Non Sports Cards : Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?

 

Here’s a story

            I’ve never been much of a non-sports collector. I don’t think it had anything to do with not liking non-sports cards. It mostly came down to money. And when you’re a kid (and often even as an adult) you don’t have a lot of money. Decisions must be made about how one spends their discretionary cash. Baseball cards vs. Star Wars cards. Baseball cards vs. a comic book. If I had enough money (usually a birthday or after Christmas), it was this action figure vs. that action figure.

            Choices had to made.

            In the realm of collecting, it was an obvious and easy choice that I was going to pick sports cards over any other kind of card, be it a Batman card or Star Wars card, or any other kind of non-sports card. Aside from a lack of cash, I usually had other means of representing my interests in those areas of entertainment. Action figures usually covered the gamut from space adventures to superheroes for me. There was nothing I wanted more, toy-wise, than action figures. For years they filled every birthday and Christmas wish list, and if I found myself with a decent bit of cash, there was usually a sports card/action figure split in how I spent it.

            See, I didn’t dislike non-sports cards.

            I just never had any room for them.

            In fact, there are only two occasions that I can think of where I sought out the buying of non-sports cards. The first was the Return of the Jedi cards Topps produced in 1983. Collecting those happened by accident…and via competition. I’ve talked about my friend Phineas on here before. Phineas always seemed to get the cards I wanted. The action figures I wanted. There was a time in my life wherein I thought Phineas had all of the good luck, and I had all of the bad.

            Phineas had this card.

            He made such a big deal about it, that I wanted it.

            It was like the damned Shigeru Takada card all over again!

            So, I found myself buying Return of the Jedi cards. Found myself bypassing (for a time) whatever sports card offerings the candy aisle had for me at my local Thrift Drug, the buy Return of the Jedi card. I ripped dozens upon dozens of packs trying to get that Time Out for Love card. Of course, I never got it.

            Phineas: 1

            Me: 0

            The other time I really got into non-sports cards was in 1991 with the release of the Pro Set Super Stars Musicard. I remember finding them at Phantom of the Attic comic shop when I’d go there with some of my comic book collecting buddies. They had them right at the counter. I was lured in by those very 1990s hot color packaging. And the cards were pretty cool too. They fit my aesthetic at the time. I was seventeen. I was buying a ton of music. I was slowly moving away from sports cards.

            I managed to pick up some in my return to collecting a while ago.

            Recently, the non-sports bug has been knowing at me a little bit. I think it might have something to do with this entertainment nostalgia phase I’ve been going through. I mentioned that a few weeks ago on the blog. Brady Bunch stuff. Batman stuff. Well, along with that I was getting me a good card purchasing itch. Fill-in some gaps on players I collect, that kind of thing. I figured maybe I could check out ComC and see what they had out there in the non-sports selections for some of the stuff I’ve been getting myself back into lately.

            I wasn’t disappointed.

            The first thing I grabbed were these.

            Now, ComC had a few of the cards that were originally released with the Brady Bunch series…but they were a little too rich for my blood. The Topps 2018 Flashback and Topps 2011 American Pie cards did the trick at an affordable price. I haven’t been too big a fan of the Flashback cards, generally finding them as annoying as the other inserts Topps throws into Heritage every year. But occasionally I come across ones I like. Most notably the Willy Wonka one from the 2020 Heritage set, which has to distinction of being the only card my wife owns.

            The American Pie cards from 2011, though...man, I wish I’d been around for that set! From what I understand it was a relaunch of the 2001 Topps American Pie set, only with a focus more on entertainment and pop culture as opposed to also including historical and/or political events as well. The set seems to run decade by decade highlighting the bits of culture that shaped each decade.

            Aside from the Brady Bunch card, I found this.

            Yes, you’re right, it’s a Jack Kerouac rookie card!

            Being the massive Kerouac fan that I am I snagged that one immediately. I’ve been a fan of Kerouac’s work for as long as I can remember. To say his writing shaped my worldview of art and what art could be…well…that would be a massive understatement. There was a time in my life where his words were bible to me. I’d read his novel like a devout zealot. When kids were wearing flannels in the 1990s, because of Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder, I was wearing them because of Jack Kerouac.

            And I don’t think I’m done with this American Pie set.

            There’s a Muppets card and a Mister Rogers card out there with my name on it.

            The last two purchases I made were intentional.

            I’ve sort of decorated a corner of my writing space with Beatles items. An Abbey Road poster. Some photos of Beatle-related places that I’ve had the pleasure to visit. I thought it would be cool to put up something that melded my Beatles love with my love of card collecting. So, I grabbed that Beatles card. The idea was to take the card to a framer, have it mated, and then put the card up on the wall with the other items.

            But I didn’t stop there.

            If my love of the Fab Four is boundless, then my love of the Pre-Fab Four is equally as great. I’ve been happy to call myself a Monkees fan since 1986. A true-blue second wave fan who caught on with those Monkees marathons that MTV was showing. I knew that The Monkees had trading cards. I believe it was Donruss who put them out in 1967. And I also knew that The Monkees posed in a similar director’s chair fashion as The Beatles has previously done. Why of course they would! In a couple of clicks I found the card. The plan now is to get them mated and framed together.

            I do actually have two other Beatles cards, courtesy of my brother

            

            I now have a small cadre of non-sports card in my card collection. They skew very specific to who I am as a person. The issue now (because why shouldn’t there be an issue) is what to do with them? They feel like, even more so than my sports cards, that they should be displayed in some fashion. Maybe in stands on my writing desk, or in those new connecting frames that BCR is selling. I don’t feel like they should just go in a binder or sit in a box. Of course, neither should some of the sports cards I’d like to show off, if only to myself.

            Wouldn’t you know it, though…there was one card I forgot to buy in that purchase. One I’d been searching for since 1983. Yep, you guessed it.

            Phineas: 2

            Me: 0

            And I forgot to get a Batman card!

            Anyway...

Thanks for reading! Happy collecting!

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