30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, June 3, 2013

Sticky Situation


Once upon a time, Topps and Panini combined forces to produce one of my favorite childhood memories:  Topps Sticker Albums & Stickers.


Every year, Mama Fuji would buy me an album and a handful of packs.  And every year, I'd be left with an incomplete sticker album.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I never even filled 50% of an album.

It came down to money.  My parents weren't the Rockefellers and I usually had to decide if I wanted stickers or cardboard.  And since you received more cardboard per pack, I usually chose the latter.

But things are about to change.  I recently purchased a box of 1983 Topps Stickers from a buddy for $2 and when the dust settled I was left with only three missing stickers:

#41 Reggie Jackson (FOIL)
#73 Willie Wilson (FOIL)
#174 Al Oliver

All three of which were available on Sportlots for 18¢ each (+ shipping), so I grabbed them and will hopefully have my set completed within a week or two.

Anyone else grow up buying stickers for their sticker albums?

Happy Monday and sayonara!


Extra Innings

Here's the 1983 Topps Stickers of Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg.  I know these aren't technically rookie cards... since they're stickers.  But they're still pretty cool.




15 comments:

night owl said...

1982 is the only year I can say I actively collected stickers that I would later stick in an album.

Someone sent me that same album a year or so ago with some stickers, so I'm back at the point where I was in '82. A Topps sticker album half filled with stickers.

The Lost Collector said...

I definitely did, both in the late '80s and mid '90s. At a Dollar Tree in high school, I found complete sets of 1996 Panini sticks with the book....for $1. I was stupid and only bought myself one. I should have bought a few.

Yankeejetsfan said...

I had every Topps sticker album that came out. I still have one of them, incomplete. I loved these albums and I loved chasing the stickers and finished almost every album I owned.

One year, I went to Shea Stadium with my friend and his family. His dad knew the head of PR with the Mets and he got us in the hallway between the Mets dugout and the clubhouse. I remember getting the Mets page signed by Dave Kingman,Ron Gardenhire, George Foster, George Bamberger and others. I remember vividly George Foster playing with my friend, pretending that he wasn't going to give back his pen.

I wish I still had that album.

Commishbob said...

I always collected the Orioles in the sticker sets, never the album or any of the other stickers. Now if you want to talk about the 1961 and 1962 stamp albums..... I'm your guy!

Fuji said...

Lol... gotta love those partially filled sticker albums. My goal is to finish the A's and Padres pages with my extras and hang them up in my garage or classroom.

Fuji said...

It's funny that you mention their complete sets. I have a basketball album (from the 90's... can't remember the exact year) that's complete with all of the stickers. The jury is still out on whether I like the complete set idea... or if I'd rather build it through packs.

Fuji said...

That's pretty awesome. I wonder if that album ever made it into another collector's hands. If it did... I'm sure it's a treasured item.

Fuji said...

Wow... didn't realize they had 1961 and 1962 stamps. I'll definitely have to look into these.

ShaneK said...

I used to love these sticker books ... wish I still had mine. I remember one year, 1981 or 1982 that listed the World Series' winners on each team page, I must have spent hours memorizing each team's pages.

Greg Zakwin said...

Never have collected stickers. And those photos of Ryne and Wade and great.

Play at the Plate said...

I used to have a bunch of incomplete sticker albums. Don't know what my mom did with those...

Chuck's Used Cards said...

Every 4 years, hundreds of thousands of collectors get Panini fever. FIFA World Cup sticker were first issued for the 1970 soccer tournament. It included some of the greatest - Pele' (Brazil), Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) and Bobby Moore (England). All of these stars would be playing in the USA within the decade.

Now, Panini actually let collectors finish their albums on line with a virtual sticker collection. Can't wit until 2014 - World Cup.

The USA has been in every set since 1990. Canada's lone appearence was in 1986.

Fuji said...

Lol... I used to do the same thing growing up. The only difference is that I would read those National League Green Books & American League Red Books for their stats and records.

Fuji said...

I hope mine are in somebody's collection... but if I had to guess, it's in a landfill somewhere.

Fuji said...

I have the USA & Japan team sets from the last World Cup. I'd love to build the 2014 set if I can find it.