March 1982

The 80's train keeps on rolling and this month it stopped in 1982! I found some cool things and one MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT that I will save until the end. 

    6. Donruss Babe Ruth Puzzle - I have most of the puzzles but somehow this one had eluded me for way too long. I'd really love to put them all together, get them framed and hung up somewhere. I never see that actually happening though. 

    5. OPC Stickers / Tigers - I ordered a bunch one night and forgot to check to see if I got them all. I did not. That will give me something to do next March. 

    4. OPC Checklists - I almost feel like if you have these, you kinda sorta have a somewhat complete set since you have all the names maybe? Maybe? Maybe?

    3. Squirt Tigers - I think these are my first ever squirt cards. Woof they are paper thin. 

    2. Post Cereal Tigers Team Card - I never knew these existed until this month. Pretty cool no-so-little card that's too wide to fit into a standard page pocket. No fear though, I have a box full of things that won't fit in pockets and that's where this will end up too. 

    1. Kellogg's NFL set - I'm pretty sure I've never seen a Kellogg's paper set of anything before. Wild selection of players here too. More storage issues!

    Dishonorable Mention: Zeller's Montreal Expos Team set - Another item I never knew existed. I really didn't think I would find them at a reasonable price and then I did. 

AND THEN THE SELLER FORGOT TO SEND ME 5 OF THE PANELS. 

AND THEN THE SELLER PACKAGED THE CARDS SO POORLY THAT 5 OF THE PANELS I RECEIVED HAD MAJOR DAMAGE. 

So long story short I ended up with 10 panels and a full refund for my purchase. I was happy about the refund, but I would've much rather had all 20 panels. These are fantastic.  

I was also intrigued about these side loading pages which hold 3 card panels PERFECTLY.  I can't recall ever seeing those before either. 

That's it for 1982 in March. 

The April train stops in 1983 starting tomorrow. 

ALL ABOARD!!!

February 1981

As both readers of the blog will recall, February was the month that I was going to seek out some fun stuff from 1981 and I did just that! 

In descending order, here are my 1981 pick ups from last month:

6. 1981 O-Pee-Chee Blue Jays Future Stars & Montreal Expos Team Card

It was my intention to pick up the Futures Stars & team cards for both the Blue Jays & the Expos, but that Expos Futures Stars card was little pricier than I was prepared for. I can't for the life of me figure out why?

5. 1981 Topps Coca-Cola White Sox Team Set

The LeFlore card is another airbrushing masterpiece from Topps, and unique to this set. His traded card has a completely different photo. This now leaves me with just 3 more teams to go: Cubs, Astros, & Royals. 

4. 1981 Fleer Tigers Checklist & Stan Papi variations

I already had one of the variations of each in my Fleer set binder and the other variations in my Tigers team binder. With the addition of these I can now have all 4 cards in each binder. Yeah, I don't understand myself sometimes either. 

3. 1981 Fleer Star Stickers George Brett & Mike Schmidt

When I went to my first NSCC after moving to Chicago in '08, I bought an unopened wax box of these and had a blast opening them. I knew all these years later that I was missing some (I thought it was 3, but it turned out to be 7!) so I purchased all of them on eBay. Well, 5 of them have been lost in the mail and I'm currently waiting on eBay to do their thing so I can get a refund. At least these two beauties made it here safe and sound. 

2. 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL

I've been a sucker for these sets for a long, long time. I've mentioned before that these were the only football cards available in the Navy Exchange in Rota, Spain when I was a kid and the nostalgia is off the charts for me. 

As an added bonus, the seller threw in a big pile of the stickers too! This is the last year I remember collecting them as a kid. I don't know what year Fleer stopped making them, or even started for that matter, but I would love to put together a complete run. 

1. 1981 Topps NFL Sticker Album & FORTY PACKS OF STICKERS!!!

I'm an even bigger sucker for 80's stickers and I had no idea these even existed! I've only opened a few packs so far and sadly the backs are permanently fused to the backer so there will be no sticking going on. I am tempted to just glue them as is into the album and lord knows I love to give in to temptation. Stay tuned.

(I'd love to know who the featured player is on the cover and wrappers. It looks like Bills colors, but it also looks to have been airbrushed too. #91 for the Bills in 1980 was Ken Johnson, and that is definitely not him)

Well that wraps it up for February 1981 and I'm on to March 1982!