When I was little, Highlights was my favorite magazine before I graduated to Boy's Life, Sports Illustrated, and Baseball Digest. That's one of the reasons I've always found puzzles, word games, and riddles so fascinating. Highlights was filled with activities for kids... and Spot the Difference was one of them.
You all know that routine. There are two pictures that are almost identical with the exception of a handful of things. Usually it involved a missing tree branch, an extra bicycle spoke, or an eye color change. Today I thought I'd try it out with pages from my 1982 Topps Sticker album.
See if you can spot the difference...
Okay. Okay. Maybe this is a little too easy for adult collectors. It's probably better suited for comparing some of those late 80's Donruss variations with missing "periods".
Unfortunately... I don't have any of those to show off today, so you're stuck with these four pages from my newly completed sticker album. Here are the other three pages...
1982 Topps Stickers #34
1982 Topps Stickers #53
1982 Topps Stickers #105
1982 Topps Stickers #144
Last month, I showed off the sticker album and explained how it was incomplete. Well Jon over at A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts commented that he had a bunch of these stickers and offered to help me out. A week or two later, they safely arrived in my mailbox. It took a few weeks to adhere them to the pages, but the project is officially complete.
He also sent me this shiny and serial numbered Steve Largent:
2019 Prizm Blue Ice #284 (#'d 87/99)
I've been clinging on to the top ranking among Steve Largent collectors over on TCDB and this card gave me a little more breathing room.
Speaking of Largent... I recently purchased another one of his autographed cards of his last week after learning about it on The Angels, in Order. Tom opened a couple of packs of 1992 Pacific football and mentioned that there was a chance of pulling a Largent autograph. I immediately headed over to eBay and picked this card up for $10.80 (+ $6 tax & shipping):
1992 Pacific Autographs #NNO
The card back features Steve Largent and his glorious head of hair...
Pacific was based out of Washington and probably had Largent sign a few extras in case some were damaged. I'm guessing mine is not numbered, because it was one of those extras that somehow made its way into our hobby over time.
Well that wraps up another post. Thank you Jon for the shiny new Largent and for helping me complete my 1982 Topps sticker album! And thank you Tom teaching me about this affordable on-card Largent autograph.
Oh... I should also thank Night Owl since he's the blogger that opened my eyes to these Spot the Difference type of posts. There might have been other bloggers who have done these as well. If you're one of them, leave a link down below and I'll check it out.
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
I loved getting Dynamite magazine, especially when it came with sports cards!
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to pick up a Largent signed card.
I liked the hidden treasures section.
ReplyDeleteWow, those Spot the Difference posts I wrote were already 3 years ago. I also promised a third in the series and then completely forgot about it. I do that a lot. ... My '82 sticker book is 3 stickers away from completion.
ReplyDeleteHighlights Magazine was awesome. Read those things religiously!
ReplyDeleteI've definitely got some good memories of Highlights magazine from back then. Scholastic book fairs, too. And Topps Baseball sticker albums, for sure. Congrats on completing the '82 version!
ReplyDeletehighlights magazine makes me think of the dentist's office that i went to as a kid.
ReplyDeleteglad to see burt hooton's spot filled in your album - jon is always helpful!
i did a "spot the difference" post fairly recently, too:
https://cardsasiseethem.blogspot.com/2023/02/can-you-spot-difference.html
Congrats on completing the sticker book!
ReplyDeleteThe Joy of a complete set, especially a sticker book set. For some of these types of sets if I am up to it I might go for having a completely filled sticker book and an empty book with a complete non-attached sticker set. It depends on the set and my mood on completing them. Also it depends on what I did when I started the set and if I got the album first. Did I get a few of the stickers first then the album eventually? Did I even get the album? I often prefer to have the set of stickers separate and the album fresh and blank, but sometimes it depends on the status of the album when I got it. In my childhood I would almost always put the stickers in the album, often times with disastrous results.
ReplyDeleteTook me a minute, mainly because I wasn't paying close attention, but I finally figured out the difference in the first picture! Those sticker book pages are really cool!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the completed sticker set, as well as the Largent auto! I've never seen him with all that hair!
ReplyDeleteVery cool to see you complete that sticker album. And the Steve Largent cards are really sharp!
ReplyDeleteHighlights Magazine was awesome!!! There are a few websites that have the old hidden picture pages available as PDFs. While I was doing virtual teaching during the pandemic, I would use them during my morning meeting. Still tons of fun all these years later.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing up the sticker album. Those things are so much fun to put together and give a good sense accomplishment when you can look through the whole thing finished at the end.
the angels in order - oh man, i'm embarrassed that i left dynamite out. that was a great magazine
ReplyDeletejohnnys trading spot - i liked the hidden pictures challenges too!
night owl - you should reach out to jon. he might be able to help.
the lost collector - my mom would lure me to the dentist using highlights magazine (and as tom pointed out... dynamite too).
gregory - love the book fairs as a kid. and i don't miss teaching elementary too much... but i do miss taking my class there every year and seeing what kind of stuff they had.
gcrl - you nailed it. that's how my mom would lure me to the dentist. and like a slap to the face... i totally remember your post. you had a good mixture of easy and challenging photos.
matt - thanks. first sticker album i ever completed and probably the only.
captkirk42 - as a kid, i'd place the stickers in the album too. but if i had to pick right here and now... i think i'd go with the set of stickers. i will say this... it took way more effort than i thought it would to stick these 4 stickers into the album. and i'm bugged that i didn't put them in perfectly straight
adam ryan - lol. glad it was challenging. i was worried it was going to be too obvious.
jafronius - i know. he had to have gotten a perm, because i know i've seen him with semi-straight hair
chris - thanks chris!
the snorting bull - using them during distance learning is a great idea. wish i would have thought of that.
I used to read the same magazines, but I loved all the Baseball and hockey Digest because they had great stories, and another favorite of mine was Baseball Illustrated. They had great photos that you could take out and pin up on a wall. The Topps stickers albums were lots of fun and I sure do miss the base cards as not being important when opening packs, the hobby sure has changed and I wish we could go back to when a base card meant something. Another great post and thanks for bringing back those memories.
ReplyDeleteNice! That was definitely a fun post to read! Love the Largent auto card as well. Only a 1000. That was way limited back in the day.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I could help with your set. Like Jim, Highlights reminds me of a dentist/doctor's waiting room. I may have had a subscription at some point, but mostly just associate them with the dread of what was to come after I was done waiting.
ReplyDeleterr - i don't remember baseball illustrated, but if they had posters... i would have loved them.
ReplyDeletesumomenkoman - you're right. back in 1992, 1000 would be 10x more limited than those donruss elite inserts everyone loved
jon - lol. yeah, they remind me of the dentist too. i think i blocked that out of my head until jim pointed it out.