New to my unopened collection: 1981 Topps stickers

A while ago, for my small Mike Schmidt player collection, I bought one silver foil Topps sticker; I think the silver ones were the All-Stars.  That one sticker brought back some memories, and so I added some more Topps stickers to my unopened collection with a box of 1981 Topps Stickers.

Box of 1981 Topps stickers.

Box back, with a message addressed to "Mr. Dealer."

Fortunately such things are plentiful on eBay, and even though they've survived intact for 40 years, only cost a few bucks.  I like that the box has messages addressed to "Mr. Dealer," encouraging the retailer to also stock the albums.

Two unused albums.

Album back.

Speaking of the albums, I picked up two of them, in their original condition.  I'm not sure what I plan to do with all of this.  Part of me wants to open the stickers and see if I get a whole set into the album.  Another part of me wants to leave it all as it is.  So far that second part is winning my internal argument.  But with the albums, I could use one and still have one blank, if I want.  The album back has endorsements from Reggie Jackson, George Brett, and Jim Palmer.  I'll add that I find it odd that Brett has no logo on the front but he does on the back.  Pete Rose has a logo on the front.  Why did they blank out Brett's uniform on the front?

100 packs of stickers.

Upon opening the box, I think that 100 packs of stickers look like a lot of packs of stickers.

Fronts of sticker packs.

Backs of sticker packs.

Here are the fronts and the backs of the packs.  Again, George Brett is logo-less on the front.  And at 15 cents per pack, we're looking at not even 4 cents per sticker.  In current dollars, we're talking about approximately 11 cents per sticker. 

Inside front cover.

My favorite feature of the album is inside the front cover, on the bottom left, there's a space for you to put your own picture.  Your picture would then face the 1980 AL pitching leaders.

Phillies and Pirates.

Each team has a page in the album, and there are some extra pages for league leaders and All-Stars and whatnot.  I like that the Phillies and Pirates ended up next to each other, and that in 1981 they were the two most recent World Series winners.

Inside back cover.

Finally, we end with the back cover, which faced the Giants.  The back cover includes the offer to complete your collection.  You could send a dollar to get 10 stickers of your choice.  So they're getting a premium by charging more than double what the stickers retail for, but you're getting to be definite in terms of which stickers you get.  I remember that anytime I tried one of these albums, I would give up completing it long before I came close enough to consider their completion deal.

Thanks for reading!