1981 Topps Stickers

Stickers seem to be popular on this blog, so I'll contribute a pack of my own. I'm not sure where I got this pack, I think it may have been a throw in from an eBay auction. While I have a few of these stickers floating around my collection this is the first '81 sticker pack I've opened. The first sticker set I remember collecting was the '86 set with Pete Rose on the album cover.

The wrapper is actually more intriguing to me than the stickers inside. Fifteen cents netted 4 album stickers back in 1981. A nameless airbrushed Kansas City Royal is taking a mighty swing. The patriotic Red, White and Blue BASEBALL logo on the front is underscored Made in Italy. The back of the pack has alternating advertisements for the sticker album, one of which features a kid who is way too happy about these stickers. Whatever glue once held the pack together has long since given way to the ravages of time and the stickers literally fall out the bottom.

254 Mike Schmidt foil All Star
213 Bill Madlock
116 Tony Armas
46 Carlton Fisk
Spectacular pack. A foil sticker of the greatest third baseman of all time turns any pack into a winner. Bill Madlock is another solid player at the hot corner and makes a lasting contribution to mathematical theory on this sticker. Huge Fro + Flat Top Pirates cap = Abe Lincoln stovepipe hat. Hail to the Chief. Tony Armas was a good outfielder in his day, but unfortunately whenever I see his name now, I subconciously add "Junior" and "disabled list" to it. To cap things off, I pull another of my favorite players with the last sticker. Carlton's 81 Topps All Star card is a classic and now I have the sticker counterpart.

You can't ask for much more than two Hall of Famers in a four sticker pack. Now I just need to go find an album to put these in.