"Born Again" Wacky Collector Says Hello

[BattleCaps]

Hi everyone.

  Just wanted to introduce myself.  I collected the original Wacky Packages as a child and amassed a complete run from Series 9-15 as well as singles from earlier series that I obtained through trading with friends. I also collected baseball cards at the time and regretfully traded the Wackys away for some older star cards in the early 80's. 
  Between that time and a few years ago, I still retained a love of Wackys. I bought the Argyropoulos book when it was released as well as both of the Abrams books.
  Never gave collecting them another thought until I was waiting for someone inside a Dollar Store and noticed that they had packs of Wacky Packages for sale. I had no idea that they were producing new ones and after buying and opening a pack, I became hooked all over again.   
 After researching and discovering there were so many ANS sets that I missed, I  decided to collect those first before tackling the originals from scratch.  Looking forward to learning a lot here and doing some trading/buying with forum members 

[All-Brain]

Welcome back to the hobby and to the forum! It's great to see the Wacky spirit revived in another collector. You will find some of the most genuine people you have ever met here on the forum.

[Brian Mc]

Welcome back to Wackys. Enjoy the forum. Lots of good information and even more good people here.

Brian Mc

[g.u.e.s.t.]

Welcome!

[ToadallyDude]

Welcome.  Would be interesting to hear whether you remember the 16th series from when you were a kid.  You mention collecting the 9-15 sets, which matches most 70s kid's account.  But I actually bought a few 16th series from the ice-cream truck in '77, shocked that Wackys were suddenly back, and wondered if anyone else from that era did too.

[BattleCaps]

Thanks for the welcomes everyone!  I appreciate them   

Welcome.  Would be interesting to hear whether you remember the 16th series from when you were a kid.  You mention collecting the 9-15 sets, which matches most 70s kid's account.  But I actually bought a few 16th series from the ice-cream truck in '77, shocked that Wackys were suddenly back, and wondered if anyone else from that era did too.

Toadally Dude, I do remember having just a few of the cards of the 16th series, so I did buy a pack at some point but don't remember where. You bring up a good point because if I found them at a convenience or dime store, I probably would have bought more. I loved boxes and would have bought them all just to get the box!
 I do remember a Good Humor truck visiting a friend's neighborhood and purchasing cards from them, but only remember buying quite a few Fleer World Series packs. I might have bought a Wacky 16th in there to see what they looked like.
  I was too young to get the earliest series, but I think those fun packs stores used to sell at the end of the year started my wacky collecting.  Cards were difficult to find in the 1970's and had to actually search out for them in many different places.
 

[MoldRush]

Battle, you mentioned Fleer World Series in your memory around the time you may have come across some 16ths.  I believe those came out in 1979, so maybe there were some candy stores or ice cream trucks that had 16ths floating around for a couple years.  It stands to reason that sales were slow, as most of us kiddies probably figured the party was over after the 15th, given whatever hiatus period OS Wackys had taken before their last-breath comeback.

I experienced something similar around 1977-78. A new candy store had opened in the neighborhood, and the guy had boxes and boxes of Monster Initials, but those really dated back to 1974.  How did he get so much of it, especially in a newly opened store?  Just another little timeline mystery there is no answer for.

[RawGoo]

I got my series 15 Wackys mostly from an ice cream truck in Los Angeles.  We moved back to Pennsylvania shortly after, and series 16 never surfaced there.  I have a feeling that had we stayed in LA, I might have been able to collect series 16 from packs.

[ToadallyDude]

I got my series 15 Wackys mostly from an ice cream truck in Los Angeles.  We moved back to Pennsylvania shortly after, and series 16 never surfaced there.  I have a feeling that had we stayed in LA, I might have been able to collect series 16 from packs.

I wonder if the 16th series was actually a "test set", as Topps liked to do.  We in So. Cal. got the Yellow-pack posters & 16th series for sure.  I wonder if we were a test-market for them.  We had so many Weakies & Toadals as a kid, and we just taped them to the walls and ditched the extras trying to get the weird number-replacements we'd seen only once in some kid's collection, thinking those were the rare ones.

[RawGoo]

I wonder if the 16th series was actually a "test set", as Topps liked to do.  We in So. Cal. got the Yellow-pack posters & 16th series for sure.  I wonder if we were a test-market for them.  We had so many Weakies & Toadals as a kid, and we just taped them to the walls and ditched the extras trying to get the weird number-replacements we'd seen only once in some kid's collection, thinking those were the rare ones.

The posters I got in packs in my childhood included one Weakies and two Cheapios, along with single copies of about a dozen other titles.  Since the only double was Cheapios, that got pinned to my bulletin board.  About 20 years ago, I traded the one with the pin holes for a punched die-cut set.

[g.u.e.s.t.]

Somehow I missed the 14th series. Never knew it existed until I found Greg's website in 2004. And of course the same thing happened with the 16th series.
I lived in FL at the time. I can only assume the 14th series was out for a very short time and somehow I missed it, or the places I usually went to no longer carried them. I had no trouble finding the 15th series, so looking back it seems odd that I missed the 14th.

[BattleCaps]

Battle, you mentioned Fleer World Series in your memory around the time you may have come across some 16ths.  I believe those came out in 1979, so maybe there were some candy stores or ice cream trucks that had 16ths floating around for a couple years.  It stands to reason that sales were slow, as most of us kiddies probably figured the party was over after the 15th, given whatever hiatus period OS Wackys had taken before their last-breath comeback.

I experienced something similar around 1977-78. A new candy store had opened in the neighborhood, and the guy had boxes and boxes of Monster Initials, but those really dated back to 1974.  How did he get so much of it, especially in a newly opened store?  Just another little timeline mystery there is no answer for.

That reminds that of the last Woolworth's store that closed around here in the early 1990's. A friend and I went to eat there for the last time, then rummaged around the store. They must have cleared out the back warehouse because they had old "Bananas" magazines on the racks for sale for 15 cents,  mostly dated from 1979. Looked around for any old card packs, but didn't find any.

[MoldRush]

That reminds that of the last Woolworth's store that closed around here in the early 1990's. A friend and I went to eat there for the last time, then rummaged around the store. They must have cleared out the back warehouse because they had old "Bananas" magazines on the racks for sale for 15 cents,  mostly dated from 1979. Looked around for any old card packs, but didn't find any.

Funny you should mention that, reminds me of another example.  I used to check the candy aisle at Woolworth’s whenever I was there, because I always felt like they might have something odd or off-the-wall that the typical candy store or newsstand would not.  Like bubble gum cigars and cigarette packs, those became fairly uncommon by the 80’s.  Anyway, the card memory that comes to mind there is 1983 Fleer MAD Magazine stickers.  Must have been late 80’s or even early 90’s when I found them there.  Wish I had bought more than just the couple packs I did.  It didn’t really wow me at the time.

[Caved In]

Welcome Battle Caps!

Interesting discussion on series 16.  I grew up in Pittsburgh and bought almost all of my Wacky Packages at a candy store across from my elementary school.  I think they carried the first 4 or 5 series, then I lost touch with Wackies.  Flash forward a few years.  I had to be around driving age because my friends and I were at Monroeville Mall walking along when we came to one of those kiosks in the middle.  I walked up and saw Wacky Packages and said wow I used to love these things and of course I had to buy several packs!!  I started driving in 1980-1981, so this had to be around that time, give or take.  I came home and opened them, then threw them in a drawer and never looked at them again.  Flash forward to the late 90s.  Married with children.  My mother calls me and says she still has some of my football/baseball and wacky packages cards and do I still want them or pitch them?  I of course ran over and grabbed them, and there were the cards I had purchased in the mall with a wide "gum band" around them.  Turns out they were Series 16, and I had at least two thirds of the series just from that one buying spree.  Didn't keep any unopened packs, can't remember the wrappers or the name of the kiosk I bought them from, but there they were.  Most in decent shape.  A few had something spilled on them so I had to replace those.  My favorite Wacky story - I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to flashback to that day and remember what they looked like when I first saw them.  I do remember my reaction    and walking around staring at them, but no more details.  Wish I had bought the whole box!!   

[ToadallyDude]

Anyone know whatever became of that dude who claimed he had a warehouse or garage filled with unopened cases of just about everything Wacky?  Seems like I remember there was supposed to be at least a case of each series or something.  It was around the same time that someone uncovered an incomplete case of 16th series unopened boxes and flooded the market.  Too bad more of them didn't get graded from those boxes way back when.  I'm sure that case would have certainly yielded a couple PSA-10 complete sets.  At the time, 16ths were high, but not the $100+ per sticker they ended up on eBay at some point.  Seems like they've come down a bit since then for un-graded.  But I remember a few complete ungraded sets going for over $3000 at the high point.  Maybe they still would?  Haven't really been paying attention.  But I was considering getting my set graded just for S&G.

[Bigmuc13]

I wonder if the 16th series was actually a "test set", as Topps liked to do.  We in So. Cal. got the Yellow-pack posters & 16th series for sure.  I wonder if we were a test-market for them.  We had so many Weakies & Toadals as a kid, and we just taped them to the walls and ditched the extras trying to get the weird number-replacements we'd seen only once in some kid's collection, thinking those were the rare ones.

I grew up near Buffalo, NY.  While do not remember the Yellow poster packs at all, they must have sold them in Buffalo.  I had tons of posters, but (luckily) the only one I had in my stash from when I was a kid was the Weakies poster.  I believe that was only part of the Yellow test set, correct?

[bigtomi]

I believe that was only part of the Yellow test set, correct?

http://www.wackypacks.com/miscellaneous/posters/1973/