My way in to Star Wars trading cards

Trading cards have made a resurgence as part of the post-pandemic collectables trend. As a kid I had spells of collecting trading cards, football stickers, and other bits and pieces. Including completing the Star Wars Tazo set! There’s something fun about a pocketsized game of chance, completion, cool art and trivia.

In the last year or so I’ve found myself learning more about the world of Star Wars trading cards. Known as part of the ‘Non-sports card' hobby, the old vintage sets date back to 1977, right up to current day sets from most of the latest shows and other signed, limited, or flagship card collections.

For me, alongside the thrill of the chase and finding cards that speak to you for their art, provenance or rarity, the best bit is the story that inevitably accompanies every card. What it means to you to have it, why it stands out to you personally, and how it found its way into your collection. Here’s three cards in my collection, the story of how I ended up with them, and a few tidbits and terms about card collecting that they've helped me learn along the way.

Officer M’Kae,

The fun of ripping a pack of cards is undeniable, the gamble and mystery. I find this to be especially true if the pack is of a discontinued set, with the content of the cards speaking to a time gone by, and with ever reducing chances to open one.

My first experience opening a pack, as a second time round trading card explorer, was opening a few packs of Star Wars Chrome Perspectives (2014) as a little appetiser of excitement on the train heading to Celebration London 2023, courtesy of my sister. Opening these slightly older packs was great fun, checking out the characters and unique card art from a time before the sequel movies, or other new content to draw on from Disney.

We pulled some cool character base cards (the ‘standard’ cards making up a sets, which are numbered) and unique inserts (inserts are a subset which are a bit rarer than base cards and usually look different), but one card was different from the rest and at the time I didn’t realise how rare of a pull it was given it was one of my first packs. It was this autograph card, of Officer M’Kae in Empire Strikes Back, played by Mark Capri.

Autographs can be of a main character actor which is far less likely, or a smaller character. But regardless, finding such a rare card in a pack is known as a hit. The fun of seeing an autograph and finding it by chance was brilliant. I have to say it was also a very neat autograph by Mark Capri, and finding something with the provenance of being connected to an actor is a really nice thing to have. Some autographs are ‘on card’ where the actor has handled the actual card and signed it directly, some have signed autograph stickers stuck onto them. These are archived in bulk and kept for cards in different collections.

1977 Luke Skywalker sticker

Wandering show floor at Celebration itself I stumbled across trading card seller Gramps’, and picked up my first couple of individual pre-pulled cards. I loved browsing Gramps’ collections of vintage and modern cards, looking at the various story moments, characters, ships, monsters, planets and other unique art depicted on the cards from across all the eras of Star Wars on vintage and modern sets.

The vintage sets really appealed to me the most at the time, I’m a fan of collectables which capture the Original Trilogy, and how it was presented and experienced at the time that it came out, and how I saw it as a kid on VHS. I picked up a few loose cards from an original Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi set, but I also spotted a few rows and a case of cards encased in plastic, displaying grades denoting their condition.

These are called ‘slabs’, with the cards being slabbed in protective plastic. One of the most common and widely respected grading agencies which accepts loose cards to grade is PSA - the Professional Sports Authenticator. Doing this does increase the value of the card, endorsing and scoring the condition of the card and ensuring it is protected for years to come. Its usually done to vintage or rare cards which are in particularly good condition to enhance their collectability.

The slabbed cards that stood out to me the most were a few different versions of Luke Skywalker from the original 1977 A New Hope card set. This original set had a series of base cards, and some sticker inserts. Base cards in sets are usually numbered, and the #1 card in this set is the Luke Skywalker character card, known as his ‘rookie card’ (the first card depicting a particular character is known as their rookie, and attracts higher value).

I picked up the slightly more affordable PSA-graded Luke Skywalker sticker insert from the same set, I really enjoyed the flashes of green on the card and although not the rookie still feels to me a really iconic vintage card from the first ever set, and of an iconic character.

Paul Brooke

Fast forward over a year and I’ve explored more card series, ripped some boxes from modern sets to see if any rares could be found, and been on the look out for rare or interesting cards that appealed to me on Ebay. One thing that I really like is the now unfortunately discontinued Star Wars “Living” series set, which launched in June 2019, ran until March 2024, and mimicked the art style of the original 1977 card set with its memorable blue border.

During this time, Topps (the official license holder for Star Wars trading cards) released two new Star Wars Living cards every week, the two weekly cards were advertised on the Topps website and could only be ordered for print during that week, never to be available again. They would only ever make one card version of a character from a specific piece of media. This created a really cool and time limited opportunity to get some highly collectable cards that appeal, and has resulted in some quite rare cards with low numbers being printed (sometimes less than 1,000 cards, but typically no more than a couple of thousand).

The short runs of these cards and their rarity, the vintage style, individual character focus and great art style really appeals to me. I’ve picked up a few Living series cards, but one reason I love to pick them up is to get them autographed by a character actor if I get an opportunity. Given they were printed in small numbers, and that presumably only an even smaller number of the cards will end up being autographed, this feels to me a really cool way to add to them.

One card I’ve managed to get autographed is this Malikili card, which I picked up specifically ahead of the opportunity to meet Paul Brooke at Echo Base Live in 2023. For me, this is a really nice thing to have, with a real feel or rarity, it doesnt take up much space to store or display (like other autographed collectables such as figures or POPs) and is such a good reminder of the experience of meeting Paul.

I can really recommend the fun of exploring Star Wars trading cards. I’ve enjoyed finding the ones that mean something to me, the little stories you accumulate of where they’ve come from, and the fun and surprise of opening packs and boxes as a shared activity with my sister.

There is something for everyone across all the sets released through the years, and it can be very affordable. Whether you have a particular character you’d like to collect, a certain set to complete such as from a favourite show or vintage, rookie cards, a certain art style to pick out and display, or you’re after the provenance and rarity of autographs or even ‘screen-used’ fabric patch cards. I will share the occasional story linked to cards in my collection, whether ones I’ve sniped on ebay, or pulled from a box or pack, for me its all about the story of the card!

MTFBWY