Earlier in the year, I went down a deep retro gaming rabbit hole, discovering an incredibly rare set of trading cards made by a South Korean company called Jr.Sense based on the Crash Bandicoot IP back in 2000. I tried scouring the web for as much information as possible, and it turns out very little is known about them.
To do my own research, I tried obtaining cards myself, failing miserably for a long time, until a couple of loose cards made their way onto eBay at a very high price. I purchased these from someone who owned a booster box many years ago; he opened every single pack and was selling his duplicates. This was the only known booster box to exist, and the seller admits he didn't know what he was opening and how rare they actually were... ouch.
A couple of months later, I discovered a sealed pack being sold by someone in South Korea, which rarely happens, and only a handful of collectors in the world own a sealed pack (I know of 3). Many thought sealed packs didn't exist until the booster box was opened and shared on a Facebook Page.
So, after a lot of negotiating and selling some valuable items in my own personal collection, I pulled the trigger and made an offer on the pack. I nervously waited and was surprised to have the offer accepted. The seller found the pack in a small South Korean trading card shop, where the seller had had them for many, many years. Even the store owner doesn't know how he obtained them.
It's rumoured that these trading cards were made in an incredibly limited number, sold to Universal Studios to be handed out or sold at their Theme Parks to promote Crash Bandicoot the game in 2000, which lines up with Universal's licensing deal for Crash Bandicoot and other random merchandise that was sold at Universal Theme Parks around that time. That said, the booster box appearing could mean these were distributed and sold at small trading card shops, but there's no record of any trading card shop ever selling these, making things even trickier to clarify.
One of our followers who also purchased loose cards from the individual who opened the booster box and packs back a couple of years ago attempted to send these cards and grade them with PSA, the world's most popular trading card grading service. After waiting many months, this collector received his cards ungraded, with the label stating "No Spec Info" and a comment from PSA stating "we couldn't find any official trace".
This means that PSA, a company renowned for having a large database of trading card information and is literally founded to authenticate cards, couldn't find enough information about them to 100% identify the cards and their origins. This doesn't mean they're fake; it means they're literally too rare to grade due to the lack of credible information about them.
So, the story continues. Collectors are keeping their eyes on these; very little is known, and we're all waiting for more official information to make its way to fruition to better understand the original story of these wierd, wacky and truly unique Crash Bandicoot trading cards. It has been known for collectors of truly rare items to inform and send PSA more data, such as card lists, packaging, booster packs, and official images/oproducts of the set, to better the chances of PSA recognising these as official. So, maybe I'll take that mission on myself or wait for someone who has a better collection and data than me to do so. I'll keep you updated.
