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They're counting on you not remembering

 
Forty years ago, Topps and Kmart teamed up to release the first boxed set through a retail chain, which touched off those now familiar and ubiquitous sets from Topps, Fleer and many department stores that lasted through the 1980s.

But the 1982 Kmart set was unique when it came out. I know. I was there.

My brother worked at Kmart at the time. One day he came home from work to tell his fellow baseball-card-addicted brothers that Kmart was selling some sort of new Topps set in individual boxes.

We were intrigued.

Everything about this was new. A 44-card set all in one mini box? Never heard of such a thing. You can only get them in one particular department store? Wild. I was instantly jealous of my brother. He had access. My brother picked up a box almost immediately. We could afford them even on our paltry salaries. I remember each box costing $1.97.
 
But getting a box was more difficult for me. I don't remember what time of year it was but maybe I had school to go to, and I still had that dumb paper route. I remember thinking I wouldn't be able to get to Kmart until Saturday. But it shouldn't be any problem because my brother said there was whole wall of them as you walked into the store.

Then my brother had an update: they were going fast. They certainly were. By the time I was able to get there on the weekend, they were gone. The local Kmart loaded up the wall again. And they were gone again.

I marveled over my brother's lone box. Each card was a duplicate of the individual cards that represented every AL and NL MVP from 1962 through 1981 (Kmart was celebrating its 20th anniversary with the set as the store began in '62). It was very similar to the 1975 Topps MVP subset, which I knew very well.

That took out some of the excitement of the set for me -- most of these were repeats -- but I still wanted it. New card sets didn't come around very often in the early 1980s. You had March/April and cereal boxes and that was about it. Anything new was fascinating.
 
But the thrill of the set faded away as the months went by. I began to notice in the mail-order collectible catalogs that came to my home that the Kmart set was selling for much cheaper than almost everything else. Then, in the yearly Beckett Price Guide, I would notice the 1982 Kmart set, with those familiar three columns of M, EX and VG, sold for freakishly low prices. The VG price was 1 cent, which I had never before seen in the Price Guide. And it stayed that way for ensuing price guides each year. The 1982 Kmart set become known to me as The Cheapest Set Ever Made.
 
The set was released in abundant quantities. It's probably the first junk wax set of the '80s, as defined by the most overproduced. The reports are that speculators -- gotta love those speculators -- bought up loads of the cards (probably cleared out my Kmart) and then found no takers because, as I experienced, the thrill didn't last long.

So, now, move ahead 40 years.

I still didn't have the set. I don't know why. I just never got around to getting it. I've owned all the Dodgers in the set for years and years. And I've come across assorted '82 Kmart cards in repacks and such. It just didn't seem like anything I needed. Until a couple of weeks ago.

I thought: It's been 40 years, I really should have that. I started looking around ebay for a set. Should be cheap. Nothing more than 6 bucks sounds about right.




OK, it seems there are a few people who are counting on you not remembering.

They're hoping you didn't experience 1982. Hall and Oates, Joan Jett, Eye of the Tiger, Harvey's Wallbangers. They're hoping it Hurts So Good.

But I was there. I saw those prices in Beckett. I don't care how many people are collecting cards now. Nothing in those boxes comes out to $29.99.

Fortunately there are just as many reasonably priced '82 Kmart box sets. They aren't exactly rare. I selected one of those and it arrived the other day.


All right, it doesn't look as shiny and clean as the picture on the ebay page (which is at the top of the post).

But everything else was relatively sharp and intact.


There it all is. I can't believe it took me 40 years to get this thing.
 


Honestly, this is the only card I really wanted. We died over this card in '82.

There was just one issue, though, with the box, which I should have known. But that's the one thing that even I didn't remember.
 


That's right. There was gum. Everything had to have gum back then.
 


The foreign object.

I braced for a damaged card as I saw the gum slide out before most of the cards.

Weirdly the cards weren't in numeric order. I don't remember how they came out of the box back in '82. The 1977 Rod Carew card, No. 31 in the set, was the first card in the stack out of this box.

And the last card, No. 21, -- oof ...



Double oof.

The card on top of the Dick Allen, the 1969 Harmon Killebrew (card No. 15), shows a slim gum stain on one edge, which isn't much and I have another one in my collection anyway.

But I had to go back online and get a fresh-and-clean Allen card separately.

I really should've gotten that box when my brother worked at Kmart. If we weren't so stingy with our money at the time, I would've asked him to get me a box, too.

Oh, and ebay hucksters and speculators are stupid.

Comments

Nick Vossbrink said…
I know it's been done elsewhere but it's worth comparing the Wills card with the 1975 and 1987 Wills cards and noticing that Topps didn't use the same artwork on all three.
gcrl said…
Nick’s comment blows my mind. I will have to look at all three. I did get a box from Kmart back in ‘82 and was happy to find a random don drysdale card in there.
Unknown said…
The Lynn also has a third version in the 1990 Turn Back the Clock. This is the only one showing more than the head and shoulder. The TBC was the only one I had growing up and was surprised when I learned the original card had three other rookies on it.
One of the reasons I quit Ebay. I wish I had known you desired this set, pretty sure I have a case of the stuff back home (Fl), lol. If I remember correctly, the Dick Allen card was the culprit to get the gum in the boxes I opened.
night owl said…
I didn't know I wanted it until like a week and half ago.
Old Cards said…
I got this box back in'82 and like you, I was excited about the Freddie Lynn card. Fortunately, I opened it and took the gum out immediately. But that makes me wonder if an unopened sealed box is worth a lot more? I also have the 1987 Fleer box set - Baseball's Best Sluggers and Pitchers which reminds me of this K-Mart box set. I never opened it. I was relieved to see that gum is not listed on the box.
bryan was here said…
Oh, I remember this one well! I got mine when they first dropped in May or June of that year. By Christmas that year they were marked down to 29 cents and they weren't exactly flying out the door. I think I bought a few to give away as prizes for my birthday party the next year.

So I'm slightly gobsmacked that they're going for anything over $10. I wonder if Topps dumped some of them into the ocean at some point...
Jeff Laws said…
I got a set in 1982 as well and I loved it. I was only 9 so I didn't have a lot of older cards, I just started buying cards at the end of 1980 so these cards showing vintage cards was awesome to me and they were the first cards of a lot of those players that I had seen and definitely owned. I don't still have the set (a few cards from it) but to this day, it still hits me in the feels.
Jongudmund said…
Gum stains make it a 1/1 these days
OhioTim said…
This set is a part of my collection along with quite a few of these small boxed sets of the 1980s and early 1990s. I had some of them as a younger collector but always broke them apart. Now I try to track them down at flea markets and card shops. I have quite a few already but there are many that I have to add to my collection.
Bo said…
Interesting that there were variations on Wills and Lynn as the image popped up multiple times. I guess in this digital age we are so used to cut-and-paste that we forget it was harder to capture an original image so easily.

I've got your '69 Oyler and Weaver saved. Didn't think of your '70 setbuild until that other card was claimed. Checked and didn't have anything else there for you.
Steve F. said…
I remember buying a set for I think $2.50 (when I was 13), then later that year seeing them marked down to 25 cents. And at one point, I seem to remember a blue light special on them when they were down to 10 cents each. I think I bought 5 then. The only similar discount I remember back in the day was after the Eagles lost Super Bowl XV, the SB program was marked down at a local store to 25 cents. I think I bought 4 then, but I should have bought more because that fetches a decent price on eBay today.