Card Games

This week Upper Deck will release a 200-card set of golf trading cards. If you're laughing right now at the idea of kids swapping a Joe Durant for a Jeff Sluman, here's a thought that should sober you up: Any of the $2.99, five-card packs could contain a Tiger Woods rookie card. Although collectible cards featuring Woods have been released before, Grant Sandground, senior price-guide editor for Beckett, the sports-collectibles publisher, says the Upper Deck product will be Woods's true rookie card. That's saying something, considering how other Tiger cards have fared.

1996 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED FOR KIDS
Though never meant to be a real trading card, the Woods image, printed as one of nine cards on a perforated sheet in the December 1996 issue of SIFK, has been so sought after by collectors that in March one sold for $100,000.

1997 Grand Slam Ventures Champions of Golf Masters Collection
After Grand Slam Ventures went out of business in 1999, many cards from this set of 62 sat in a warehouse where they were discovered by chance last year. A mint-condition Woods card from the set trades for about $3,000.

2001 Upper Deck golf promo
To stir up interest in its 200-card set, Upper Deck printed a series of promotional cards just two months ago. Already, a mint version of Tiger's card has sold on eBay for $1,625.