The Robin II Deluxe Collector’s Set Gift Certificate (1991)
“Contains:
A Gift Certificate
Redeemable for
ROBIN II
DELUXE COLLECTOR’S SET
Price: $30.00 US / $37.00 CAN”
“This certificate may be redeemed at the retailer below
and entitles bearer to
One ROBIN II DELUXE COLLECTOR’S SET
containing:
• Newsstand Editions of Robin II #1-4
• Four Direct Market Editions of Robin II #1
• Three Direct Market Editions of Robin II #2
• Two Direct Market Editions of Robin II #3
• One Direct Market Edition of Robin II #4
• Four Robin II Hologram Trading Cards
• Two Acid-Free Backer Boards
• One Exclusive, Deluxe Slipcase”
1. That “Robin II” sticker on the certificate looks kind of neat in that photo I took.
2. This is kind of the comics equivalent of the old “Star Wars Early Bird Kit” in a way, if you squint a bit. Except the Early Bird Kit was necessary, as there weren’t going to be any Star Wars toys for that Christmas season, and Lucas/Kenner/whoever wanted something Star-Warsian out there for the holidays. The “Robin II” thing was just a way to get folks to prepay for a bunch of “collectible” comics that, as it eventually turned out, weren’t in short supply anywhere, at any time. I can probably go in the store’s back room now and pull out that entire set. Heck, I’m pretty sure I still have one of these “Deluxe Collector’s Sets” back there.
3. Two backing boards? Whoa, thanks, DC…hope that didn’t put you out too much. You know, including no backing boards would have been less insulting than just including two. I mean, c’mon.
4. The slipcase is pretty swank, though. I wish more comic book-sized slipcases would get produced. We have this one, the Comico Collection slipcase, the Lobo slipcase (packed with a set of Lobo trade paperbacks, including the set-exclusive Wisdom of Lobo: blank inside, you see), the oversized Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller case…I’m sure I’m leaving some out.
5. The set includes fourteen comics, cover priced at $1.50 each for a total of $21. The extra nine bucks gets you the trading cards, the slipcase, and two backing boards. If you were to piece out the extras at, say, $6 for the slipcase and 75 cents each for the cards (and bupkis for the backing boards, which is all that deserves), I suppose it works out to be an okay deal if you really have to have every variant edition of Robin II.
6. If memory serves, we actually did presell several copies of the Deluxe Set. The ’90s boom was a strange time, indeed.
