Opening card packs are most exciting, especially when these packs are limited edition and old. Whether it be Pokemon cards, Magic the Gathering, or Yu-Gi-Oh!, the rarer the pack, the more thrilling there is in unveiling its content. Opening card packs also has its risks. There is always a good chance that the cards in that pack have little value.
This collector may have given us the most tragic card pack opening of all time. In a report from Kotaku, Erik Voskuil has recently opened a couple of packets of Nintendo playing cards from the 1950s. These vintage Nintendo playing cards featured art depicting cultural symbols from Kyoto, Japan.
'Before Mario' Collector Owns World's Largest Collection of Vintage Nintendo Products
Erik Voskuil prides himself as the owner of the world's largest private collection of Nintendo products from post-WW2 to the 1980s. This is not any ordinary collection from a Nintendo hobbyist.
Voskuil's collection comes with a foreword from one of Nintendo's original game designers Satoru Okada. Okada also designed hit games and toys for Nintendo. Some designs from him include the Game & Watch, Metroid, and the Gameboy.
This collection from Voskuil is featured in a blog called "Before Mario." The said collector even has a book published about the same collection and goes by the same title as his blog.
One of the collector's most prized items in-store is the Nintendo Kyoto Souvenir Playing Cards from the 1950S. According to a post in the 'Before Mario' blog, the playing cards came from a time when Nintendo was still mainly manufacturing and selling playing cards.
If you are interested in looking at Nintendo's pre-console eras, the blog post by Voskuil offers an in-depth discussion and overview of the Japanese company's colorful past.
According to Nintendo Life, Voskuil tweeted about his delight after receiving the cards, debating whether to open them or leave them unopened. He ultimately made a choice to open one of them in order to get the pictures of Kyoto in the card designs.
I cannot overstate how exicited I was to find these seventy year old Nintendo cards, featuring Kyoto in the 1950s. In all my years of collecting, these are the only copies I have come across. On top of that, they are still sealed! Which begs the question... to open or not?! https://t.co/Hn05Z7EggQ pic.twitter.com/NbH4Lh8HaW
— Beforemario (@beforemario) August 6, 2022
Going back to the Kyoto Souvenir Playing Cards, the collector expressed in a blog post and on a tweet his 'certain amount of disappointment' after unveiling the set of vintage playing cards.
Voskuil detailed how each card reflected various aspects of Kyoto according to the catalog. These card packets from the 1950s 'beautifully' imaged the history and landscape of Kyoto, the birthplace of Nintendo.
Vintage Playing Cards Pack Opening Ends Bad for 'Before Mario' Collector
At first, Erik Voskuil was excited after knowing that the two sets of cards he had secured were still tightly sealed. This means that the cards may still be in pristine condition.
The collector even found the pack's wrapper glued shut by tax stamps. He observed that the pack had retained much of its colors despite being over half a century old. What happened next might have broken the collector's heart and, well, maybe some of ours.
After removing its wrappers and coverings, it appears that all the cards were fused together. They were pressed together and now looks like a brick. Voskuil speculated that this might have been because of temperature changes and other conditions the pack underwent over time.
Upon checking further, bending the band of glued cards is not a solution because it potentially will tear. The collector mentioned that there might be other ways to restore the item.
Unfortunately, Voskuil believes that the condition of the cards was beyond repair and that he is hoping that packs of equal value might still surface in the future. This is some sad news.
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