April 1983

    Continuing the theme that y'all know by now, I added a some fun things from 1983 last month. I know YOU ARE DYING TO KNOW what they are, so I won't waste time!!

6. Cal Ripken

    I pulled out my binders of the three sets from 1983 to look them over (another newfound tradition that I will do each month to make sure I enjoy them at least once a year) and I was surprised to see that this was the only card I was missing. Set is now complete!

5. O-Pee-Chee Baseball & Hockey Checklists

    This is going to be a monthly thing. Where they'll rank each month will be another story. 

4. Game & Insert cards

    Yes, there were inserts in 1983! Not as flashy or cool as in the years to follow, but inserts still the same. The Bonus Runs from the non-winning game cards were used to send away for the 1983 Send In Glossies, which is one of the finest and most colorful sets Topps ever produced. 

    What I wouldn't give to be able to send away $5 for a full press sheet of 1983 Topps! Why isn't that still a thing? I work in printing and it would be easy and cheap to do. C'mon Topps, bring that back!!!

3. Donruss Ty Cobb Puzzle

    I have a monster box full of oddballs that I haven't looked at in forever. I was reorganizing it a couple of months ago and when I got to the Donruss puzzles I was shocked that this was one of the few I was missing! How could that be? (Now that I have one for the puzzle collection, I feel like I need to add another one for the team collection!)

2. O-Pee-Chee Tigers

    I had a handful already and these complete the team set.

    I never gave it much thought before, but since the backs of the All-Star cards highlight famous All Star Game from days of yore, I added the two that featured games played in Detroit, and the backs are front facing on those in my team set binder. Now I will have to hunt down the Topps versions!

1. O-Pee-Chee "Traded Set"

    The thing I love most about O-Pee-Chee sets are the "Now With _____" cards that show players who have changed teams and how they went about depicting that. Instead on new photos like Topps used in the traded sets, O-Pee-Chee just changed the team designation & colors, leading to some interesting looking cards. 

    While I was shopping for the Tigers O-Pee-Chee needs, I checked out Sportlots for the first time in years. I found a seller who had all of the Now With cards at a very reasonable price. I also tossed in some Expos & Blue Jays to get the full Canadian experience! 

    April was fun, but May hopes to be even funner as I track down stuff from 1984.  Not only was it a great year for the Tigers, but the card output in '84 exploded exponentially and there is a lot of great stuff out there for me to track down. See you next month! 

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!

January 1980

No, this isn’t an entry about January 1980. 

If it was, it would be reminiscing about 10-year-old me living in Spain, and with little to do about card collecting. Cards were hard to come by over there and the main influx was when a new kid moved to the base. Comics were readily available at the Navy Exchange and garnered far more of my attention back then.  

 

Instead, this is an entry about January 2026 AND 1980. 

 

During the December doldrums, I was looking for something to get me engaged in collecting for 2026, and with me being an unabashed lover of all things 80’s, I came up with a simple plan of picking a past year from the 80’s to coincide with each month of 2026 and to try and pick up some overlooked or forgotten items from that year.

 

And that’s how January 2026 became January 1980! 

 

I’ve been posting pics of most of my new additions on Bluesky as they’ve arrived, but I thought it would be fun to recap everything in one spot here on a monthly basis. I’ve been wanting to get back into writing more and this seems like a simple way to get moving in that direction again. 

 

So, without any further delay, here are the items from 1980 that I picked up in January. Ranked for her pleasure. 

6. Topps Hockey – Checklist 

I’m a sucker for a good clean vintage checklist. What can I say?

5. Fleer Basketball Sticker – Detroit Pistons

The Fleer Baseball Stickers and NFL Team Action cards were the only card related items that were ever available in the late 70’s and early 80’s at the Navy Exchange in Rota, Spain. I don’t know if the Navy had a beef with Topps or what, but there were never any Topps products for sale. I never remembered seeing basketball stickers for sale back then, so this was a neat find for me. I would love to put a set of these stickers together, but they are just a little bit too pricey for stickers for that to currently happen.

4. Topps Squirt Promo card

There are a few of these different promo cards out there that were the top card in little 3 card cello packs. Mrs. Buttersworth’s and Kmart are the other two, but Squirt was the only one I could find with the right condition and price right now. I’ll still be keeping an eye out for the other two.

3. Topps Burger King Pitch Hit & Run and Philadelphia Philles

These are surprisingly affordable singles, although the bigger hunt is finding them in nice condition with good centering. 

2. O-Pee-Chee – John Hiller, Lou Whitaker, Ron LeFlore, 

Steve Carlton, Checklists, & Future Stars

I had most of the O-Pee-Chee Tigers already. These 3 complete my set and yes, I consider Ron LeFlore a part of that set. Even though it’s officially an Expos card, that’s still a Tigers jersey he’s wearing in the photo, so in the Tigers binder it goes (Right next to Aurelio Rodriguez at the end of the set!)

Between Topps, both Burger King sets, and O-Pee-Chee, there were only 2 players who had cards in all four sets: Steve Carlton and Pete Rose. I went with the easy choice here.

 

I also wanted to add some French flair to my 1980 Topps binder, so I went with the only 2 Future Stars cards in the O-Pee-Chee set. 

1. Stop N Go

The crown jewel of my January pickups! I had no idea that there was an NFL version of Kellogg’s cards (which I love!), and these guys were right in my wheelhouse of the first players I remember following as a kid. I will be revisiting this set throughout the year to add more here and there. 

 

February is here now, and my calendar will roll over to 1981 this month (I told you this was a simple plan). I’ve already purchased some more fun items and I’m just waiting for them to show up in the mail. Stay tuned! 

Please Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

Ok, so it's been awhile since I've done one of these. Two and half years give or take. A lot has happened since then. I won't bore you with that any further. 

I recently went to a local card show for the first time and had a great time.

I found a table that was full of deals ranging from items that were specifically marked in price to boxes full of assorted stuff marked 4 for $5. I brought home a lot of stuff that I'm hoping will lead to more blogging. We'll see. 

The first thing that jumped out at me at the show though was this set of Score Impact 90's Players marked for $10. I was a big fan of Score back in the day, but even thought these looked kinda familiar, I really didn't remember them. I certainly had no idea that it was a NINETY card set. 

With a Griffey Jr card on top this seemed like a helluva deal and as you can see, it came home with me. 

As soon as I saw the Tigers cards I instantly remembered these. However I didn't have any recollection of the rest of them, which turned out to be fantastic. It's a great mix of the hobby stars of the day.....

.....along with quite a few whiffs where "Impact Player" was considerably a stretch.

All in all this is a great looking insert set and I'm ecstatic that I added it to my collection.

Seeing this set though, triggered my memory of the various self-contained packaged Score sets that were released in the late 80's and early 90's which has led me down a rabbit hole. If these sets are this cheap then these would be a blast to try and pick them all up! 

I got on the trusty TCDB machine and quickly complied a list of the sets from 1988-1992. A couple are insert sets and a couple are regional food sets, but as this was peak Score I felt they should all be on the list.

As I was compiling the list I laughed when I saw the 1989 SCOREMASTERS set. I actually have the original set I bought back in 1989 still in the box! (Which is good because these puppies sell for $15-20 now on eBay...)

I haven't looked through this box in at least 30 years, and I was shocked when I pulled them out at how beautiful they were. 

It's a shame that these were a one-and-done deal because this might be the best looking set Score ever produced. These were art in a time when cards were anything but. 

As I was digging in the card closet to find the SCOREMASTERS set, I noticed something on top of a box that I had completely forgotten about. 

I was in Chicago on Memorial Day Weekend in 2017 and stopped by the BBCE warehouse sale that was going on. I bought several things that day (some will be blog posts later) and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw these. 

Yes, the price on those is correct. I did in fact, buy those for a dollar. 

They're in pages inside a sealed plastic bag that I've never even opened up until tonight. 

Both sets are full of "that guy's star never rose with the Tigers!" cards.....

....."holy shit I forgot about that guy!" cards.....

.....and "who the fuck is that guy?" cards, which are right up my alley from that era. 

There are a few bangers as well. 

Even the Magic Motion World Series Trivia cards are interesting, primarily because I never knew there were side loading 12 pocket pages that fit these perfectly! As much as Score loved those little things, there's another blog post just waiting for the light of day.

Well that concludes this round of GSS (Groovy Score Sets). There will be more to come. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed blogging about cards. 

Like Score itself, it's nothing but good, cheap fun.