By Chris Mixer / cmixer

Everyone loves new and interesting trading cards, but the modern era of our hobby is less than 35 years old. For decades trading cards were limited to just pictures on cardboard, but everything started to change in 1990. Autographed cards were first inserted by Upper Deck in 1990 and the industry’s first relic cards would be introduced six years after that, but for many collectors, the first modern chase cards were holograms. Pro Set included the serial numbered Vince Lombardi trophy hologram in its 1990 Football set and the serial numbered Stanley Cup hologram in its 1990-91 Hockey product. These shiny inserts would change the hobby forever.

Pro Set was not the only company experimenting with hologram technology. In 1990, nonsports manufacturer Impel released the Marvel Universe Series 1 set. The Impel hologram chase cards were not as limited as Pro Set’s inserts, so they reached a wider audience. Kayo boxing then included hologram cards in their 1991 release. These were some of the first trading cards that featured athletes instead of trophies and superheroes. 

Kevin Baumber recently shared on Facebook, “I was the holographer responsible for shooting the (original) holograms, not only for Marvel but also various sports cards organizations.” He shared that it all starts with an original photograph, artwork, or 3-D model. Then the manufacturers would make the nickel printing plates and master laser viewable holograms. Kevin still owns a lot of the original production pieces and plans to share them online.

Upper Deck had been using security holograms on their cards since 1989, but in 1991 they released full-size player cards through an unlikely partnership. The Denny’s Grand Slam hologram set had 26 cards, one for each team, and were available through Denny’s diner-style restaurant chain. Upper Deck collaborated with another popular restaurant chain in 1992-93, when they released hologram cards in partnership with McDonald’s. During this time, Upper Deck also started inserting hologram cards of popular players into their traditional products.

In 1992, Upper Deck created even more dynamic cards by overlaying standard player photos on top of hologram backgrounds. These were well received, so in 1996 they produced an entire set of hologram-hybrid trading cards under the SPx brand. Upper Deck also included super short print signed versions of their holograms. These are still some of the most highly sought after cards of popular players. For example, the 1996 SPx Gold Michael Jordan #8, signed and numbered to just 23 copies, recently sold for $15,123.

The problem is that newer technology was about to compete for collector’s attention. Topps inserted their first refractors in 1993, and in 1996 they first introduced ‘Atomic Refractors.’ Chris Carlin worked for Upper Deck from 1998-2022. He retired as Upper Deck’s Head of Customer Experience before taking a role at Collectors, parent company of PSA. In 2018 he shared, “There were issues getting scans of the players and the (hologram) technology was insanely expensive and still is today.” The writing was on the wall that holograms would soon be phased out in favor of more contemporary options. In 1998, Upper Deck SPx stopped being an entire set of hologram-hybrid cards.

There’s a commonly discussed Rule of 25 that states that an item that is popular now will be worth money and sought after in about 25 years when collectors who have grown up with these items wish to collect and own them again. Now manufacturers are able to produce tacofractors, pulsars, and mojo prizm cards, but are we due for a resurgence of old school hologram trading cards? Only time will tell.