Remember Wacky Packages, those awesome trading card-sized stickers from the 70’s, with titles like “Cap’n Crud” and “Skimpy Peanut Butter?” I had no idea that Topps was still making these, but when I stumbled across them the other day at Target, a nauseating whiff of nostalgia came over me, and they were dropped in my cart without any hesitation.
Wacky Packs have been revived many times since they were first introduced in 1967, and the true Wacky Pack fans will tell you that the cards were so successful, that at one point in time, they were outselling baseball cards. Topps has latched on to the nostalgia market once again with this release of Series 7 Wacky Packages. There are 55 base stickers and 20 rare wack-o-mercial stickers in each pack. There are also rare foil stickers, sketch cards, and autograph cards, but I was not lucky enough to find any of those.
The price tag for the 3-pack was a whopping $14.99, and I can’t imagine many kids plunking down their allowance on these things, but for a collector like me, I had to buy one just see what was inside.
Each box has 18 cards and two exclusive stickers. There is also a large block of styrofoam, so don’t be fooled by the size of the box–it is NOT filled with cards, it’s filled with styrofoam — and some stickers.
The stickers are really nice, printed in sharp detail on a high gloss paper. These are a far cry from the originals, but in a good way. I like shiny things. I also like how the artists have tapped into current culture and have spoofed popular web sites and infomercials, among other things.
Here’s what 15 bucks will get you these days:
You can read more about these cards at the Topps web site and of course, you can find tons of these over on eBay. Since I’m feeling lazy, I will post images of the stickers I got over the coming days. Halloween is just around around the corner, and some of these stickers seem appropriate. Any other Wacky Pack fans out there?
Great post! I’ve bought a few of the single card packs but have never seen this imitation ceral box package. Very Neat
Yeah I went crazy over the Topps non-sport sticker revival that started over this last decade. I bought a metric ton of the All New Series Wacky Packs series 1-5 and Garbage Pail Kids Series 1-6 for awhile, but then they jacked up the price to like $2 per single pack and I just couldn’t keep up.
I do have to say that I really dig the newer super glossy card stock, but for some reason the stickers don’t really stick all that well (yeah, I was a hieratic and started taking off the backing.) I also don’t like how crazy they get with the super rare inserts and stuff, though it was cool when the new 4th series GPK had sketch cards from some of the original GPK artists…
Sadly, I have no idea how cool the rare items are since I’ve never seen them. I think if I did get one of those rare cards, I would be instantly hooked.
Awesome to see these things back. Bad to see the styrofoam chunk.
I love the mini cereal box package too. Did you ever see the Wacky Packages books? They’re pretty nice. Reproductions of the old series. They should do the same thing for GPKs. I’d love to get those things bound in book form.
I have a box of GPK cards somewhere, maybe I’ll dig them out this weekend. I just checked Amazon and found the book, it has an interview with Art Spiegelman. Very cool! I’ll be adding this to my Christmas list. 😉 Here’s a link to the book: Wacky Packages