
The Baseball Card Blog 
I say bring back more holograms.
I second that…..I have been lucky enough to have pulled 2 of these in my life (Still own one of them, traded for the Wolverine 3D hologram from Xmen Series 2). Marvel 4 was such an amazing set; every 9 common card cards would form a picture using the back of the cards, i.e. X-Men characters, etc…
Mario, I like how you are discussing comic cards from that era; they made some of the best looking inserts.
Cheers,
Those cards are nice (I have two of them), but the real holograms to land are the SkyDiscs. There are four, Batman, Superman, Death (from Vertigo), and Badrock (Youngblood ’95). Then there are also the CD sized versions that were inserted as case toppers I believe (I have Batman and Badrock).
These holograms move as you rotate them. There were also two Spider-Man SkyDiscs attached to two comic book covers around 1995. Google these things to see what I mean.
Back in the day, I bought a few packs of Spiderman cards, but I definitely didn’t pull anything remotely this cool.
I wonder if I still have those around somewhere in that Spiderman binder I got….
I love holograms. Remember when UD used to insert them into packs of cards?
My favorite set for comics was when Fleer Ultra had a set. Man, those were nice.
I have the Fantastic Four vs. Mole Man hologram. Is that the opposite of the Holy Grail?
Goddamn, Venom rules
This card was the SHIT when it came out, you could easily get $100 for it. Today, there seems to be different colors of holograms with deep purple versions bringing in the most money. The orange and green versions are the most common. The Wolverine HX was also a huge hit. I miss these cards, back when collecting was simple and still exciting.
i’m with tim. i reeeeallly dig holograms, probably because of how cool they were when i first started collecting. i still get excited if i find one.
I had this whole set along with a complete set of the holograms. I had no idea it was worth anything. I remember putting it together and after a few years I brought it to my local card shop (long gone). He didn’t want anyhting to do with it but he said I could leave it there and he would try to sell it for me. I put $5 on it. After a few months he told me to take it home nobody ever even asked about it. Dang if i canremember what I did with it after that though. I have an old truck with a buch of 80-90s commens maybe they ended up in there. If I find it it is yours…
Hey does anyone know who the artist was for this card? I have been looking and cant find any info on it. Help would be great!!
Thanks
When I was a kid a friend pulled one of these spiderman vs venom holograms outta a pack and I knew the rarity of it, so I traded hime for a full page of special cards! That I had double of! Ha ha! I still have all my comic cards (especialy the hologram)! I have these other spiderman cards that r see thru, and a whole shit load of other specials and sets. My favorite cards were the the fleer marvel masterpieces! Awesome art work!
I remember going to the comic store in my neighborhood to spend my Xmas money on a box of these comic cards, after I found out the price I noticed I had a little extra money left over and bought an extra 4 packs(along with my box of comic cards)
I went through the whole box of comic cards and didn’t find the holographic card I was looking for (venom vs spiderman),
guess what I found in the one of the four extra packs I had bought………….. the hologram card. lol!
I was dissapointed that I bought a whole box of these cards and didn’t find the hologram in them (even though I did have at least two full sets of the regular cards)
but at least I got the hologram in the one of the “extra 4 packs” I had purchased.
I still have it to this day, thought the value has dropped (alot), I think i remember it being worth about 200$ or more when I found it (in 93-or 94).
To this day, it is still one of the best cards I own! (even if you can buy it on Ebay for 30 bucks)
I don’t buy comic related stuff anymore, but it would be cool if they made a whole set of holographic cards, the real ones like spiderman vs venom (and not those crappy foil ones)
man to be honest, it truely is sad that the whole comic card era is dead because of all these whack ass yugioh and pokemon bs. the fleer ultra set was amazing. so were the sky box holos. i was recently surfin the web reminising on all my old card collections. too bad my mom got rid of them yrs ago when she got the chance. i too had this card along with the complete spiderman fleer ultra set. took me quite a few allowances to collect em all. i wish i still had them, not to sell, but to just keep and look at. i remember the 9 piece sets were sooo fun to collect when u finally had them all. nothing seems original anymore.
honestly i want to know if anyone has a good deal on possibly getting rid of a completed set of the spiderman fleer ultra or maybe even some of those 9 piece completed sets. it would really remind me of better times lol. lemme know it would b much appreciated.
I don’t collect these cards or any cards for that mater but i have this so called holy grail of comic cards and its in a plastic case and when I rotate it side to side
it does in fact move showing spiderman about to connect with a punch to spiderman connecting with a punch. It is so subtle that if you blink you will miss it.
Are you from Corner Brook? Are you talking about the Penalty Box?
I still have mine !!!
Lucky!!
I noticed there are not too many girls leaving comments so….. I have the hologram spidey vs venom, all the marvel masterpiece cards, 66 of the numbered heroes and villains, 8 of the ” Origins or the face of” cards, 3 limited edition holofoils, 1 94 Venom power blast foil and last but not least 7 Gold Foil Signed Cards. I have always loved sharing these with my son.