No more card sizeism

 

I've told this story a couple of times already, but you're used to that. That's what happens when I'm operating a blog long past its "best-used-by" date.

 

About 20-25 years ago, I was in a bad place as far as cards and collecting. I had stopped collecting a few years earlier and I had considered the hobby part of my past. Yet, I still owned most of my collection, and somewhere deep down, I still did value them.

 

This wasn't a time where I could sell off my cards for an easy profit -- I wasn't online then -- and thank goodness because I would have done it. But that's why I did sell some of my card stuff at a good old American garage sale.

I took a look at what cards I had that I absolutely didn't want. I targeted the monster box of 1989 Topps dupes and ... somebody actually bought it! I also targeted anything that wasn't regulation card size, 2.5-by-3.5. I didn't think they measured up to the "real cards."

So I put some 1986 Donruss Pop-Ups out in the garage sale. I threw in my complete 1992 Topps micro set. And I offered up my 1980 and 1981 Topps Super glossies, those 5x7 beauties, as well. I didn't know it at the time but I was discriminating against my cards because of their size.

All those cards sold.

It took me a long time to regret selling that stuff and I still don't regret dispensing most of it. But the 1980 and 81 glossies, man, I wish I had those back.

I wished and I wished and I did get a couple back here and there, but I didn't really get fired up about it until someone announced acquiring the whole 1980 set on Twitter/X a few weeks ago. Then I heard how much it cost. And then I started looking for my own set.

It didn't take long. But now I own the whole thing.

That's all 60 cards in the set. Sure, the gloss has worn off -- the pictures are 43 years old! -- but that doesn't matter to me. What matters is they are all finally home.

I don't have memories of how these were displayed when I was buying them at the Greek deli in the neighborhood in 1980 and 1981. I said in a previous post that they were one per pack. But others remember them being three or five to a pack in a clear plastic display with either a green or yellow card at the top.

Others remember them being loose in a box where you could just pull out the ones you wanted. I thought someone was putting me on, but it's apparently true. That sounds bananas. I can easily see sticky-fingered kids rifling through them all, leaving only Bruce Bochte and Rick Bosetti in their wake.

 

The following are the ones I remember owning before, meaning I pulled these out of whatever packaging was in that deli store:

 

I can't stress enough how much these seemed like the height of card class and technology at the time. Glossy photos in the early '80s were what shiny was to the '90s. Just beautiful large photos -- larger than life, I'm sure the advertising said -- of your favorite players.

There are some of the superstars in the set. Lots of those pictures are new to me, fascinating considering I've known this set for almost half a century. The Carew and Brett I picked up at an antique shop about four years ago, so dupes of these is just wild.

I remember being a little obsessed with this one. Nolan Ryan's arrival with the Astros was big news at the time and that bright orange hat could always draw me in. I don't think I ever saw this in person, it must have been advertised somewhere. I know I wished I had it.

An interesting photo. That doesn't seem like a cardinal noise coming out of Simmons' mouth. More like a crow.

Here are some of my favorite players from that time period in the set. I've owned the Dodgers cards for a long time. I also landed the 1981 Superstar Home Team set a couple of years ago. I remember buying the '81 National Team set cards at that same deli a year later, maybe I'll get those someday, too. It's a much smaller set.

A few more favorites from that time. Can't leave these guys out.

Here are some young stars from that time who didn't have the star-packed careers maybe some thought they would, although we were still a few years away from prospecting. Wish we could go back to when nobody cared about that. It made the hobby a lot less complicated.

Anyway, it's a joy to have this whole set finally in my possession. And I have plenty of two-pocket pages available to house all of these. I wouldn't be surprised if two-pocket pages were created just for these cards!

They're the first cards of this size I ever knew. Sorry, dudes, that I sold ya the first time.