I couldn't read. I had no concept of time. I had no clue what baseball was. I didn't know the World Series existed before the Red Sox made it there in 1986.But stickers? Yeah, I kinda knew what stickers were. Stickers and I have enjoyed a love-love relationship my whole life. Dinosaur stickers begot robot stickers eventually begot Obey Giant stickers. So when I reached a certain collecting-and-knowing-what-baseball-was-age, stickers and I rekindled our love affair once more in the form of the Panini and Topps sticker books. I never completed my sticker albums, but I was always gung-ho.
I just want to get all of this off my chest before I start down this long, sometimes dusty, but always sticky road.
Initial Thoughts
1982 Topps Stickers. Man, that kid on the box is kind of creepy, isn't he? And yet, I'd be as stoked as he obviously is if I was eight years old and embarking on a magnificent sticker-filled adventure. If we all agree for the moment that the kid on the box was around eight years old in 1982... he would be 36 today.
Gary Carter is on the front of the album, and each page has a slightly obscured shadow portrait of a member of each team. What's creepy about this is that the eyes have been removed from each person, leaving somewhat anonymous baseball-playing zombies haunting the backgrounds of each page.
Twenty cents for five stickers to a pack, which means the minimum a kid was spending to fill his or her album was (260 stickers/5= 52 unique packs) 52 x 20¢ = $10.40 (+ 25¢ for the album)... So a total of $10.65 to complete the album without ever getting a double. Not exactly chump change to a kid in 1982.
So I've armed myself with a complete, unopened box of stickers (100 packs), which was easier than expected to track down, and an unused sticker album.
Let's get this sticker party started.
Looking forward to watching your journey. I got about 60% of this album done as a kid before the sticker packages disappeared from the shelves in the fall.
ReplyDeleteI never tried another baseball sticker album again until the 1988 Panini stickers came out and were everywhere. I actually managed to fill that album completely and still remember today how thrilling it was to get that last sticker that I needed of Tim Flannery.
Word of caution - my son found and attempted to stick several of these stickers (as well as other years) and found that they didn't hold up that well.
ReplyDeleteGranted, they are almost 30 years old so some of the adhesive was gone, but we found that two-sided scotch tape more than made up for it.
I'm looking forward to reading about your adventure in sticker land.
ReplyDeleteMan, I *loved* those sticker albums. I was always a card collector, but for a couple of seasons those sticker albums were easily my top priority. The foil stickers were great, as were the die cut and multi-sticker photos.
ReplyDeleteIf you're anything like me, Johnny Lemaster will be the last sticker you need for your album. I'll never forget searching for him that year.
That summer I visited my grandparents in Florida, and I must have mentioned to my Grandma that I still needed a couple to complete my book. We went to the store and she bought me...an ENTIRE BOX! What? I didn't even know you could do that? It was just amazing. I mean, and entire box of packs? For me?
Aren't Grandmas great?
Have fun!
p.s. Welcome back to the blogging world...
This is gonna be fun!!!
ReplyDelete