BACKNot Playing Around: Collectors Seeing Serious Returns on Rare Cracked Ice Cards in Panini America’s Fortnite Series I
Most veteran sports card collectors know it simply as “Cracked Ice,” the popular Panini America printing pattern that has won rave reviews while appearing on some of the most desirable trading cards of the last decade. But in the Fortnite arena, the pattern’s catalog name — Crystal Shards — seems to be a little more . . . apropos. But by any name, the technology’s inclusion on rare, Mega Box-exclusive chase cards randomly inserted into Panini America’s inaugural Fortnite release has worked wonders for secondary-market values.
A Mega Box-exclusive Crystal Shards Black Knight card sold on eBay in December for . . . $500. A Rex sold in mid-January for $150, the same price a Luxe sold for on Christmas Day. Six days later, a Vertex sold for $100. In all, 17 different Crystal Shards cards have sold for more than $40 since December and another 80+ cards have sold for more than $10 in that timeframe.
We say all of that to say this: With two Crystal Shards cards per $20 Mega Box, fans and collectors have the opportunity to mix real value with collecting the cool first trading cards of one of the most popular videogames in the world.
