A few wrestling card questions (Carnation and Parkhurst)

[Dpeck100]

The Carnation Major League Wrestling set is kind of a mystery. I started posting about the set on CU in early 2011 and there hasn't been one person come forward with any real information on the set. In my view the set is much more rare than the Wrestling All Stars and I am not sure if that is due to it actually being more rare from production or preservation. In my research I determined that the set was put out in the Pro Wrestling USA days when the AWA and NWA ran joint cards to try and combat the growing dominance of the WWF. The back of the cards have a 1985 copyright date and it went defunct in the end of 85 and so I am not sure where the 1986 came from.


If you look at the OPC Series II that PSA has labeled 1985 which is clearly wrong as the cards are advertised as Wrestlemania II and feature many action shots from that card which ran April 7th 1986 it may be an error on their part. In an effort to most effectively respond to your question I just went and grabbed a card and what is even more peculiar is that there is a poster offer on the back that was valid until December 31, 1986 and if you mailed $2.50 to Kalamazoo,MI they would send you a wrestling poster. I have never seen one ever surface. You would surely think with all of the random items that come up for sale on EBAY that one would have been sold. I have been actively searching for these cards since 2009 and I have never seen a box or poster and just little sealed packs. The cards are very condition sensitive due to the packaging and centering and many have a surface wrinkle on the back at the top and will only grade a PSA 5. I think the number that exist is higher than the pop report implies due to this but not significantly as many have been sent in that are lower grade copies. One thing that is true is they are very tough in high grade with only 2 PSA 10's from the entire set graded and only 11 Mint copies. It may be possible that this was a test product or only offered for a very short period of time. I am not sure if anyone knows.


In terms of pricing the cards spiked significantly at one time in any condition but have come down a lot. The higher grade cards really never come up for sale so it is hard to determine value. There is a Flair PSA 7 for sale on EBAY for $215 right now. I would say that card would at least go for $125 or higher in a straight auction. The cards came two to a pack and the sequencing is the same hence why the seller has the Kamala up too. The Road Warriors and Rick Martel came together and The Koloffs and Sergeant Slaughter. Here are some scans of the cards from the set.