One to Open, One to Keep

1991 Impel Laffs isn't going to be for everyone, but to a collector who enjoys building sets and opening packs... these two boxes brought a smile to my face.

Back in May, John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me these two unopened boxes that potentially could contain rookie cards of Steve Urkel and Balki Bartokomous.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this product, it focuses on three of ABC's TGIF television shows during the 1990-91 season: Full House, Family Matters, and Perfect Strangers.

1991 Impel Laffs #25

Full House kicked off Friday evenings at 8pm and was featured on the first 26 cards in this 80 card set.  I watched this show a few times in high school, but by the time this product was released I was in college... so Friday evenings were usually reserved for going out.

1991 Impel Laffs #28

Steve Urkel and Family Matters followed Uncle Jesse and the Olsen Twins in the 8:30 slot.  Impel gave them the next twenty-six cards (#27 to #52) in the set.  I also watched a few episodes of Family Matters, but this was my least favorite show of the trio.  That being said... this Urkel card is my favorite card in the set.

1991 Impel Laffs #56

And rounding out the evening and set of cards was Perfect Strangers which came on at 9pm back then.  This was my favorite show out of the bunch and the one I remember the most.  However by the time these cards were created, I had stopped watching it.

Each show received twenty-six cards in the set.  Two checklists rounded things out to make it an even eighty cards.  Within each show... there are actor cards, character cards, and a variety of scene cards.

1991 Impel Laffs #53

Each box has thirty-six packs with each pack containing five cards.  That's a total of 180 cards.  I figured that I'd easily be able to complete one set, but as Bronson Pinchot demonstrates... Impel's collation was terrible.

There were four or five cards that I pulled five copies of and a bunch of others with two, three, or four duplicates.

When the packs settled, I was left needing twenty-one cards for my set build.

Some of you might be wondering about the second box that John sent.  I debated opening it in an effort to complete this set.  But two things stopped me.

#1:  With the collation issues, there's no guarantee that I was going to pull all twenty-one cards that I need.

#2:  Johnny gave specific directions.  Open one box.  Keep the other.

I know he wouldn't mind if I opened both, but I enjoy collecting unopened boxes.  For the time being... I have added it to the collection with hopes of completing this set through trades or bargain bins.  If anyone else is building this set, I have a lot of duplicates.  Maybe we can help each other out.

Thank you John for sending me these two boxes.  It's always a blast spending a Sunday afternoon opening up packs in an effort to build a set.  I might not have completed this one, but in addition to opening this box of cards, I also opened up a COMC shipment that finished up two sets.

Complete Set #1:  2024 Topps Update

2024 Topps Update #US100

It shouldn't be too surprising that the hottest rookie card in the set was the final one I needed for my set build.  I paid $2.50 for this card back on April 15th.

Complete Set #2:  1992 Leaf Gold

1992 Leaf Gold #317

I purchased a complete set of these black bordered parallels back in 2021.  Unfortunately there were a bunch of cards that were damaged by "binder pinching".  Well four years later, COMC helped me cross off the final card I needed:

I spent over an hour organizing my COMC shipment into stacks.  Some of them I will write posts for... but most will go directly into my binders this week.

Speaking of this week, I have most of it off (except I needed to go into school today for a couple of hours).  My goal is to clean and organize my office... which includes the remnants of John's care package, the COMC shipment, some flea market and card show hauls, and a few care packages I need to open up.  I'm also hoping to hammer out one more post, before my final week of summer school.  So stay tuned.

Until then...

Happy Monday and sayonara!