1981-1982 Topps Squirt

INTRODUCTION TO THE SET

Squirt brand soda came about in an effort to skimp on ingredient costs during the Great Depression. In the official "biography" for the soda taken from the Dr. Pepper legacy site before its merger with Keurig, the story is told about how, in 1938, a man named Herb Bishop started experimenting with a now-gone (as best I can tell) brand called "Citrus Club." 

Citrus Club was apparently popular in Phoenix. But, it being 1938 -- which saw a recession return in the midst of the recovery from the depths of the Depression -- people were trying to figure out ways to save money in manufacturing products. Bishop decided to reduce the amount of fruit juice and sugar in the product and increase the amount of soda water. This lead to a lighter, less sweet drink flavored with grapefruit. Bishop chose the name "Squirt" for this new drink.

In the 1940s, Bishop and business partner Ed Mehren created successful marketing campaigns around a cartoon character called "Little Squirt." By the 1950s and 1960s, Squirt became a popular drink mixer in bars. It also attracted imitators like Fresca, which debuted in 1966.

Imitation meant competition, and, to ensure that Squirt remained a viable product, competition led to consolidation in the 1970s. In 1977, regional bottler Brooks Products of Holland, Michigan, purchased the brand. Brooks later became known as Beverage America. Brooks started in 1936 in Michigan and started out with selling 7-UP bottled in beer bottles. Brooks's addition of Squirt was a major change -- putting Brooks in direct competition with Pepsi and Coke.

Under Brooks's ownership, Diet Squirt was created in the early 1980s as the first soft drink brand to use NutraSweet after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of the cheaper Cyclamate due to cancer concerns. 

This innovation led also to exploring different ways to get kids to buy their products -- like using baseball cards from Topps in the same way that its competitors Pepsi and Coca Cola had done in the 1970s with both licensed and unlicensed discs and cards.

In the 1990s, consolidation was again the name of the game. Select Beverages -- which was another independent soft drink bottler and distributor from the Chicago suburb of Darien -- and Beverage America were swallowed up in 1998 by Cadbury Schweppes PLC out of the UK. The transaction was funded by noted private investment company The Carlyle Group, which retained 60% ownership to Cadbury's 40% ownership. Then, in 2000, Cadbury Schweppes purchased RC Cola, Snapple, Mistic, and Stewart's from Triarc Companies. Finally, in 2006 and 2007, Cadbury snapped up its distribution chain by purchasing Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group.

That led to a spin off from Cadbury Schweppes as Dr Pepper Snapple Group. That company traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange as DPS, while the rest of Cadbury remained a chocolate confectioner. 

Finally, on July 9, 2018, Keurig Green Mountain purchased Dr Pepper Snapple Group and merged the parts together. That new company -- which still owns Squirt -- is Keurig Dr Pepper and is based in Plano, Texas -- a Dallas suburb.

EXEMPLARS
1981 Detached

Complete Panels

1982 Detached

1982 Single Card Panel

1982 Double Card Panel

Single Card Panel with Scratch-Off Game

DETAILS

Topps and Squirt teamed up on cards both in 1981 and 1982. In 1981, the set was comprised of 33 cards, while in 1982 it was scaled back to 22. 

I'm sure that making a set of 33 cards initially made sense to the folks at Topps. At the time, their card sets were printed on sheets of 132, so that would mean four sets per printed sheet, right? 

Someone forgot to figure out, however, that these cards would be issued two per panel draped on soda bottles in 6-packs. The math is not as neat when one tries to distribute an odd number of cards in sets of two. This led to a mishmash of double prints -- the first 11 cards in the set (including card three, Ben Oglivie, shown above) were all double printed. As a result, to obtain a true complete set of panels, one must purchase a total of twenty-two panels to get all thirty-three cards.

Oddly, according to Trading Card Database, four cards are short printed -- card 15 Eddie Murray, #26 Ron LeFlore, #27 Steve Kemp, and #28 Rickey Henderson. According to the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (2011 edition), both Murray and LeFlore shared panels with Steve Garvey (who is still listed as double printed), while Kemp shared a panel with Reggie Jackson and Henderson shared with Bill Buckner. I'm not sure how these short prints really work in this set.

Design-wise for 1981, the photos of the players are small and inside a baseball on the ball's sweet spot. The front design echoes the team name font used on 1978 Topps (which also used the "position in a baseball" design feature used in both sets). The backs, of course, use exactly the same color scheme and text of the 1981 base set.

Where 1981's distribution weirdness came from issuing 33 cards in sets of two, 1982's three different ways of obtaining the cards stems from the contest that Squirt ran in conjunction with the cards. According to the 2011 Standard Catalog, "[c]ard panels come in four variations, with free grocery contest and scratch-off game cards taking one or two of the positions on the three-card panels." So, cards can be found either fully detached, on a single-card panel with a free grocery contest panel (which includes the perforations for the card to be jammed over the bottleneck) and a scratch-off game panel, or with two cards and either the contest panel or the scratch-off panel, I suppose. I don't have this set in complete form, so I'm not fully clear about how it works. 

The backs on the 1982 cards are the same design as the 1982 Topps base set. However, the set is printed on white card stock, leading to a yellow, black, and white card back that quite frankly is much easier to read and more attractive than the set on which the back is based.

Finally, Topps cribbed at least a few photos from other Topps sets for its Squirt set. For example, the Cecil Cooper photo on card #1 in 1982 is the same photo that Topps used on his 1980 Topps base set card. There are a few others that look close, but that one jumped out at me thanks to my knowing Cooper's cards so well.

HALL OF FAMERS

Despite this ostensibly being an All-Star type set, less than half of the 1981 set are HOFers.

1981: George Brett, Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, Mike Schmidt, Rod Carew, Eddie Murray, Don Sutton, Dave Winfield, Johnny Bench, Rickey Henderson

1982 improved on 1981 -- exactly half are HOFers.

1982: Brett, Alan Trammell, Jackson, Winfield, Carlton Fisk, Rollie Fingers, Schmidt, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Tom Seaver, Bruce Sutter

ERRORS/VARIATIONS

There are no errors listed for either set on Trading Card Database for this set. The Variations are essentially self-made as described above -- is the card perforated? Is it on a panel? Is it a 1981 with different panel mates for the first 11 cards? Is it a 1982 with the three/four types of panels available?

MY TAKE

I don't ever recall seeing these in my local grocery stores in Wisconsin. I probably would have snatched them up, tried the soda, hated it, and tried to figure out a way to get the cards without having to drink the soda. One of the few things in life that I do not like to eat are grapefruits. 

For being regional sets issued 37 and 38 years ago, these cards appear to be fairly available on eBay. I got a complete set of the 1981 panels and all of its variations for under $10 about two years ago. There are multiple lots available for purchase for the 1981 set, and there are even more individual sets and lots available for 1982. In fact, I just bought a 1982 set of the individual panels for $5 thanks to an eBay coupon that saved me $4 (basically paid for shipping). 

If you don't have these sets already, do some scanning through the eBay auctions to find good deals. Be patient -- you shouldn't have to pay a bunch to pick up either of these sets in perfect condition.

1981-1986 All-Star Game Program Inserts

INTRODUCTION TO THE SET

Major league baseball was probably the first sports league to hold an All-Star Game. That first All-Star Game was not in 1933, however, but rather it was held on July 24, 1911 when a team of American League all-stars took on the Cleveland Naps in a game put together to benefit the widow of future Hall of Famer Addie Joss.

Joss had died from tubercular meningitis on April 14 after falling ill and fainting prior to a scheduled exhibition game against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Joss was a very popular player around the league, with the Baseball Almanac linked above quoting Walter Johnson as saying, "I'll do anything they want for Addie Joss' family." The All-Stars included Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, Home Run Baker, Hal Chase, Walter Johnson, and Clyde Milan, among others.

Perhaps thinking that the fans deserved something a little extra in their $3 program in Cleveland for the 1981 All-Star Game, someone made the decision to add small cutouts -- 180 in total -- of all the players for whom the fans could vote. The foldouts were repeated in the programs through 1986.

EXEMPLARS

All of these photos were downloaded from eBay auctions. Finding intact programs with the inserts is not difficult, though not every program for sale shows the inserts. And, I could not find a 1983 version quickly that showed the photos, so you're stuck seeing the backs there.

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

DETAILS

Each program contained fold-out pages containing the 180 players whose names appeared on the All-Star Ballot -- and representative pitchers -- during the years 1981 through 1985, and 260 in 1986. When separated, each "card" is about 1.25" x 2", assuming that the photo was cut out while leaving a thin white border.

Obviously, to get these cards first hand, you had to purchase the program. I have memories of seeing ads during certain games where one could send money to a P.O. Box and receive a copy of the program in return. I will admit that I don't know if the ad shows up in this televised version of 1982 All-Star Game -- a very good quality version from Montreal's Olympic Stadium with a very young Al Michaels on the call. 

I had to link to this wonderful version of the game, which is worth watching almost as much for the Montreal montage at the beginning as anything, but almost more for the brief interview of Rachel Robinson, Jackie's widow. Also fun -- this game actually has all the advertisements included. There's nothing like watching 36-year-old Wendy's ads.

Another aside from that 1982 game: I'd completely forgotten about the fact that Robin Yount almost did not make the All-Star Game thanks to the fact that those damn Yankees fans thought Bucky Dent should be in the lineup ahead of him. Finally, I appreciate the fact that the Montreal fans booed Reggie Jackson.

Anyway, there is nothing I could find easily that provided information regarding how many programs were printed each year such that we could figure out how many of these inserts were printed.

Interestingly, these sets are not included in the Standard Catalog, though PSA includes them in the Player Collection sets in their registry.

HALL OF FAMERS

Considering that these inserts represent the starting lineups and the top pitchers from each team, the number of Hall of Famers is pretty high.

1981 (28)

Rod Carew, Tony Perez, Eddie Murray, Alan Trammell, Robin Yount, George Brett, Carlton Fisk, Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson, Paul Molitor, Jim Rice, Dave Winfield, Carl Yastrzemski, Rollie Fingers, Rich Gossage, Willie Stargell, Ozzie Smith, Mike Schmidt, Johnny Bench, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Ted Simmons, Bruce Sutter, Don Sutton

1982 (27)

Harold Baines, Bench, Brett, Carew, Carlton, Carter, Dawson, Fingers, Fisk, Henderson, Jackson, Molitor, Joe Morgan, Jack Morris, Murray, Tim Raines, Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., Schmidt, Simmons, Smith, Sutter, Sutton, Trammell, Winfield, Yastrzemski, Yount

1983 (30)

Carew, Murray, Yaz, Ripken, Trammell, Yount, Wade Boggs, Brett, Molitor, Fisk, Simmons, Baines, Henderson, Jackson, Rice, Winfield, Bert Blyleven, Dennis Eckersley, Morgan, Ryne Sandberg, Smith, Schmidt, Carter, Dawson, Raines, Carlton, Fergie Jenkins, Ryan, Seaver, Sutter

1984 (27)

Baines, Blyleven, Boggs, Brett, Carew, Carter, Dawson, Fisk, Gossage, Gwynn, Henderson, Jackson, Molitor, Jack Morris, Murray, Raines, Rice, Ripken, Ryan, Sandberg, Schmidt, Simmons, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith, Trammell, Winfield, Yount

1985 (28)

Carew, Murray, Ripken, Trammell, Yount, Boggs, Brett, Molitor, Fisk, Henderson, Jackson, Kirby Puckett, Rice, Winfield, Morris, Seaver, Sandberg, Smith, Schmidt, Carter, Dawson, Gwynn, Raines, Eckersley, Gossager, Ryan, Baines, Morris

1986 (25)

Blyleven, Boggs, Brett, Carlton, Carter, Dawson, Fisk, Gossage, Gwynn, Henderson, Jackson, Molitor, Murray, Puckett, Raines, Rice, Ripken, Sandberg, Schmidt, Seaver, Smith, Sutter, Trammell, Winfield, Yount

ERRORS/VARIATIONS

The only error in any of the sets actually comes in 1982, and it affects a recently named Hall of Famer. Rather than picturing Jack Morris, the photo is actually of Kevin Saucier. It's an easy mistake to make -- you know, all those white guys with mustaches all look alike, even if Morris threw right-handed and Saucier threw left-handed.

MY TAKE

I never had any of these when I was a kid, and I really did not know anything about them at the time. If I had, perhaps I would have come up with the $5 or so to get one of these programs. 

Of course, these were the good old days when voting for all-stars involved real ballots and potentially ballot-box stuffing.  That ballot-box stuffing was a legitimate enterprise -- when fans would talk their friendly ushers into giving them dozens of the punch-card ballots. Once obtained, poking out the chads of the players you voted for was like a kids version of the 2000 election in Palm Beach County -- you had better be sure you didn't leave any hanging chads! You'd end up with a ton of little rectangles of cardboard covering yourself. 

I can only speculate how these got to be listed on the Trading Card Database as "oddballs." It's probably the result of their inclusion in the registry sets for players with Beckett. After all, you have to have some more difficult to find items to make things interesting, right?

As I mentioned above, finding programs with these in them is not difficult. The programs will vary in cost, so shop around.

It's also not difficult to find these little slips of glossy paper for sale in team sets either on eBay or elsewhere. 

So, what do you guys and gals think -- are these "baseball cards" or are they just photos cut out of a magazine? Do you include them in your collections?

Edit: Since I wrote this post, it appears that the Trading Card Database and Beckett's stopped including the 1986 set in their listings -- perhaps because they have the photos on both sides as some of you noted.

1981 Topps Scratch-Offs Panels

INTRODUCTION TO THE SET

Throughout its long history in the baseball-card industry, Topps has sought additional ways to leverage its full MLB license and, once it became necessary, the MLBPA license. Even its first major release set in 1951 was a bit of an oddball in being both a collectible card and a playable game.

There may be something of a pattern to these oddballs, though. It's not a perfect relationship, but it seems like Topps was more prone to issue an oddball set when it had more competition in the baseball world. For example, in 1958, Topps had no competition at all and did not issue any oddballs of its own. In 1959, on the other hand, Fleer jumped into the ring with its Ted Williams set, and Topps responded by printing cards on the backs of its Bazooka brand bubble gum. 

It's not a perfect relationship. For example, Topps issued effectively five oddball sets in 1964 (two Bazooka sets along with Giants, Tattoos, and Stand-Ups), but it really did not have any competition that year. Now, those oddballs could have been issued anticipating a loss in court to Fleer on an antitrust suit or just further competition from Fleer. But there were a number of other oddballs throughout the 1960s and 1970s -- during Topps's exclusivity years -- that still got issued. 

Again, it may be simply that Topps wanted to leverage its license into making more money and seeking new lines of products. That is rationale corporate behavior, after all. 

By the time 1981 came around, Topps was better positioned than either of its new rivals Donruss and Fleer to take advantage of the increasing interest in oddballs. Topps worked with Coca-Cola on some team sets, with Perma-Graphic on a credit card-like set, and had two of its own oddball products -- the Home Team 5x7 photos and these Scratch-offs.

EXEMPLARS

Full Panel

Singles





DETAILS

This set was designed to allow kids the fun of playing baseball in the same way that their parents enjoyed playing the lottery -- through scratching off an unidentified substance from a piece of cardboard to reveal the outcome of an at bat. 

The cards came in full panels, as shown above. To get to the individual cards, perforations separate the three cards.  The panels themselves measure 3-1/4" x 5-1/4", while each individual card measures 3-1/4" x 1-13/16", according to PSA.

In stores, these cards were sold in wax packs which included a total of 6 panels. Each pack included three American League panels, three National League panels, and a stick of gum. Here's a photo from an eBay auction to show you what the packages looked like:

As the backs imply with the empty box next to the player information, those who were using these scratch-offs to play a game were supposed to make out their lineups and slot players into a batting order. AL players were numbered from 1 to 54, while NL players were numbered from 55 to 108. 

HALL OF FAMERS

Out of the 108 cards in the set, there are just 17 19 members of the Hall of Fame. In looking at the checklist, that's due in large part to the nature of this set including players from all 26 teams and in part to a number of players who looked like they might be good in the early 1980s but who never amounted to much baseball-wise (Joe Charboneau and Ken Landreaux, for instance) or were essentially one-hit wonders (like Steve Stone's 1980 Cy Young Award winning season).

The members of the Hall in this set include: George Brett, Reggie Jackson, Tony Perez, Eddie Murray, Robin Yount, Jim Rice, Rod Carew, Paul Molitor, Rickey Henderson, Jim Palmer, Mike Schmidt, Johnny Bench, Gary Carter, Ozzie Smith, Andre Dawson, Steve Carlton, and Tom Seaver. 

Added since the original post were Ted Simmons and Alan Trammell, both of whom I identified in 2017 as possible HOF inductees.

Potential future members of the Hall include Ted Simmons (ding!), Alan Trammell (Ding ding!), Dusty Baker (as a manager), and maybe Buddy Bell.

ERRORS/VARIATIONS

This set is a variation-seekers dream. 

Let's start with the panels themselves. The first 18 cards of each of the League runs -- 1 through 18 and 55 through 72 -- always appear on the top of the panel. Cards 19 to 36 (AL) and 73 to 90 (NL) always appear as the middle panel. Cards 37 to 54 and 91 to 108 always appear as the bottom panel. 

But, each of the first 18 cards does not always appear with the same two other cards and, in fact, each has four different variants in terms of the panel composition. For example, Robin Yount is card 10. His four variations in terms of panelmates include: (1) Rick Cerone [card 28] and Toby Harrah [card 46]; (2) Rick Cerone and Ed Farmer [card 54]; (3) Al Bumbry [card 29] and Frank White [card 47]; and (4) Willie Randolph [card 36] and Toby Harrah. 

The same is true for literally every single card in the set -- whether the player is a top panel, middle panel, or bottom panel. All told, this means that a complete set of panels is comprised of 144 panels. A great checklist for this can be found on the Net 54 Baseball site. 

That's not the end of the variations, though. I said above that a complete set of panels is comprised of 144 panels. That's probably true, I think. but it may not be.  

You see, Topps made use of the backs of cards as well. Cards 1 through 18 and 55 through 72 -- the top panels -- each have the instructions for how to play the game on the back. So, both the Tony Perez and Ted Simmons cards shown above fall into those runs. Cards 19 through 36 and 73 through 90 -- the middle panels -- each have a scoreboard to keep score of the game on the back:

So far, so good, right? Well, here's where it goes off the rails. Cards 37 through 54 and 91 through 108 -- the bottom panels -- all have advertising on back.

And I've given away the story here by showing you those ads. As you can see, there are two Ken Griffey Sr. card backs above -- one selling a ball-strike indicator and one selling a baseball hat like ones you could find at the truck stops across America in 1981. The Dave Lopes back shows the third item for sale -- a Topps "Super Sports Card Locker." 

Each of the bottom-panel cards was printed with exactly two of the three advertisements on the back. Griffey had the Hat and the BSI; Lopes had the Locker and the BSI; Doug Flynn (card 93) had the Hat and the Locker. In other words, taking all 36 of those panels into account, there are 72 total variations for these bottom panels.

So, let's step back to the Yount panel list for a moment. If you are either a crazy completist or a player collector looking for variations to add numbers to your collection, this is a potential gold mine because the reality is that you have a possibility of not four, but really eight possible panels to collect. 

MAYBE.

I say maybe in bold and all caps because, well, I don't know if there are variations in what advertisement appeared on the backs of the Yount Panels. What I mean is this: Toby Harrah appears both with the Ball-Strike Indicator and the Hat Offer. Were his cards on the Yount/Cerone Panel all BSIs? Were his cards on the Yount/Randolph panel all Hat Offers? 

I just don't know and I have not seen anything that ties these two issues together. Does anyone know?

MY TAKE

I definitely had these cards available to me in small-town Wisconsin. I scratched the hell out of them. Later in the 1980s, I bought what I thought was a complete set at a card show or a flea market in Wisconsin, and kept them intact for a while. I have not been able to find that set anywhere, though, so I'm thinking that I may have broken that set up into its constituent parts. I have been known to do that.

This is the kind of fun set that Topps used to make to try to get kids interested in collecting. The same year that the scratch-offs came out, Topps also issued its first sticker set and album. Both the scratch-offs and the stickers took much of whatever money I made that summer cutting the lawn around my house. I mean, I was in the summer after third grade that year, so it wasn't like I had many options to make money. But those two together helped keep my interest as a kid. I wouldn't mind having similar sets getting issued nowadays.

If I were to be collecting this set, I'd be going at it as a completist. I'd want all 144 panels -- all the variations in player composition would be required. If I assume that the 144 panels includes all the proper variations in them such that 144 panels is complete, even that is a bit of a chore to put together. In looking at eBay, people sell the set as "36 panels, 108 cards" in the set. Granted, no one has made the very low opening bid on that set of $0.99 (plus $3.50 shipping).

In the event you're looking to get an unopened box or two to rip, that is a bit more difficult to find. For instance, a three-box lot has been listed at $139.99 plus $10 shipping. That sale does have the option of making an offer to reduce the cost, but in any event that seems to be a steep price to me. There is another single box available for $44.99 (shipping included) that does not have an offer option. 

Maybe it's just me, but that seems a bit pricy too. Yet, if there is not much supply out there, perhaps someone will buy it at that price.

If I'm spending that kind of money on this set, I'm going with the uncut sheet in this auction, which will run $59.75 (or less if you make a good enough offer). I feel like that just gives me more bang for my buck, and I have been building a strange affinity for uncut sheets.

What do you think? Too rich for your blood, or worth the money?

1981-1983 Granny Goose Oakland A's

INTRODUCTION TO SET

Granny Goose Foods, Inc., was a food company that was started in Oakland, California, in 1948 (according to SFGate; Wikipedia says 1946 without a citation) by a gentleman called Matthew Barr. Perhaps presciently, Barr soon after sold his shares in the company to his three young business partners. Granny Goose made potato chips, and generations of Californians grew up munching on them to their cholesterol's detriment.

In 1966, Granny Goose was purchased by Del Monte Foods Company. Del Monte is a massive company that focuses on canning fruit, vegetables, and broths, among other things. Things rolled along well for the company for a while until, in 1979, R.J. Reynolds Industries -- yes, the tobacco company -- purchased Del Monte Foods. By that point, RJR had already purchased the company that made Hawaiian Punch, so it was not that far flung to buy Del Monte. But, having a potato chip company did not fit for RJR, so RJR sold Granny Goose to Oakland-based G. F. Industries in 1980.

Under G.F., Granny Goose grew and expanded. In 1988, G.F. audaciously took over a company with ten times its nationwide sales -- Sunshine Biscuits Company. At the time, Granny Goose had $50 million in sales and Sunshine -- the then-owner of brands such as Cheez-It, Honey Graham crackers, and Hydrox Creme Filled Chocolate Cookies (the brand Nabisco ripped off to create Oreos) -- had $500 million in sales.

The L.A. Times story linked here mentions that G.F. Industries was "controlled by Northern California businessman Wilfred Uytengsu." This is an interesting tidbit, yet it is one that I cannot easily confirm. Wilfred Uytengsu, Sr., was a Filipino businessman in the dairy industry in the Philippines who started General Milling Corporation and then founded a Philippine company called Alaska Milk Corporation. He also served on the board of Milwaukee-based Universal Foods Corporation (now known as Sensient Technologies). But nothing in his biography or his son Wilfred Jr.'s biography mentions G.F. Industries.

In any event, the Sunshine acquisition started a string of takeovers in the takeover-crazy late 1980s. G.F. followed that purchase by buying Salerno -- a long-time Midwestern cookie company whose corporate synergies matched well with Sunshine's Hydrox brand -- in 1991. Shortly after, in 1993, G.F. bought Laura Scudder Inc. from financially troubled Borden, Inc. for less than $17 million.

Yet, by that point, Granny Goose's market share had declined rapidly in the face of tough competition from PepsiCo's Frito-Lay and Eagle Snacks, which was owned by Anheuser-Busch. Controversially, in July 1995, the City of Oakland loaned $2.25 million to entrepreneur Keith Kim in an effort to save 400 jobs in the city. It was criticized for being "typical of a series of misguided Oakland business subsidies" but, as the San Francisco Business Times article notes, the loan was repaid within a year.

Even that, however, was not enough to save the company. By 2000, Granny Goose sold off its Oakland production facility and moved to Utah. That was not enough to stop two large creditors from filing a state court action to sell off the company assets in a proceeding known as a general assignment of creditors. As part of that sale, Snak King purchased the rights to Granny Goose's corn chip, popcorn, and extruded snack lines (that's the potato chips, I think). Snak King then licensed the rights to these brands to Shearer's Foods, which now sells the chips.

EXEMPLARS

1981

1982

Two different sets: one with facsimile autographs, one without.

Facsimile autograph version

No Autograph

1983

DETAILS

Many people in our hobby talk about how the late 1980s and early 1990s was the heyday for cards in general with the sheer numbers of cards being made. Those of us who were collecting in the early 1980s, however, remember these cards as being a super-charged, high-demand set that was going for top dollar.

Granny Goose made big money itself out of the deal. This 1982 story from the United Press International wire service deserves attention for the lengths people were going to and for the prices that sets were getting. Here are a couple of the examples given by a company spokesperson:

• One gentleman came to the Granny Goose facility and bought 30 cases of potato chips. He proceeded to pull out the baseball cards and dumped the chips on the loading dock.

• One man from Los Angeles wanted to order 800 cases of potato chips and have them delivered to his house.

• Another Los Angeles man drove the two hours, twenty minutes to Bakersfield just to buy the chips and get the cards.

• Requests for the cards came in to Granny Goose from Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, and Milwaukee

The Oakland A's also had a few off-the-wall requests, including one man who wanted to buy 500 tickets to the game, donate 499 tickets to any charity of the A's choice, and then mail him the 500 sets of cards. The A's told the man that that was impossible. That story closed by noting two things: that sets from 1981 were already selling for $120 a year later, and that the A's handed out 15,000 of the complete sets of cards at their baseball card day.

Each of the four sets consisted of 15 cards. Each year, the Oakland A's gave away a limited number of the cards through a stadium giveaway, and Granny Goose included the cards in their potato chip bags. As you can see above, there was very little difference between the 1981 and 1982 versions of the set. The 1981 version was copyrighted by "East West Promotions Inc.", while the later two years of sets were both copyrighted by Granny Goose. 

1982 featured two different set versions -- one with a facsimile autograph and one without. I don't know if this is the case, but I'd speculate that one of them probably was the stadium giveaway that year while the other was the potato-chip-bag version.

In 1983, the year of the card's issuance was added to the front, and an instant winner game was added. That instant winner portion led to a humorous soliloquy from Rickey Henderson to a young Grant Brisbee (the lead baseball editor at SB Nation). 

Rickey pointed to the 1983 Granny Goose card with the contest scratch off and told young Grant, "Hey, you can't scratch that contest off. It'll make the card less valuable. You're not gonna win, so just don't scratch it off. I think the contest expired five years ago. so don't even mess with it. Ruins the value."

Rickey, as always, knew. 

Here's the links to the checklists for 1981, 1982 with facsimile autograph, 1982 without, and 1983.

HALL OF FAMERS

Each of these sets has just one Hall of Famer in it out of the fifteen cards issued each year: Rickey Henderson.

A decent argument can be made that Billy Martin (in the 1981 and 1982 sets) should be enshrined eventually for his work as a manager. He was such a difficult man to get along with. He had major issues with alcohol, and he had a well-known propensity to cause a "take-a-number" line to form at Dr. Frank Jobe's offices. All of these factors may have added up to keep him out. Still, there are a number of articles that have plumped for his inclusion in the Hall; with a .553 winning percentage over 16 seasons (2267 games managed, 1253 wins) and a World Series Championship in 1977, it may happen eventually.

The 1982 and 1983 sets includes Davey Lopes, whose late start to his career at the age of 27 in 1972 didn't stop him from having a 16-year career. His late start -- thanks to his completing his degree at Washburn University in Kansas -- probably will keep him out.

ERRORS/VARIATIONS

Trading Card Database does not list any for 1981, 1982 autographs, 1982 clean, or 1983. However, a case can be made that having the 1983 set either with or without the contest tab (or scratched or not) could be considered variations.

MY TAKE

As I mentioned above, the Granny Goose sets were in major demand in the early 1980s. They were a hobby supernova driven by Rickey Henderson's chase for the single-season stolen base record in 1982 (which he set in Milwaukee, incidentally). I think these cards, more than any, were responsible for my heightened awareness of Brewers police cards and of baseball card oddballs generally.

As a ten-year-old kid, I would look longingly at any sales of those cards I could find in the mail-order section of Baseball Cards Magazine and Sports Collectors Digest. I'd look longingly because there was no way that I could afford $120 for a 15-card set of Oakland A's. I mean, that is the equivalent of over $300 today. Minimum wage then was $3.35 an hour, so when you were poor like me and had a mom working fairly menial jobs when she could find work, that was simply a luxury beyond our means.

These days, those cards are much easier to come by. For instance, even if you were to put together the 1981 set by singles and lots off eBay, you probably would not be looking at paying more than about $25-$30 total. You can start with this 10-card lot for $8.50 and build from there. The 1982 set (no autographs; $18.99) and 1983 set ($22 with tabs and unscratched). The facsimile autograph version seems to be less available generally speaking than the other three sets, and singles for it are also tough to come by. Singles for the other sets are readily available. 

But, if you'd like one of the highest graded 1981 Rickeys, be prepared to shell out $3,508 for a PSA 8 card -- or just pay $164 for 24 months and it will be yours!.

1980-1983 (and 1986) Cramer Baseball Legends

INTRODUCTION TO SET

If you had the time, money, and ability, would you start your own card company? If you did start your own card company, what kinds of cards would you release? How would you start -- current players or greats of the past?

Those were all questions that Michael J. Cramer -- Mike to those who know him -- must have been asking himself in the early 1970s. Cramer's card shop and company, Pacific Trading Cards, became the most off-the-wall and innovative card issuer in the 1990s. But, Cramer started out his foray into issuing cards like a couple of others have: as a card-shop owner.

According to this article from 1996 in the Arizona Republic, Cramer got his start in baseball cards as a high-school freshman in 1968 while attending Maryvale High School. He started Pacific -- then known as Cramer Sports Promotions -- as a mail-order business but really made his money for the first ten years of the business -- so, until about 1978 -- by being an Alaskan crab fisherman.

Cramer helped blaze the trail that other shop owners such as Renata Galasso and Larry Fritsch later followed by issuing baseball cards himself. Cramer started with minor-league baseball and teamed with Circle K Food Stores and the Phoenix Giants in 1975 to issue a set in which Cramer himself got a card, which he used to announce the formation of an Arizona Sports Collectors Association.

As things progressed for Pacific, he left Arizona for Seattle. As a history of the company notes, Cramer moved to Edmonds, Washington, in 1977 and changed his company name to Pacific Trading Cards. He opened a brick-and-mortar store to accompany his mail-order business. His card issuing for minor-league teams took a break from 1978 through 1984, during which time he used old photos of baseball legends to put out his "Baseball Legends" set.

As Rich Klein notes in his short biography of Cramer (linked above), Cramer was not just a card-company owner. He became an NFL-accredited photography and literally took his own photographs to use for his football sets that he issued in addition to using photos from other long-term hobbyists. This was a cost-cutting measure, certainly, and it helped Cramer reduce costs in the art process as well.

Pacific's history in baseball cards continued into the late 1980s with another Legends set (which will be documented later). So, this story on Pacific's history will continue at that point.

EXEMPLARS

1980, Series 1

1981, Series 2

1982, Series 3

1983, Series 4

1986, "Series 5"

DETAILS

These cards were issued in four series of thirty cards each year from 1980 through 1983. Then, in 1986, Cramer/Pacific must have decided either to print more cards or repackage the cards on hand into wax packs. That led to "series 5" -- a four-card series that were nothing more than cards printed on the bottom of the wax boxes. These cards  added Hoyt Wilhelm and Arky Vaughn, two of the four Baseball Hall of Fame inductees for 1985 to the set. For some reason, Lou Brock was left out; Enos Slaughter was in Series 2. In addition, the wax box picked up one very early inductee (Grover Alexander) and one very recent inductee (Frank Robinson) that had been omitted previously. 

Visually, these cards are like a Coldplay song -- they are all yellow (sorry, had to make the bad musical reference). My guess here is that it may have been easier for the printing process to make these cards all yellow with sepia photos. That's a guess, though.

The backs feature various items of information about the players, including their position (with "Short Stop" being a regular feature), their dates of playing in the majors, their birth dates, a short biographical write-up, their teams for which they played, and their major league record. 

If the player had been inducted into the Hall of Fame before the cards were printed, then the year of the player's induction is included. If the player was not in the Hall, then his nickname was provided or, in Harvey Kuenn's case, his then-current occupation of Brewers manager was given. Finally, if the player had passed away, then his date of death is given; otherwise, his city of residence at the time of the card's printing was provided.

In terms of set composition, there is again a bit of unevenness. For example, Series 1 includes 27 Hall of Famers out of 30 cards though three of the men who are in the set (Walter Alston, Ernie Lombardi, and Billy Southworth) had not been inducted when the set was issued. Series 2 is all Hall of Famers now, but again, three players (Slaughter, Leo Durocher, and Pee Wee Reese) were inducted after the cards were issued. The 1982 set is less star-studded -- just 22 of the 30 players are in the Hall, and three of those men were enshrined after 1982 (Nellie Fox, Harmon Killebrew, and Phil Rizzuto). 1983's series has just one guy who went in after the set was released -- Richie Ashburn.

HALL OF FAMERS

This is a star-studded set, so strap in. Here they all are:

1980: Babe Ruth, Heinie Manush, Rabbit Maranville, Earl Averill, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Bill Terry, Sandy Koufax, Ernie Lombardi, Dizzy Dean, Lou Gehrig, Walter Alston, Jackie Robinson, Jimmie Foxx, Billy Southworth, Honus Wagner, Duke Snider, Rogers Hornsby, Paul Waner, Luke Appling, Billy Herman, Lloyd Waner, Eddie Collins, Lefty Grove, Hank Greenberg

1981: Ty Cobb, Enos Slaughter, Ernie Banks, Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Pie Traynor, Clark Griffith, Mickey Cochrane, Joe Cronin, Leo Durocher, Frank Baker, Joe Tinker, John McGraw, Bill Dickey, Walter Johnson, Frankie Frisch, Casey Stengel, Willie Mays, Johnny Mize, Roberto Clemente, Burleigh Grimes, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Feller, Brooks Robinson, Sam Crawford, Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, Joe McCarthy, Jocko Conlan, Satchel Paige

1982: Ted Williams, George Kelly, Jim Bottomley, Al Kaline, Yogi Berra, Nellie Fox, Harmon Killebrew, Edd Roush, Mordecai Brown, Gabby Hartnett, Early Wynn, Nap Lajoie, Ted Lyons, Lou Boudreau, Ralph Kiner, Phil Rizzuto, Frank Chance, Ray Schalk, Bill McKechnie, Travis Jackson, Carl Hubbell, Roy Campanella

1983: Cy Young, Kiki Cuyler, Chief Bender, Richie Ashburn, Hack Wilson, Al Lopez, Willie Keeler, Fred Lindstrom, Roger Bresnahan, Goose Goslin, Earle Combs, George Sisler, Red Ruffing, Herb Pennock, Chuck Klein, Addie Joss, Chick Hafey, Lefty Gomez, George Kell, Al Simmons, Bob Lemon

1986: Hoyt Wilhelm, Arky Vaughn, Frank Robinson, Grover Cleveland Alexander

ERRORS/VARIATIONS

One known variation shows up on the Trading Card Database and in the Standard Catalog and it is in the 1980 set. There are two different Jackie Robinson cards -- one of his batting and one as a portrait of him. The portrait variation is more difficult to find. Indeed, TCDB does not have a scan of it.

I am going to speculate a bit and suggest that there may be additional variations based on card stock. I get that from looking at the checklists for the sets and, frankly, just looking at the scans above. Do you see the different coloration for the Kuenn and Aaron cards as compared to the Spahn and the Keeler cards? I am wondering if Pacific had to get the printing plates out to equalize the cards in the 1986 packs and ended up printing them on the gray card stock typical for Topps cards of the era. I don't know that for sure, but I could see that happening.

MY TAKE

I had some or all the first two or three series of these as a kid. I have yet to figure out how or where I got these. I am guessing that, somewhere along the way, I found them at a card show or they were thrown in as an extra in some set purchase I made by mail order. I don't think I ever bought anything from Pacific, but it is possible. 

I recall really liking these. For me as a kid in rural Wisconsin, these cards helped bring to life the stories about baseball history that I had been reading in Baseball Digest and in books from my local library. Names like Rabbit Maranville and Frankie Frisch and Mordecai ("Three Fingers") Brown had been almost like fairy tales to me -- players who lived only in some alternate universe. To see real photos of them was incredibly cool. 

Only once The Sporting News started with its Conlan sets 10 years later would we get a wider array of players from that era, so this set was like bringing guys from the moon to Wisconsin to me. Since getting back into collecting, I've picked and chosen my cards to get the ones I needed for player collections but I haven't gone all in on trying to get this as a set.

Thanks to the reissuance or sale of the cards in wax in 1986, these cards are reasonably available on the eBay and COMC markets. Unopened packs are not all that common, though, at least judging by what is available on eBay. There is one group of 34 unopened packs with the box (and its four cards) that is listed at $36.83, though its seller will accept a "best offer" option. One seller has a full set of all 124 cards (the box is uncut) for $77.00 shipped. From all indications, that's not a terrible price, but it is pricy to me.