The explosion in non-sports cards has drawn collectors beyond traditional sports cards and Pokmon.
FromTopps Chrome Disney 100 and SpongeBob to VeeFriends, G.I. Joe and Transformers, cards that once occupied a niche corner of the hobby are finding new audiences-and sometimes eye-popping prices.
But one collaboration from 2011 looks remarkably ahead of its time. That year, surf and streetwear pioneer Stssy partnered with Marvel on a collection combining superheroes, streetwear, contemporary artists, and trading cards. The cards accompanied T-shirts that originally sold for just $36 and may have seemed like little more than a bonus then.
Fifteen years later, collectors are looking at them very differently.
Streetwear Meets the Marvel Universe
The Stssy x Marvel collaboration arrived in two parts. Series 1, released in April 2011, used vintage artwork featuring characters including Wolverine, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Punisher, Doctor Octopus, Doctor Doom, and Ghost Rider.
Stssy went surprisingly deep for the project, searching comic-book conventions, eBay, and local comic shops for imagery. Artwork was scanned from original comics and rare collectors’ posters dating from the 1960s through the 1990s, combining Marvel’s history with Stssy’s distinctive style.
Series 2 followed in May and took an approach that feels even more familiar today. Nine contemporary artists reinterpreted Marvel characters in their own styles. The pairings included James Jarvis with The Thing, David Shrigley with Hulk, Todd James with She-Hulk, Gary Panter with Thor, and legendary Los Angeles tattoo artist Mister Cartoon with Spider-Man.
The resulting 17-card set includes seven Stssy Marvel character cards, nine Artist Series cards and a Marvel cover card.
In retrospect, the concept anticipated several trends. Topps Project 2020 and Project70 later built sets around artists reimagining iconic baseball cards. More recently, Kith incorporated exclusive Lionel Messi trading cards into purchases from its apparel collaboration with the soccer superstar.
Stssy and Marvel brought together streetwear, trading cards, comic books, and contemporary artists back in 2011.
From $36 T-Shirts to a $1,000 Spider-Man
Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is that the cards weren’t necessarily the main attraction.
In 2011, grading modern cards wasn’t nearly as prevalent as it is today. Someone buying a Stssy shirt might have opened the accompanying cards without giving much thought to keeping them in gem-mint condition.
That makes high-grade examples particularly interesting now. Spider-Man #10, featuring Mister Cartoon’s interpretation of the character, has emerged as one of the set’s key cards. A PSA 10 recently sold on eBay for $1,000 after another sold for $950 in July. In July 2022, a PSA 10 sold for $644.
Wolverine #1 is another popular card, with CGC 10 examples selling for $600 on both Aug. 18 and Aug. 20.
Sealed Packs Are Surging, Too
Collectors are also chasing the original packs.
A sealed Stssy x Marvel pack sold on eBay for $465 on Sept. 7, more than triple the $149.95 paid for another in March 2022.
No publicly documented production number for the cards, adding another layer of intrigue. High-grade examples of the most popular characters can also be difficult to find, while PSA’s Set Registry now recognizes all 17 cards.
The Stssy x Marvel cards arrived before artist-driven trading-card projects became commonplace, before cards regularly accompanied major streetwear collaborations, and long before the current surge in non-sports collecting.
What may have seemed like an afterthought in 2011 now looks more like a preview of where collectibles culture was headed.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/collectibles as The Stssy x Marvel Cards That Were Ahead of Their Time.
