Writes Joe C.:

Booster gold sighting again! Yes, Upper deck is still at it, adding more Booster Gold cards. This time it's Fleer Throwbacks 1992-93 DC Edition. Card #24 is Booster with several parallels in this set. Check it out.

Joe's right again. Upper Deck, which owns Fleer, has released the Fleer Throwbacks 1992-93 DC Edition exclusively as Upper Deck e-Packs®, which are Upper Deck's registered trademark version of NFTs. (Although US trademark serial number 86843917, registered June 20, 2017, doesn't call them Non-Fungible Tokens. It calls them "digital trading cards in the nature of multimedia software recorded on magnetic media featuring sports and entertainment." So they're that.)

The point being that you can "own" Base Set, Red Parallel, Orange Parallel (limited to 392), Yellow Parallel (limited to 192), Green Parallel (limited to 92), Blue Parallel (limited to 25), Purple Parallel (1-of-1), and Print Plate (1-of-1) variants of card 24 Booster Gold, but you can't hold any of them in your hand.

For those of us who struggle with the concept of "owning" digital assets, there is some good news. Anyone buying a bunch of 3-card e-Pack®s chasing those rarer variants is sure to end up with a bunch of duplicates. Which is great! You can combine 5 copies of the same Base Set card into a single Teal Parallel that you can convert into a physical card that Upper Deck will actually mail you through old-fashioned snail mail. Before you redeem that digital card, you might want to know that 10 identical digital Teal Parallel cards can be converted into a single Black Parallel card which can also be made real.

Thanks to friend of the blog The Blot, I can show you what those cards look like:

Unlike the recent Upper Deck cards, the artists are uncredited. The text would lead you to believe that it was all taken from Justice League America #65, but that's only the source of the attributed quote written by Dan Jurgens. The itself art is actually by Rod Whigham and Jose Marzan from "Time and Chance!" from Justice League Quarterly #10.

As seems to always be the case with these Upper Deck sets, Booster appears on a team card, too. The Golden Moments Achievement card GMA-8 makes a digital asset from the cover of Justice League America #69. You can only get that one by redeeming 1 copy each of the 10-card Rookie Sensations subset (RS-1 through RS-10).

I think that's all the Booster Gold cards, but the only way to be sure is to be one of the first 92 people to collect all 30 cards in the Red Parallel set, all 30 cards in the Teal Parallel set, all 10 cards in the All-Stars subset, all 10 cards in the Team Leaders subset, all 10 cards in the Eclipso: The Darkness Within subset, all 10 cards in the Death of Superman subset, all 10 cards in the Knightfall subset, all 10 cards in the Rookie Sensation subset, all 30 cards in the Orange Parallel set, and all 30 cards in the Yellow Parallel set and redeem them all for a complete 10-card Golden Moments Achievements subset and then redeem those for two sketch cards. There's no telling what characters artists will draw on those sketch cards. Why not a Booster Gold?

Joe, we've got to get you another hobby. You're going to bankrupt yourself chasing all these cards.

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Writes Joe C.:

Another Booster Gold sighting(s)!!!! Upper deck did it again and I believe there are at least 30 different Booster Gold cards. Check out Upper Deck "Inspirations: The World of DC". I also see there is a Booster Gold on the Justice league Homage art card, undoubtedly more in this set.

Joe's right again. The 2026 Upper Deck Inspirations: The World of DC trading card set debuted earlier this month, and Booster (without Skeets) is card 13 in the Base Set of 90 cards.

As you can see, the card reuses Dan Jurgens cover art from Booster Gold Volume 2, #11.

The back of the card credits Jurgens for cover art, though the issue credits both Jurgens and Norm Rapmund, and the signature of colorist Brian Miller of Hi-Fi Designs, clearly visible on the comic, has been erased from the card. Also uncredited on the card is Chuck Dixon, who wrote the issue, including Booster's pulled quote.

(And since I'm picking at nits: "Gold Star" should be one word. Just sayin'.)

As you may recall from the last time Joe called our attention to an Upper Deck Booster Gold card (all the way back in June), it's Upper Deck's practice to make multiple versions of this card. At least 33 versions, in fact.

In order of increasing rarity:

1. Base Set (2 per pack)
2. Bronze Parallel (1 in 2 packs)
3. Silver Parallel (1 in 4 packs)
4. Gold Parallel (1 in 6 packs)
5. Blue Parallel (1 in 12 packs)
6. Pearlescence Parallel (1 in 12 packs)
7. Matte Foil Bronze Parallel (1 in 30 packs)
8. Matte Foil Silver Parallel (1 in 40 packs)
9. Matte Foil Gold Parallel (1 in 60 packs)
10. Creator Autograph Parallel (1 in 60 packs)
11. Matte Foil Blue Parallel (1 in 120 packs)
12. Patterned Foil Purple Parallel (499 per print run)
13. Patterned Foil Green Parallel (399 per print run)
14. Patterned Foil Red Parallel (299 per print run)
15. Matte Foil Bronze Spectrum Parallel (249 per print run)
16. Bronze Spectrum Parallel (199 per print run)
17. Patterned Foil Bronze Spectrum Parallel (199 per print run)
18. Silver Spectrum Parallel (99 per print run)
19. Patterned Foil Silver Spectrum Parallel (99 per print run)
20. Matte Foil Silver Spectrum Parallel (65 per print run)
21. Patterned Foil Gold Spectrum Parallel (49 per print run)
22. Matte Foil Gold Spectrum Parallel (35 per print run)
23. Gold Spectrum Parallel (25 per print run)
24. Creator Autograph Gold Spectrum Parallel (25 per print run)
25. Patterned Foil Blue Spectrum Parallel (15 per print run)
26. Pearlescence Spectrum Silver Parallel (15 per print run)
27. Creator Autograph Blue Spectrum Parallel (15 per print run)
28. Matte Foil Blue Spectrum Parallel (5 per print run)
29. Blue Spectrum Parallel (1 per print run)
30. Printing Plates Parallel Cyan (1 per print run)
31. Printing Plates Parallel Magenta (1 per print run)
32. Printing Plates Parallel Yellow (1 per print run)
33. Printing Plates Parallel Black (1 per print run)

But that's not all! Booster Gold (without Skeets) is also on card HA-4, which features the Dan Jurgens cover of Justice League America #61, and card HA-20, which features the Kevin Maguire cover of Formerly Known as the Justice League #1. Those are each available in the following editions:

1. Homage Art (1 in 10 packs)
2. Homage Art Embossed Parallel (1 in 100 packs)
3. Homage Art Maximum Gloss Parallel (1 in 480 packs)
4. Homage Art Silver Spectrum Parallel (99 per print run)
5. Homage Art Gold Spectrum Parallel (25 per print run)
6. Homage Art Gold Spectrum Parallel (10 per print run)
7. Homage Art Printing Plates Parallel Cyan (1 per print run)
8. Homage Art Printing Plates Parallel Magenta (1 per print run)
9. Homage Art Printing Plates Parallel Yellow (1 per print run)
10. Homage Art Printing Plates Parallel Black (1 per print run)

Thanks again, Joe.

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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.

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