Writes Joe C.:

Booster gold sighting!!!! Check out the 2024–25 upper deck DC annual trading cards. Card number 86 is booster gold (and Skeets).

Joe's right. The Upper Deck 2024-25 DC Annual trading card set debuted last month, and Booster (and Skeets!) is card 86 in the Base Set. As you can see, the card reuses the Daniel Sampere art from page 22 panel 1 of "Alpha" from DC All In Special #1.

And here's the back (apparently written by someone who is not particularly familiar with Booster Gold or the events of DC All In Special #1):

If you want to get yourself a copy of card 86, you're in luck! It's pretty easy to come by. Pictured above is the most common Base Set edition. There are a total of 100 cards in the Base Set, and each pack of 5 cards contains 3 Base Set cards, which means there's an almost 6% chance of drawing a Booster Gold Base Set card from any single pack. Assuming a truly random distribution, you've got a 50-50 chance of pulling a Booster Gold Base Set card from as few as 22 packs. You're all but guaranteed one in 152 packs.

There are 16 packs in a $95 Hobby Box. You've got a better-than-a-coin-flip's chance of finding a Booster Gold Base Set card in 2 Hobby Boxes, but you'll need 10 to be sure. Or you can do what I did and go buy it on eBay for less than $5. Whatever makes you happy.

It's worth noting at this point that Upper Deck thinks they can get you to buy more than 10 Hobby Boxes. Many, many more.

Each of the 100 Base Set cards, Booster Gold included, has variants. The most common of those variants is the Blue Parallel, which adds a blue foil background. But you can't find those in Hobby Boxes. Blue Parallels only come in Blaster Boxes, which contain one Blue Parallel card and 6 packs for $25. You'll need 459 of those (cost: $11,475) to be sure of getting a Booster Gold Blue Parallel card.

The Blue Parallel is the most common variant, but it's hardly the only one. There is also a Variant Cover Parallel which features different Daniel Sampere artwork from DC All In Special (page 4 panel 1) on the front. Variant Cover Parallels are distributed at 1 per 3 boxes, so you should expect to get one of those out of every 1,394 boxes you open.

Then there's the Silver Sparkle Parallel found in every 4 Hobby Boxes (one in 1,840) or every 5 Blasters (one in 2,301). These look a lot like the Blue Parallel but with silver foil in the background.

By now you're probably thinking that you should just buy Blasters. You only need 4 of those to have a 51% chance of a Booster Gold card and a small chance of pulling either a Blue Parallel, Variant Cover Parallel, or Silver Sparkle Parallel. But those are just the tip of the iceberg of variants. All the rest are inserted exclusively into Hobby Boxes and are much, much rarer. With only 3 rare inserts in each Hobby Box, good luck finding any of the following in the wild:

• Green Parallel (print run of 499 cards)
• Gold Linearity Parallel (print run of 88)
• Hologram Parallel (print run of 25)
• Crystal Clear Parallel (print run of 25)
• Cyan Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Magenta Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Yellow Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Black Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Cyan Hologram Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Magenta Hologram Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Yellow Hologram Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Black Hologram Printing Plate (one of a kind)
• Pure Diamond Parallel (one of a kind)

But wait, there's more! If you're a real completist, you'll want to know that Booster Gold also appears on card N1S-4, which is the cover to DC All In Special #1. The most common N1S-4 card is the #1 Spot version, about as uncommon as a Silver Sparkle Parallel from the Base Set. The #1 Spot Sparkle Parallel is limited to 199, and the #1 Spot Retro Wave Parallel is limited to 25.

Gee whiz. Next time I complain about how many covers DC is printing, remind me about Upper Deck's business model.

Thanks for the lead, Joe. Happy hunting, Booster boosters.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: 2024-25 dc annual daniel sampere dc all in special joe c trading cards upper deck

Earlier today, David Jenkins posted to Bluesky:

Just handed the Booster Gold pilot in. I love it. One of my favorite pilot scripts. 💙💛
bsky.app/profile/david-jenkins.bsky.social

Cool. Though it inspired a few thoughts.

If the earlier instance of Jenkins deleting his posts about working on the Booster Gold television show wasn't an indication that he was off the project, why didn't he say so at the time? And here he's saying he's just happy about the script itself (which he's clearly not contractually prevented for admitting exists). Does all this indicate behind the scenes friction with the production or the studio?

And should we read anything into the blue and gold hearts? Hmm?

Whatever. So long as it's good.

Thanks to Rob Snow for ensuring I saw this.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: david jenkins rob snow television

Attention, die-hard Booster Gold collectors! In addition to the three (three!) comics we got on Wednesday, two other Superman comic books were added to the Boosterrific! Database this week.

The older of the two is The Superman Gallery #1. Capitalizing on the "Death of Superman" craze from 1993, this issue reprints a bunch of Superman artwork from prominent artists. Booster Gold appears by way of Todd McFarlane's "Chapter 2" splash page from Invasion! #2.

A marginally bigger deal is Booster Gold's cameo appearance in Superman Villains Secret Files #1 from 1998. Yes, it's also just one panel, but it's a unique panel suitable for a time-traveling hero as its drawn by Stuart Immonen in the style of Windsor McKay's Little Nemo in Slumberland newspaper strip from 1905!

Every time I think I know every Booster Gold comic, I find a new one — or two (or five)! Isn't comic collecting fun?

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: little nemo in slumberland stuart immonent superman superman gallery superman villains secret files website update windsor mckay