These aren't recyclable

 

I collect for the kid in me, the kid I was. I've mentioned that many times.

The purpose of my collection is to relive my childhood, yes. But it's also to advocate for my childhood, to avenge my childhood, if you will.

There is so much that I wanted that I couldn't obtain as a kid. That's a common childhood feeling. But beyond the cookies and candy and Matchbox cars that I couldn't possess were the never-ending stream of baseball card collectibles. My appetite was huge and my pockets were empty. Parents didn't just give their kids entire sets when I was collecting as a kid and allowance meant a couple packs every two weeks ... maybe.

Subscriptions to Baseball Digest and the TCMA Advertiser and Baseball Cards Magazine fanned the fire. Those publications revealed so many things that I didn't know I wanted. Renata Galasso cards, the Baseball Immortals set, Coke cards, and even non-card things like the Magnetic MLB Standings board (we had that), "championship" mugs, posters, buttons, iron-ons and storage boxes, binders and pages.

I have collected sets in the last few years that I couldn't collect as a kid. The Baseball Immortals set is complete. The Galasso set, at least the portion I pined over, is complete. The Coke sets are complete (save for the unobtainable).

Most of the major card sets from my initial collecting time -- 1974-85 -- are complete, so I've been trying to nab oddball sets ever since. I really don't have an interest in collecting stuff like 1951 Bowman or some Goudey set from the '30s. That wasn't my childhood, I never saw cards like that then. Even the 1956 Topps set, which came out before I was born, I collected only because cards from that set came my way when I was young.

So that's the perspective for why I'm showing this:

I saw these advertised in some publication somewhere as a youngster. I'm guessing it was Baseball Digest, but I don't really remember.

This is the first "Perma-Graphics" set, from 1981, and anyone who grew up at this time knows what these are. It is a 32-card set and its hook is that they are all made to look like the credit cards of the day. Rounded corners. Laminated vinyl. Official-looking backs. Fits in your wallet. You can't spend with this plastic but you can collect it.

These drew my eye instantly when I saw the ad. The team logos have a look you will never see anywhere else (a lower-case "B" fashioned into a beer mug!). I don't know who drew these but you could never get away with anything like this today with MLB-sanctioned everything. They're fun, a big draw for me, and the use of "bubble letters" in most of the logos is very much of its time and takes me right back.

A look at the back with your vitals, a detailed write-up and recognition that you are a loyal baseball fan and a member is good standing. What a relief! Note that Topps is responsible for these with the @TCG, INC copyright.

But most of you 1981 Topps fans knew that already because the photos used for many of the cards are instantly recognizable as the same ones used in the '81 set.

There are 24 cards in the set that use photos from the '81 Topps set, or 75 percent.

Those are all the matches.

The other eight cards have photos from other sources, though I haven't track down all of them.

These are probably the most interesting to me. Both Perma-Graphic cards here use the Coke airbrushed photos, but there are differences. The Sutter jersey goes from white to blue (or blue to white) and the Kingman Perma-Graphic shows a bat while the Coke card does not. (That Mets logo!)

The Perma-Graphic Rickey does not match but looks like an outtake from one of the two 1981 Fleer cards of Henderson.

These are the other PG's that don't match with '81 Topps cards. The Rod Carew and Jim Rice card photos both come from the 1980/81 Topps Super glossy sets. Carew's image here was cropped into his head shot for the glossy photo. Rice is practically a direct match. Simmons features a similar airbrushed shot on his 1981 Topps Super card but the photo is actually from the 1981 Topps sticker.

Meanwhile, the Winfield and Lynn photos are a mystery. Both were free-agent arrivals in the off-season of 1980/81 so maybe brand new images? I'd like to think so.

The set focuses on the stars of the day so there are just 16 teams represented. Unlike a Kellogg's 3D set from the time that would stress equal-opportunity among the teams, there are three Brewers in this set, three Phillies, three Cardinals and three Reds.

 

The Perma-Graphic brand continued in 1982 and 1983. A second set, focusing on the All-Stars from that year, was issued later in 1981. That set was vertical, not horizontal and the design for that set and the others is more ornate and not as appealing to me. Also, who ever heard of a vertical credit card?

The credit card theme was part of the appeal, too. I do remember wondering what it would be like to write a check or spend with a credit card. And though I was a teenager by this point, the "pretend" aspect of childhood was tough to put away. (The kid in me was very disappointed I didn't buy these plastic cards with plastic).

 

I know some collectors shrug off sets like this. There was a (very extended) comment on this blog a week or so ago bagging on these very cards even as I was getting ready to purchase the '81 set. All I can say to that is "there's no accounting for taste." I like what I like. If it came out when I was a kid, I probably want it.

 

If it's a lauded set from 80 years ago, well I'll take the Dodgers, but I have other things to collect that have more meaning to me. As dumb and outdated and nonrecyclable as they might seem today.