I have no idea who first came up with the two-for-one deal but they're not getting enough credit.
I've been suckered into that pitch probably more than any other in my history as a consumer. It just happened the other day with -- no surprise -- cards.
An ebay seller was selling two 1981 Topps Squirt panels for $2.99. I have no idea whether that's a deal, but for 3 bucks who cares? I needed that Dusty Baker, that's the whole reason I came across the sale in the first place. Yeah, I'll take two!
It's amazing how often two of the same thing comes in handy in my hobby. As a set collector and a team collector, I can use more than one of the same card all the time. A couple weeks prior I ordered a 2023 Allen & Ginter Andre Ethier card that I needed as it's a short-print. I didn't read carefully enough and two showed up to my surprise. But I needed two anyway, to knock one off of the many SP's in '23 A&G!
In the case of the Squirt panels, I doubt I'm going for the full set, but whenever there's an item like this that comes in panels (think Hostess), I contemplate what I want to do and usually it's I'd like to have the panel intact and apart.
With two, you can do that!
Now I have Baker in card form and it will slip nicely into a binder page.
And I have a separate Bill Buckner card if I want to chase the set that way and also an intact panel if I want to chase the set that way. (Plus there's a nifty little "FREE Topps 1981 Baseball Cards" that I want to hang somewhere in recognition of Free Baseball Cards).
I did not come across these in 1981. We didn't drink Squirt. We had just experienced the Sprite craze and with 7-Up around already that was plenty (Apparently the drink has existed since the 1930s, so I don't know why it took so long for me to hear about it).
But the set features all the players from the era that I like, so I can see collecting it. The panels just barely fit in a one-pocket page. I have an '82 Squirt panel in a one-pocket, and I can put the '81 next to it. The '81s are taller than the '82s. There are also two-pocket pages, with pockets cut top-to-bottom rather than left-to-right, that fit these.
Just another great '80s oddball to collect. I'll add it to the very long list.
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