I Can't Believe It's Not Cardboard - Highlighting Other Personal Collectibles (Foodland Coupons)

These may look like your average, every day run of the mill 1991-92 Topps hockey cards. But...They're not! 

During the 1991-92 hockey season, Topps partnered with the Foodland grocery store chain in the Pittsburgh area to produce and distribute a sticker set. For four weeks, Topps created a 3-sticker sheet for a total of 12 stickers, that were distributed by the stores. The stickers were attached vertically in a strip and have dotted lines to cut them out. Finding them intact is a pretty difficult feat in my experience and even getting these was difficult because they don't come around too often.  

The reason??  There are two. First, they were simply used as coupons by our moms (or dads, I'm not discriminating). Secondly, the stickers were stuck on our books, binders, lockers, folders, drawers, sticker albums, bikes, helmets, etc. What good is a sticker if you can't stick it, right? When you do find them, it's difficult to get them in a decent condition. Since they had to be cut, many of the tops are off center with only the bottom card of each sheet generally having at least three of the four edges in decent shape (Murphy, Samuelsson, Stevens, Pietrangelo). You'd think the tops would be ok too but each sheet had a tab at the top that also had to be cut. 

If you look at the stickers, they look just like the regular Topps cards however the backs have a coupon for items that include such sundries as olives, dog food, coffee, and peanut butter.  I have no information whether these were eligible for DOUBLING but, nonetheless, saving 50 cents on Kraft Mayonnaise in 1991 seems like a steal.  

Since the backs are the coupons themselves, none of the stickers are numbered and there are no stats. Generally you will find checklists listing them in order of release by week. The checklist looks like this.  

1  Bryan Trottier

2  Joe Mullen

3  Larry Murphy

4  Tom Barrasso

5  Ron Francis

6  Ulf Samuelsson

7  Jaromir Jagr

8  Mario Lemieux

9  Kevin Stevens

10  Mark Recchi

11  Paul Coffey

12  Frank Pietrangelo

This is one of the very few times I will get excited about stickers so relish it.  Also, if anyone has Trottier, Mullen, Murphy, Jagr, Lemieux, or Pietrangelo, I'd gladly take them off your hands. 

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Weird Cardboard: 1991-92 Pro Set PUCK Milk Chocolate Bars

1991-92 was a year in hockey related cardboard that was right in the mix of what's known as the overproduction era (don't make me call it the "J" word).  Card manufacturers were producing sets left and right, trying to satiate the need of the glut of collectors that had flooded the market over the previous few years.  Pro Set was in the thick of it.


After having produced one of the most famous (infamous) hockey sets of the last 30 years in 1990-91, Pro Set came back with their sophomore hockey effort the following year.  Although much less error-ridden, the 1991-92 Pro Set hockey set would not be their only foray into the on-fire hockey card market.  They also offered up the newly resurrected Parkhurst brand in a two series release as well as the "super premium", and somewhat maligned, Pro Set Platinum card set. 

But the venture they jumped into that I wanted to reflect on was not a full card release per se.  In fact, it wasn't even marketed as a card product.  I can't imagine what they were thinking at the time other than that they needed to capitalize on whatever outlets they could to make some cash for the fledgling company.  Plus, since Topps stopped putting gum in their products, the proverbial door was opened for someone to combine sports cards with something edible.  That's right.  I'm talking about 1991-92 Pro Set PUCK. 

Strange Things...In a Monster Box...Bashan Imperial Stickers '96

I've purchased a variety of collections over the years from both collector's and dealers. In most cases, I've only kept the hockey cards and dumped the rest. Usually, boxes aren't sorted and are filled with all sorts of things. When I find the time, sometimes I grab a box and take a look.

Today's interesting find are these...

 

What we have here, in case you had never seen them before (as I hadn't) are 1996 Bashan/Shobtai LTD Imperial Super Stickers. This was a set licensed by the NHL and NHLPA for distribution in January/February of 1996 and could be found mainly in discount stores, mostly in Canada, but supposedly had a limited release in the United States (I haven't been able to verify that though). These were, interestingly enough, manufactured in Israel. Considering there wasn't any recorded hockey taking place in Israel prior to 1986, only 10 years prior to this release, it seems a curious export. But I digress...

  

The set contains a total of 161 cards which include 110 regular player stickers, 26 team logo checklists and another 25 Die-Cut insert stickers. 136 of the cards are part of the main set while the 25 die-cuts are numbered separately. The cards measure about the same size as regular cards, (as the manufacturer calls it, "Super Sized") unlike the Panini Album stickers most people are used to. In fact, there wasn't even an album made for these so I imagine they became stuck to lockers, books, walls, drawers, or anything else kids stuck stickers to back then.

From what I can tell, packs were sold for about a $1.00-$1.50 each and contained six stickers, including one die-cut.(48 packs in a box). Also in each pack was a stick of the classic, powdery pink gum that every collector loves. You can imagine that over time, the gum became stuck to whichever card it touched. I would think that many of the top cards in packs had to be trashed.

  

The front of the player sticker features an action shot surrounded by a white border. The player nameplate is located near the bottom of the card in black italic type on a orangish-brown rectangle (printing shades vary on these so orangish-brown was the best i could do). The front also features the NHL and NHLPA trademarks in the border and there is the brand logo either in the top right or left corner of the photo. The team logo stickers feature the 1995-96 team logo as well as a small sticker that features a facsimile signature of one of the players. The fronts of the Die-Cut cards feature players dropped in front of a background of all sorts of fireworks, stars, and explosions. They also include a small facsimile signature of the player on the sticker.

  

The backs of the player cards are kind of plain but what do you expect for a sticker? The corner has the typical "Bend and Peel" label while the rest of back the card number, player name, number, team, and position. There is also a brief Career Statistics section that shows overall stats of Games Played, Goals, Assists, Points, and Penalty minutes. The team logo stickers feature a checklist of the players featured in the set. The backs of the Die-Cuts feature the player name, the number in the sub-set, and a brief statement telling you to create your "dream team" of players by sticking them together on your mother's refrigerator.

I have quite a few of these with a ton more duplicates. Unfortunately I'm missing quite a few as well. If you are reading this and have any to trade, I'd be happy to oblige. Just another example of one of the many sets produced during the overproduction era of hockey cards.