A good friend at work grew up in Queens in the 70s and 80s. He was a Mets fan, and I thought I would give him a couple of odd cards that I had doubles of.
Cracker Jack Dwight Gooden.
Cracker Jack Dwight Gooden back.
To start, I have a bunch of Cracker Jack cards. These are 1991 Topps Micro cards, more or less, but they have a specific Cracker Jack back. We bought Cracker Jacks at BJ's, the local warehouse club, a few times in the 80s, and I got the cards (Costco didn't come to us in the Delaware/Pennsylvania region until much later). In getting my collection together when we moved, I came across some unopened Cracker Jack cards -- although they were only wrapped in paper you could see through, and some of the paper wrappers were coming apart, so they were only sort of unopened. I gave my friend an unopened Gooden. We talked about whether he should open it, and both decided independently that he should, and then he did.
1988 Drake's Darryl Strawberry.
1988 Drake's Darryl Strawberry back.
Next, I decided to give him a Drake's Darryl Strawberry card. I had three of these in my main binder, and I can't be sure, but I think I paid 10 cents each for them. I think I got them at the consignment shop I mentioned a few times previously (such as in my 1972 Topps Frank Robinson Traded post and in my 1969 Nabisco Team Flakes post). I decided that I didn't need three of these, so my friend got one. It's also good because he appreciates Drake's Cakes, which I think of as a New York thing. Seinfeld had an episode featuring Drake's Coffee Cake, but the back of the card is pushing Fruit Pies and Donut Delites.
1977 Topps Cloth Sticker Dave Kingman.
Dave Kingman back.
Most recently, I ordered this 1977 Topps Cloth Sticker Dave Kingman for him, for about $2. I don't think I was ever aware of cloth stickers as a phenomenon, or of Topps having made any. I only found out about them a couple of months ago when I joined the internet-age collecting world. I asked my friend, who is a few years older than me, and he said that he did indeed have some cloth stickers when he was in school, maybe stuck to his binders or something. He was interested to receive this, then, and proceeded to check it out by sticking it to something. It didn't feel very tacky, but it did stick very well. A few threads at the edge came off right away. Having seen one now, I still really don't remember cloth stickers at all, and I don't mean just the Topps ones. Maybe I'm just too young -- if these were a thing kids were into in the 70s, since I was born in 1975, maybe their day had passed by the time I started remembering things. I am going to order another for him, so that he can keep one intact, and I'm going to get one for me, too.
Pretty sure 1977 was the only year they did cloth stickers.
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