March Pickup Thread

[Mike D.]

I also turned 11 that summer of 1987. Sportflics even at 65 cents were a LOT more expensive than the Topps cards, which were 45 cents and had 15 cards per pack.

For whatever reason, Sportflics never got a lot of love, but they are kind of a cool and different artifact of that era.

[ParisianJohn]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

I also turned 11 that summer of 1987. Sportflics even at 65 cents were a LOT more expensive than the Topps cards, which were 45 cents and had 15 cards per pack.

For whatever reason, Sportflics never got a lot of love, but they are kind of a cool and different artifact of that era.

Ahh, the summer of 1987. A time of "Baby on Board" signs and me thinking I might be able to one day fund my retirement through my 1986 Donruss The Rookies sets!

Yeah, no one else collected Sportflics cards that I knew so I was unable to trade them with any other kids in the neighborhood.

My father bought me a 1987 Topps wax box and I remembered it being yellow and green with an image of Dave Righetti's card on top and thought it was $0.40 per pack. I just looked it up online to confirm that was the price. It was also 17 cards per pack, which surprised me. I thought it was maybe 12. The cello packs were $0.69 for 31 cards - an even better deal. For about $15 you could either get about 650 Topps cards or 69 Sportflics player cards. Easy choice for most kids, and while I loved reading the historical team cards in Sportflics packs, my friends were never interested in that stuff and saw it as wasted money that should have produced another player card.

Not sure who Sportflics thought would buy their cards. Too pricy for kids, too gimmicky for adults.

[Mike D.]

Wow, 40 cents and 17 cards...even better deal than I remember. I remember being able to get two packs plus some penny candy for my $1 weekly allowance. Guess it was more candy than I remember.

[ParisianJohn]

I guess I can add to my March pick-ups - - When I got my box of 1987 Sportflics the seller on eBay (who runs a card shop in the northeastern US) decided to sweeten the deal by tossing in ten random 1988 Donruss common cards that if graded would be about a 2-3 at best. I guess I'll keep them!

[abothebear]

I love Sportsflics. The backs have full-color glossy photos. I believe they were the first to do that.

[saucywombat]

Put together the complete set of the 1994 Sportflics 2000 Rookie/Traded Artist's Proof.

I was also 11 in 1987. You really could not buy anything in Charleston other than Topps in 1987. At that time time no card shops and the drugstores/candy places/7-11 would only have Topps. I think you could get Fleer when it first came out each year from Kaybee Toys at the mall but good luck with that. I remember seeing Sportflics when I was in the 4th or 5th grade - but who knows where they came from.

Sportflics get lumped in to other exciting things to 4th and 5th graders at the time: M.U.S.C.L.E. men, battle beasts and GI Joe.

Maybe because they were more plastic than paper and had the lenticular action - parents found them more as toys than cards. And parents were already letting you spend TOO MUCH on cards! Might have been their downfall.

[ParisianJohn]

My first exposure to Sportflics was to the 1987 set (which may have happened in late 1986 as the cards are marked with that year, and in the blurb on the back of Schmidt's card it says "had an MVP-like season" - not acknowledging yet that he had indeed won the award). I remember when I later saw the 1986 cards I was unimpressed in comparison.

The 1986 edition was a 200 card set, yet only about 140 cards were of single players as they had a slew of "Tri-Star" cards that would feature a single image of three players who were categorized as something like "The Three Best Shortstops". These cards aren't as interesting for many as single player cards, and I seem to recall in the 1986 set that you received one Tri-Star and two single cards.

The bigger issue for me was that on the single cards that one image would be a headshot of the player while the other two provided the "motion". The 1987 set moved away from this and now you'd get three consecutive images of Kirby Puckett swinging at the plate or Nolan Ryan throwing heat. That third image made for a huge difference in the simulated action on the card, and in my enjoyment.

Maybe a good number of people were first exposed to the 1986 set and gave us on subsequent editions?? Had I seen the 1986 cards before the 1987 ones, I may have stopped there.

In the end though, that price to card ratio was probably just too high. And yes, they were the first cards with a color photo of the player on the back.

[ParisianJohn]

In 1981 when I was 5 my father came home with a box of Topps cello packs and said, "We're not opening these." He stuck them in a cabinet drawer and over 30 years later I inherited them. I still have those packs and looked at them now to see that the price was $0.49 for 28 cards - and a stick of gum! I'd still recommend buying separate penny candy over the Topps gum.