“You’re very difficult to buy gifts for!”
Is a phrase I have heard a lot. Here’s a suggestion for everyone who thinks this, and who ever needs to buy me a gift: get me a packet of trading cards.
Because I love trading cards.
This is one of those other fascinations that goes back to the 1970s, when the first trading cards that I fell in love with came out. They were – of course – Star Wars cards and my brother and I bought as many packets as we can and both tried to form a complete collection. I don’t think we succeeded until Empire came out, but it was fun trying.
There were no chase cards in those days. These were also the pre-internet and pre-video days, so chances are you saw a movie once at the cinema and then not again until TV. Trading cards were a way to relive the movies, and study favourite scenes in more detail, especially when things happened very briefly on the screen (such as the shot of the alien in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind).
Besides, they were small, fun, and collectable. I liked opening the packs, sorting the cards, and looking through them over and over. I suppose, in a way, I still do!
If there were cards made for a sci-fi or fantasy movie, I’d buy them without hesitation. Availability was a bit of a crapshoot, because (although I never knew at the time) they were being imported from America. How they even ended up in suburban Australian ‘corner shops’ was – in retrospect – a marvel. But that they did was joy to 10 year old me.
I recall specifically trading Star Wars (ESB, ROTJ) cards at school, and quite possibly Star Trek (the movies) cards. And then there were the football cards as well, which I bought and occasionally traded for non-football cards. (Note that I never have and still don’t have any interest for ‘sports cards’, which I treat as different from trading cards as a whole.)
What happened to all my cards of yesteryear I wonder? As with many things, I don’t remember any more (aside from one set of ESB cards I still own to this day).
I got to America around the time the big comics speculation period started. Swept up with the comic madness was a growth in the marketing and sales of trading cards. In those days there were new sets released weekly into stores, and it was a bit of a renaissance for me. I particular became interested in cards featuring the work of various fantasy artists, particularly Royo, Achilleos and the TSR artists (such as Elmore and Brom). Comic Images was the company releasing the cards, and I was a good customer of theirs 🙂
I bought many cards in those days (the mid 90s), even going so far as to buy entire boxes, forming sets, and trading on the (juvenile) internet with other collectors. In this way I acquired full sets of cards from series I never bought a single pack of (most often comic-based series).
I also collected Star Trek TNG cards (we watched the series religiously in those days), even going so far as to trade – by mail – with some guy I found in the back Goldmine (of all places!) magazine.
And then came two things:
1) The speculation market busted, and with the bust came a massive decline in sales (and marketing) of trading cards
2) Trading card games began, which filled the void in the market
The dark days had begun. New card series were almost nonexistent in stores (trading card games had taken their place). One silver lining was that older packs of cards could in those days be purchased for a song. Many times I recall buying packs for $0.25 or less each from sellers at toy/comic shows on in comic shops. Even though the cards were often of second-string topics, you could often find a gem in a pack (such as the Kylie card, above).
Besides, it’s always fun opening the pack.
Trading cards would not die entirely. Some proven money-making series such as Star Wars would always seem to have sets released (Topps has just released the 6th set of the wonderful Star Wars Galaxy cards). But even though the quality of the cards has increased (along with the price!) it’s still a rare event to go into any store and see a new set worth buying.
This is not the case in Japan incidentally, where cards still seem to be quite popular. Most of the packs I have bought in the last decade have actually been purchased in Japan, where I always try and buy at least one pack from whatever set I see. This has led to a vast collection of a few cards from many different sets based on movies, games, anime and manga. The card technology in Japan is also advanced many levels beyond what the US market could support, and such things as hybrid transparent and lenticular or even holographic cards are often inserted as chase cards.
So there you go, I’ve outed myself: I love trading cards
Next time you want to buy me a gift and have no idea what to get, well you can’t go wrong with a pack of trading cards 🙂
I remember the first time we got trading cards. I got King Kong cards and you got Star Wars cards. We hadn’t even seen movies! We were still living in Gateshead, so we weren’t any older than 6 or 7.
I remember that on the flip side of the Star Wars cards there was an poster that could be assembled with about 20(?) of the cards.
Also don’t forget that the cards came with a stick of pink bubble gum.
Some months ago I saw an open box of Dark Crystal cards at a dodgy toy shop. The cards were 50 cents each and I’d say there was about half a box. I was very close to buying the lot. I wonder what the 29 year old bubble gum tastes like?
I had a large stock of trading card sets, most of which I either sold or gave away. I do have probably 10 or so sets packed away somewhere, some complete with chase cards. I remember some chase cards going for $50 or more, but I never bought single cards, just packs or boxes, or a complete set.
On a related note, do either of you remember the little album-sleeve replicas with bubblegum records inside? Google suggests they might have been called Chu-Bops. I can picture a rack of them on the counter of a service station that was just past the limit of where I was allowed to ride my dragster 🙂