1980's GPK Drama

[Nocturnus]

I was 5 years old when GPK's first hit the streets. My mom was a single mother and had a hell of a time keeping me entertained when we went grocery shopping. GPK were a godsend for her and me. She would buy me a few packs if I was good at the store. I was a perfect angel every time we went shopping. 

The only drama I can remember was when I was in second grade in my new school (we had just moved) I had taken my entire collection to school and placed them in my desk. I guess they were like a security blanket for me at the time. Since I was a new student my teacher allowed me to have them but said that they had to stay in there during class time and could only come out at recess or when I took them home. One day I went out to recess with the other kids and left my cards in my desk. After recess we all came back in and I noticed that a large stack of my cards had gone missing. I have no idea what happened to them. 

[Vroomer]

Drama? I think I've blocked all of that out of my mind. Lost some OS3 and/or OS4 in "bad" trades I am sure. But I forget. Sure I had some go missing at one point, but, alas, I forget. Because eveutally, I stopped taking them to school. Not sure what prompted me. Maybe my mom or my dad. Maybe I learned a hard life lesson at the hands of a thief. Maybe the "BAN" hammer came down and fear of total loss kept my cards at home.

I do have fond memories of going to the Circle K and getting packs. I do remember having enough cash for a box once. I do remember my mom buying me cards. I do remember my mom buying me more than one pack at a time. I do remember the trauma of the price increase from 25 to 35 cents per pack. The SHOCK AND HORROR!!! a whole 10 cents!!!!!

I remember where I was when I saw Optimus Prime die after valiantly defending Autobot City. I remember seeing the GI Joe Aircraft carrier at Children's Palace (not the crappy kids clothing store "place", the toy store that looked like a castle.) and TRU. I remember....


Sorry, got a little off track.

[miscus555]

here's a couple of my GPK stories....

I remember buying my one and only OS1 pack when i was 9 years old. I lived in Long Island, NY. Supposedly they came out in June of 1985 but i feel like it was April because it was chilly and i had a jacket on. The babysitter who watched me and my brother after school would let me out to go play. I never went to play that day and toured the town instead, going to local card shops and 5&10's. I don't know why i bought the pack...i guess i was "testing" them out because pretty much all of us boys hated cabbage patch dolls and there was a big picture of a cabbage patch doll blowing the top of his head off on the box.

I must have not been that interested in them to look to get more in the upcoming months but i always remembered for the most part who I got.

Evil Eddie
Crankie Frankie
Adam Bomb or Blasted Billy
Potty Scotty
Joltin Joel

I also didn't know what to do with them. They were stickers so i peeled them off and put them in my sticker book (everyone had sticker books back then).

4th grade ended and summer came and i didn't see one of my friends with anything that resembled a GPK that summer. I do remember 1985 Topps baseball cards and trying to obtain all of the NY Mets. 5th grade started and about 2 week into school, a bunch of my classmates started to have their little stacks of GPK's.

That's when I first learned about the "twins" cards. The cards seemed popular as everyone was trying to look at everyone's stacks. I also realized that alot of my classmates didn't take the stickers off the card. Some others didn't know what to do as they had them stuck on book covers. Some others actually cut with a scissor around the diecut, eliminating the border completely and had their cards in that form.

My interest peaked but not enough to go out and buy some. Series 2 soon came out and around Christmas, my babysitter bought me a bunch of packs of OS2. So i had a little set and I was now officially looking to get more. Since OS2 was very abundant that next spring, I spent my time getting some packs here and there and eventually finishing my set. I also remember not really liking the character selection of OS2 and that OS1 had much better characters.

Before I could blink, that Spring of 1986, Series 3 appeared and the collecting of GPK's was firmly official.

5th grade was going to be finishing up soon and throughout the early winter and spring, i remember one of my friends Larry, searching for anyone who could help him finish up his Series 1 set. Even back then, that set was scarce for a 5th grader who had limited networking outlets. I remember he was looking for the same 5 cards for months.

Sicky Vicky, Robbie Slobbie, Evil Eddie.....That freaking Evil Eddie, the last one he needed and it took him a long time to get that last one. I always told him I had it but it was in my sticker book!

I thought, if finding those last 4-5 series 1 cards was such a pain for him, what the heck was i going to do to get my series 1 set because this set was rare! I obtained maybe 10 of them during that year, so my set was looking bad. So right before school ended, I asked this red headed girl who sat next to me who i remembered briefly had a couple GPK's that year. She said she'd check at home and the next day she gave me a nice stack of Series 1!! She said she didn't want them anymore. She also had Evil Eddie. I never told my friend Larry that he was asking the wrong people in class those last couple months.

So i was pleased. I took time to finish that series 1 set, way into my adult years. I mean, I did put them away many times when i got interested in other things so there were alot of delays in trying to obtain the final cards.

I collected solidly though Series 9, then got into baseball cards. Figures, Series 10 finally came out with my name and i never knew until I went back to finish the collection.

Starting with Series 5, I stole alot of packs. It was during the beginnings of a long stretch of stealing. I used to stick my hand in the corner of the box and rip out the whole corner of packs and walk out of the store. Same thing with baseball stickers....grab a wad and hit the road.

Funny, I only stole series 5 packs. I guess it was those black packs influencing my bad side.


Oh, one other story....

Me and my best friend could draw really well. We had a publishing company in our grade school where students made their own books. We decided to make a garbage pails kids book. We started in spring of 1986 and kept going all the way until we gradutated in june 1987. We pretty much drew every character from Series 1- Series 6. We also wrote a little summary/description for each character and what they were doing in the photo. This book was huge! when the school year was going to end, we went to get it published. They said it couldn't get published because it was too big and they didn't have a binding large enough to make it a book. They offered us the option to make it into "books". We declined because i guess we had our heart set on having the biggest book ever published. so we took our book, graduated grade school and moved on.

about 3 years later, my friend still had the whole book and he was cleaning his room up and told me if i don't want to take it, he's going to throw it out. I didn't even think for one second and told him "okay". Stupid me and him for just letting it go like that. i didn't even keep my best drawing "dead ted" page. I'm still mad now for making that decision.

[Sobot]

This is the most GANGSTA s**t I have ever read on the UG! It's official GPKUG'ers will kill a motherf****r for some GPK!



Dear Sniglet, I was once shived by a girl half my size for a set of os2. I would like to say you may have my cards, but I still have your knife! Mostly because doctors said if they removed it I would lose use of my legs.

[McSoundwave]

Not so much drama as it is a tale of the "relentless pursuit of GPK". One day when I was a youngster...probably 7-8...I had some friends over at the house and we were running about in the backyard playing when we suddenly decided we desperately needed to go pick up some packs of GPK at a preferred neighborhood corner store/pharmacy. This particular spot was about a mile and a half from where I lived and ALWAYS had GPK in-stock so we were locked and loaded, amped to go. All that was left was to garner my mother's approval and convince her to take us so, at my friends' behest, I rushed into the house to smooth talk her. Sigh. No dice. I sauntered back to my buddies with a grim report. Hopes crushed and mission failed. She said "no" and we were left to wallow in our disappointment.

Or, were we!?! Ever adaptable, we decided to pool our money together...a few bucks...and trek there on our own. Now, you're likely thinking, "1.5 miles ain't far". Well, I lived in a pretty rough area so my mom...a single parent...tended to keep me on a short leash which made this escapade daunting to say the least. After some time, she had a change of heart and decided she'd bring us to the store to get our stickers after all. When she peeked outside to share the news and brighten our day though, we were nowhere in sight...gone! Hip to our duplicity, she got in her car and tracked us down about a quarter mile from our destination. Needless to say she was irate, not to mention frightened because who knows what could have happened to us, and we never got our coveted GPK that day. So close, yet so far away! Had I only respected her initial decision, I would have ultimately gotten what I wanted in the end. Let that be a lesson learned to all you youngsters out there! Shstoops! Now whenever I think about GPK, that's one of the first recollections that dances through my head.

[therage]

Nov 9, 2013 1:13:06 GMT -5 miscus555 said:

here's a couple of my GPK stories....

I remember buying my one and only OS1 pack when i was 9 years old. I lived in Long Island, NY. Supposedly they came out in June of 1985 but i feel like it was April because it was chilly and i had a jacket on. The babysitter who watched me and my brother after school would let me out to go play. I never went to play that day and toured the town instead, going to local card shops and 5&10's. I don't know why i bought the pack...i guess i was "testing" them out because pretty much all of us boys hated cabbage patch dolls and there was a big picture of a cabbage patch doll blowing the top of his head off on the box.

I must have not been that interested in them to look to get more in the upcoming months but i always remembered for the most part who I got.

Evil Eddie
Crankie Frankie
Adam Bomb or Blasted Billy
Potty Scotty
Joltin Joel

I also didn't know what to do with them. They were stickers so i peeled them off and put them in my sticker book (everyone had sticker books back then).

4th grade ended and summer came and i didn't see one of my friends with anything that resembled a GPK that summer. I do remember 1985 Topps baseball cards and trying to obtain all of the NY Mets. 5th grade started and about 2 week into school, a bunch of my classmates started to have their little stacks of GPK's.

That's when I first learned about the "twins" cards. The cards seemed popular as everyone was trying to look at everyone's stacks. I also realized that alot of my classmates didn't take the stickers off the card. Some others didn't know what to do as they had them stuck on book covers. Some others actually cut with a scissor around the diecut, eliminating the border completely and had their cards in that form.

My interest peaked but not enough to go out and buy some. Series 2 soon came out and around Christmas, my babysitter bought me a bunch of packs of OS2. So i had a little set and I was now officially looking to get more. Since OS2 was very abundant that next spring, I spent my time getting some packs here and there and eventually finishing my set. I also remember not really liking the character selection of OS2 and that OS1 had much better characters.

Before I could blink, that Spring of 1986, Series 3 appeared and the collecting of GPK's was firmly official.

5th grade was going to be finishing up soon and throughout the early winter and spring, i remember one of my friends Larry, searching for anyone who could help him finish up his Series 1 set. Even back then, that set was scarce for a 5th grader who had limited networking outlets. I remember he was looking for the same 5 cards for months.

Sicky Vicky, Robbie Slobbie, Evil Eddie.....That freaking Evil Eddie, the last one he needed and it took him a long time to get that last one. I always told him I had it but it was in my sticker book!

I thought, if finding those last 4-5 series 1 cards was such a pain for him, what the heck was i going to do to get my series 1 set because this set was rare! I obtained maybe 10 of them during that year, so my set was looking bad. So right before school ended, I asked this red headed girl who sat next to me who i remembered briefly had a couple GPK's that year. She said she'd check at home and the next day she gave me a nice stack of Series 1!! She said she didn't want them anymore. She also had Evil Eddie. I never told my friend Larry that he was asking the wrong people in class those last couple months.

So i was pleased. I took time to finish that series 1 set, way into my adult years. I mean, I did put them away many times when i got interested in other things so there were alot of delays in trying to obtain the final cards.

I collected solidly though Series 9, then got into baseball cards. Figures, Series 10 finally came out with my name and i never knew until I went back to finish the collection.

Starting with Series 5, I stole alot of packs. It was during the beginnings of a long stretch of stealing. I used to stick my hand in the corner of the box and rip out the whole corner of packs and walk out of the store. Same thing with baseball stickers....grab a wad and hit the road.

Funny, I only stole series 5 packs. I guess it was those black packs influencing my bad side.


Oh, one other story....

Me and my best friend could draw really well. We had a publishing company in our grade school where students made their own books. We decided to make a garbage pails kids book. We started in spring of 1986 and kept going all the way until we gradutated in june 1987. We pretty much drew every character from Series 1- Series 6. We also wrote a little summary/description for each character and what they were doing in the photo. This book was huge! when the school year was going to end, we went to get it published. They said it couldn't get published because it was too big and they didn't have a binding large enough to make it a book. They offered us the option to make it into "books". We declined because i guess we had our heart set on having the biggest book ever published. so we took our book, graduated grade school and moved on.

about 3 years later, my friend still had the whole book and he was cleaning his room up and told me if i don't want to take it, he's going to throw it out. I didn't even think for one second and told him "okay". Stupid me and him for just letting it go like that. i didn't even keep my best drawing "dead ted" page. I'm still mad now for making that decision.

Great stories I remember them well I too am still angry I threw away our book

[digital jedi]

I was really young when OS1 was in stores - not yet 6. When I first caught the GPK bug, OS2 had already been released. A few of the stores my parents took me to still amazingly had OS1. Anyway, most of my first collection was OS2, with maybe half of the OS1 set. A few months later, OS3 came out, and after that, OS4.

Being so young at the time, I was very naive. There were some older kids that lived across the street from me, and I saw them looking at cards one day and asked if they had Garbage Pail Kids. Anyhow, one thing led to another and they asked me if I had any GPK, and if I was interested in trading. They were really "cool" kids - you know, high schoolers with cars and stuff.

They ended up trading me naked lady magazines for all my OS1 cards, and convinced me that OS3 and OS4 were just plain better than OS2 cards because they were newer and that "higher numbers means they are better". I didn't know any better. I left the trade with porn and OS3/OS4, with only OS1 Swell Mel and a small handful of select OS2 remaining.

While I highly enjoyed the porn (where else is a 6 year old going to be able to find pictures of adult naked women?), those kids took advantage of my young age and completely ripped me off. It has never sat well with me, and to this day it still pisses me off. I bought the entire OS1 glossy recently, which helps nullify the sting - but still; I can't believe I looked up to those kids.

[digital jedi]

More 80's GPK Drama. I will never forget this day:

It was a warm spring day at school. I had only recently begun collecting Garbage Pail Kids, and I loved them. They were already a phenomenon at my school, and it was pretty common for us to bring them to class and trade. I brought a small handful of some of my cards to class, including a personal favorite of mine, Tommy Gun.

I had some friends in that class who were into Garbage Pail Kids and we looked at the cards we brought during recess, talking trades and going back and forth over which cards were cooler. One of my friends had a Mixed Up Mitch, and I remember seeing it for the first time and marveling that it was one of the most awesome cards I had ever seen. This kid named Freddie came up and kind of worked himself into the conversation and started admiring our cards. Anyway, after recess ended, we all had to put our Garbage Pail Kids away in our cubby boxes - which were kind of like little lockers with no doors that had our names in them. We kept stuff in there like our lunches, jackets, and stuff we'd bring for show and tell.

When lunch came, I ran to my cubby box to get my lunch and my cards, and met up with my friends. We passed Freddie on the way. When we passed him, he kept his eyes straight ahead and didn't acknowledge us much. No biggie - Freddie wasn't really a good friend of ours anyway, and there was a lot of commotion with all of the kids going to and from their cubby boxes.

I was really hungry, and sat down to eat my peanut butter and honey sandwich. Today was extra cool because my mom packed a bag of Cheetos in my lunch. I didn't get Cheetos that often, so I was looking forward to them. After mowing through my sandwich, I popped open that glorious bag of Cheetos. The skies were bright and blue, with white swirls of clouds. Birds were chirping, ants were marching, bees were buzzing, and I had my Cheetos in one hand, and my Garbage Pail Kids in the other. Could life get any better? Looking back, I don't think life could get much better.

I popped a Cheeto into my mouth and crunched away happily as I looked through my cards, admiring their art for the 157-millionth time. I thought about Mixed Up Mitch; what other kinds of Garbage Pail Kids could there be that I hadn't seen yet? My mind raced with possibilities, and I was fully consumed by Garbage Pail Kids and Cheetos. My friends sat by me, and their talking just faded to background noise as I looked at Cracked Jack, Charred Chad, and Oliver Twisted. Something was off though - where was Tommy Gun? Tommy Gun was one of my newest cards, and my current favorite at the time. I sorted through my cards again, but he wasn't there. My heart stopped in my chest. I must have left Tommy in my cubby box.

I ran back inside and made a hard turn towards the cubby boxes. One of my teachers, Ms. Donna, told me not to run. I slowed down just enough to shut her up, and zoomed in towards my cubby box. I looked inside, and it was empty. Tommy Gun was not there. My heart started racing, and I got light headed. I panicked. What was I going to do? I lost Tommy Gun? Where did Tommy Gun go? How could this happen? Did life even matter anymore? My eyes glazed over. I marched outside, fuming mad. I scanned all around. There was Noel, playing with her stupid friends. There was Jimmy and Hector, playing with bugs like always. There was Megan, she sure was pretty, but she didn't know anything about Garbage Pail Kids, let alone my Tommy Gun! There was Freddie talking to some dumb kid. There was David and Mark, playing tag with some other kids. Everywhere I looked, there was no answer for me: where was my Tommy Gun?

I went over to my friends and told them the news. One of them said he thought he saw Freddie with a card just a few minutes ago. Freddie? With a Garbage Pail Kid? Where did he get a Garbage Pail Kid? My head instantly veered to the side and I shot a laser beam over at Freddie. He was talking to some dumb kid, and they were looking at something. What was it? It was a card! Was it my Tommy Gun? It had to be! It was all over for Freddie, and he didn't even know it yet.

I ran over towards Freddie and yelled, "Lemme' see that Garbage Pail Kid, Freddie!!" He didn't want to show me. I grabbed his arm and he showed me the card. It was a Tommy Gun. "That's my !#^!@#^% card Freddie!! Gimme' my $#!%$#@$# Tommy Gun!!" Freddie said it wasn't mine. All I could see was a tunnel from me to the card, and everything else was red. Freddie knew that I knew he stole my card. He said he was going to play in the sandbox - bad move, Freddie, bad move.

I ran after Freddie, towards the sandbox. Ms. Donna called me over and said that I really needed to stop running and that she needed to talk to me about that. I couldn't even think. I nodded to her as she lectured me, and I glanced over at Freddie climbing the jungle gym in the sandbox - I was gonna catch that punk slippin'. "Ok, Jason?" .. "Jason?" .. "Jason, do you hear me?" .. I snapped out of it for second and nodded. Finally, Ms. Donna was done. I walked over to the sandbox and climbed in.

Freddie was still up on the jungle gym, climbing around and playing - being a dumbass like usual. I climbed underneath the jungle gym, sat in its shade, and waited, like a predator stalking his prey. Like a lion stalking an antelope. I glanced up and could see Freddie through the holes in the grating of the jungle gym. I saw him walking around, with his stupid ass black t-shirt. I waited. I saw Freddie talking to some other kids, kinda just blabbering about dumb stuff like most little kids. I waited. A cool breeze swam under the jungle gym and a calm rushed over me as I knew what was coming; Freddie didn't, but I did.

That's when it happened. Freddie began to climb down the jungle gym. I waited, like a tiger, crouched and ready to pounce. I saw his feet begin their descent, and all I could envision was my awesome Tommy Gun card. One by one, his feet came further down the ladder. Freddie's left foot, planted on one of the bars just above the ground. And his right foot came down to meet the ground just in front of me. Now was the time to strike.

I lunged forward and grabbed Freddie's foot an instant before it hit the ground. I had caught Freddie by complete surprise and he let out a yelp of shock and fear. I stood up and yanked him off the ladder of the jungle gym and dragged him back underneath it. Freddie turned upwards and I started punching him and cussing up a storm. Sand was flying everythwere and getting in his eyes. Freddie started crying. "Give me my Tommy Gun, Freddie!!!" He had no response, and just wailed louder. I took a handful of sand and shoved it in Freddie's mouth. He started coughing and I just kept dumping sand in his face and mouth. It wasn't enough. He stole my Tommy Gun. I managed to flip him over and pushed his head face first into the sand as he kicked and screamed.

Somewhere, someone must have told on me, because the next thing I remember was Ms. Donna in the sandbox blowing a whistle and prying me off of Freddie. When she finally separated us, I shot Freddie a look and he started crying again. Ms. Donna asked us what was going on and I told her that Freddie stole my Garbage Pail Kid. She asked Freddie if that was true, and he said no. She asked him to empty his pockets. First some gum, then a nickel, and then, my precious Tommy Gun Garbage Pail Kid. Freddie looked at me and then confessed that he had stolen it.

I was sent home early that day, and my school ended up putting a policy in place shortly after that no Garbage Pail Kids were allowed. It didn't do much good though, because no one could separate us from our Garbage Pail Kids; we just got better at keeping them out of view. I was grounded for a week and had to do chores. At school I had to sit out recesses for a week too. None of it mattered - I got my Tommy Gun back, and that little s**t Freddie got what was coming to him.

To this day, I guarantee you Freddie remembers stealing my Tommy Gun Garbage Pail Kid. I know I sure do. I'm still mad about it. DON'T f**k WITH MY TOMMY GUN, FREDDIE.

[GRANT_ant]

Jun 23, 2014 19:26:49 GMT -5 digital jedi said:

More 80's GPK Drama. I will never forget this day:

It was a warm spring day at school. I had only recently begun collecting Garbage Pail Kids, and I loved them. They were already a phenomenon at my school, and it was pretty common for us to bring them to class and trade. I brought a small handful of some of my cards to class, including a personal favorite of mine, Tommy Gun.

I had some friends in that class who were into Garbage Pail Kids and we looked at the cards we brought during recess, talking trades and going back and forth over which cards were cooler. One of my friends had a Mixed Up Mitch, and I remember seeing it for the first time and marveling that it was one of the most awesome cards I had ever seen. This kid named Freddie came up and kind of worked himself into the conversation and started admiring our cards. Anyway, after recess ended, we all had to put our Garbage Pail Kids away in our cubby boxes - which were kind of like little lockers with no doors that had our names in them. We kept stuff in there like our lunches, jackets, and stuff we'd bring for show and tell.

When lunch came, I ran to my cubby box to get my lunch and my cards, and met up with my friends. We passed Freddie on the way. When we passed him, he kept his eyes straight ahead and didn't acknowledge us much. No biggie - Freddie wasn't really a good friend of ours anyway, and there was a lot of commotion with all of the kids going to and from their cubby boxes.

I was really hungry, and sat down to eat my peanut butter and honey sandwich. Today was extra cool because my mom packed a bag of Cheetos in my lunch. I didn't get Cheetos that often, so I was looking forward to them. After mowing through my sandwich, I popped open that glorious bag of Cheetos. The skies were bright and blue, with white swirls of clouds. Birds were chirping, ants were marching, bees were buzzing, and I had my Cheetos in one hand, and my Garbage Pail Kids in the other. Could life get any better? Looking back, I don't think life could get much better.

I popped a Cheeto into my mouth and crunched away happily as I looked through my cards, admiring their art for the 157-millionth time. I thought about Mixed Up Mitch; what other kinds of Garbage Pail Kids could there be that I hadn't seen yet? My mind raced with possibilities, and I was fully consumed by Garbage Pail Kids and Cheetos. My friends sat by me, and their talking just faded to background noise as I looked at Cracked Jack, Charred Chad, and Oliver Twisted. Something was off though - where was Tommy Gun? Tommy Gun was one of my newest cards, and my current favorite at the time. I sorted through my cards again, but he wasn't there. My heart stopped in my chest. I must have left Tommy in my cubby box.

I ran back inside and made a hard turn towards the cubby boxes. One of my teachers, Ms. Donna, told me not to run. I slowed down just enough to shut her up, and zoomed in towards my cubby box. I looked inside, and it was empty. Tommy Gun was not there. My heart started racing, and I got light headed. I panicked. What was I going to do? I lost Tommy Gun? Where did Tommy Gun go? How could this happen? Did life even matter anymore? My eyes glazed over. I marched outside, fuming mad. I scanned all around. There was Noel, playing with her stupid friends. There was Jimmy and Hector, playing with bugs like always. There was Megan, she sure was pretty, but she didn't know anything about Garbage Pail Kids, let alone my Tommy Gun! There was Freddie talking to some dumb kid. There was David and Mark, playing tag with some other kids. Everywhere I looked, there was no answer for me: where was my Tommy Gun?

I went over to my friends and told them the news. One of them said he thought he saw Freddie with a card just a few minutes ago. Freddie? With a Garbage Pail Kid? Where did he get a Garbage Pail Kid? My head instantly veered to the side and I shot a laser beam over at Freddie. He was talking to some dumb kid, and they were looking at something. What was it? It was a card! Was it my Tommy Gun? It had to be! It was all over for Freddie, and he didn't even know it yet.

I ran over towards Freddie and yelled, "Lemme' see that Garbage Pail Kid, Freddie!!" He didn't want to show me. I grabbed his arm and he showed me the card. It was a Tommy Gun. "That's my !#^!@#^% card Freddie!! Gimme' my $#!%$#@$# Tommy Gun!!" Freddie said it wasn't mine. All I could see was a tunnel from me to the card, and everything else was red. Freddie knew that I knew he stole my card. He said he was going to play in the sandbox - bad move, Freddie, bad move.

I ran after Freddie, towards the sandbox. Ms. Donna called me over and said that I really needed to stop running and that she needed to talk to me about that. I couldn't even think. I nodded to her as she lectured me, and I glanced over at Freddie climbing the jungle gym in the sandbox - I was gonna catch that punk slippin'. "Ok, Jason?" .. "Jason?" .. "Jason, do you hear me?" .. I snapped out of it for second and nodded. Finally, Ms. Donna was done. I walked over to the sandbox and climbed in.

Freddie was still up on the jungle gym, climbing around and playing - being a dumbass like usual. I climbed underneath the jungle gym, sat in its shade, and waited, like a predator stalking his prey. Like a lion stalking an antelope. I glanced up and could see Freddie through the holes in the grating of the jungle gym. I saw him walking around, with his stupid ass black t-shirt. I waited. I saw Freddie talking to some other kids, kinda just blabbering about dumb stuff like most little kids. I waited. A cool breeze swam under the jungle gym and a calm rushed over me as I knew what was coming; Freddie didn't, but I did.

That's when it happened. Freddie began to climb down the jungle gym. I waited, like a tiger, crouched and ready to pounce. I saw his feet begin their descent, and all I could envision was my awesome Tommy Gun card. One by one, his feet came further down the ladder. Freddie's left foot, planted on one of the bars just above the ground. And his right foot came down to meet the ground just in front of me. Now was the time to strike.

I lunged forward and grabbed Freddie's foot an instant before it hit the ground. I had caught Freddie by complete surprise and he let out a yelp of shock and fear. I stood up and yanked him off the ladder of the jungle gym and dragged him back underneath it. Freddie turned upwards and I started punching him and cussing up a storm. Sand was flying everythwere and getting in his eyes. Freddie started crying. "Give me my Tommy Gun, Freddie!!!" He had no response, and just wailed louder. I took a handful of sand and shoved it in Freddie's mouth. He started coughing and I just kept dumping sand in his face and mouth. It wasn't enough. He stole my Tommy Gun. I managed to flip him over and pushed his head face first into the sand as he kicked and screamed.

Somewhere, someone must have told on me, because the next thing I remember was Ms. Donna in the sandbox blowing a whistle and prying me off of Freddie. When she finally separated us, I shot Freddie a look and he started crying again. Ms. Donna asked us what was going on and I told her that Freddie stole my Garbage Pail Kid. She asked Freddie if that was true, and he said no. She asked him to empty his pockets. First some gum, then a nickel, and then, my precious Tommy Gun Garbage Pail Kid. Freddie looked at me and then confessed that he had stolen it.

I was sent home early that day, and my school ended up putting a policy in place shortly after that no Garbage Pail Kids were allowed. It didn't do much good though, because no one could separate us from our Garbage Pail Kids; we just got better at keeping them out of view. I was grounded for a week and had to do chores. At school I had to sit out recesses for a week too. None of it mattered - I got my Tommy Gun back, and that little s**t Freddie got what was coming to him.

To this day, I guarantee you Freddie remembers stealing my Tommy Gun Garbage Pail Kid. I know I sure do. I'm still mad about it. DON'T f**k WITH MY TOMMY GUN, FREDDIE.

That.... was an EPIC story! I wish more members would post these kind of posts more often. You were lucky Ms. Donna didn't take your Tommy gun because she might of deemed it as a distraction! Did you ever look Freddie up and remind him of this?

[DJR]

It was 1985, another memorable warm Spring day in Ms. Doke's 4th grade class. She was a total bitch but I was a s**t disturber so HA! Before school, after school, during lunch and breaks, I purchased and traded duplicates to build as many OS1 sets as possible. Every day, after school and weekends, with limited success, I would beg my parents to drive around with me to check all the 7-11, Thrifty, gas stations, and any other stores that could possibly have 1st Series packs/boxes. 1st Series by now were hot, in the news and adults wanted them too. Teachers and parents were talking about not knowing how the handle the phenomenon. Back to the classroom story...I could have cared less what my 4th grade teacher was talking about sitting at my desk but I was minding my own business. Other kids in the class were playing with GPKs. She looked up and called my name. With an incredulous O face, I sarcastically mumbled WHAT!?! She told me to hand over my GPKs. I politely told her my cards were not out during class, I was not playing with them and might not even have any cards. This is where things got interesting. Ms. Doke asked for the cards again. I repeated, my cards were not out, you did not see me playing with them during class so why don't you just get back to teaching. She was the volatile type, became incensed (likely being old and not getting any at home) demanded ALL of my cards again. I could have handed them over but would have likely never seen them again or would have to wait until the end of the school year. Knowing she tossed all the cards together in the locked file cabinet, I was not willing to take the risk of losing my GPKs. I stated for for the 3rd and final time, I never play with cards during class and have absolutely nothing to hand over. I lied and told her that no cards were in my desk and the only way for her to find out would be ''illegal search and seizure''. I was promptly told to go to the office and see the principal. I repeated my story to him, he agreed the teacher was out of line and my cards were not confiscated. The principal asked me, 'man to man', if I would not play with cards in her class even during breaks but during lunch or on the playground before or after school on campus was ok. I stood up, firmly shook his hand in agreement, asked if it was OK to resume my studies and go back to class now? He chuckled and told me that was a good idea. I never had to give up my GPK cards!

[happyjack777]

 Well I went into business for myself with all collectors card when I was about 6. So everyday I would show up at Sundance elem. school walk out to the play ground and plop down on a small berm that separated 2 play grounds. Now that I think of it at age 36 I must have looked like a corner store drug dealer. One at a time kids would come and go with GPK's and baseball cards. Sometimes I would trade but mostly I would sell, and it was exact change only! The cards were only .25 cents a pack but I lived 10 miles from where I went to school. So in my neighborhood I had that market cornered and at school I was trying to get the entire turf. So for the next few years I was making about 40 bucks a week from both of my sales areas. Now remember back when the schools crunched down on these and if you were caught they ran you up a flag pole and made an example of you. I kept records of sales, purchases, and trades. Well one day my competition at school approached me to buy some specific cards, so I pulled out my notebook/ledger and began to see if I could make some extra money. Suddenly I was rushed by the Principal Mr. Gillet, and dragged to his office. Do they call my mom? Hell no, that bastard called my DAD! So the old man came to the school and I was read the riot act about selling contraband on school property. Honestly I think the guy was pissed that I was raking in money on his campus and it was a good some for a kid in the 80's. Lets face it a paper boy didn't make crap and I was also a collector.

    Fast foreword............................................. September 2014.

Ring, Ring, Ring.... "Hello, oh hey dad what's happening? Nothing much here either Ya I can come out tomorrow, OK see you then"

    The next day I motor the 45 miles out to my parents house. I walked in and there on the table was 2 shoe boxes. I was taken back to that day the principals office, the ride home, and ride my ass took from my dads belt for breaking the rules at school and for lying to him that I had thrown them out, and didn't. I walked over and took the lid off the first box, and there they were just like they were placed in the 28 years prior. Staring me in the face with his mushroom cloud was Atom Bomb, Max Axe, Alien Ian, and the entire family from card 1a-----------------620b !  After I left I went to the local big box retailer and bought some sleeves. I spent all night with my coffee table covered in memories putting them in order. My wife gave me so much grief that night about the 2 boxes of "Junk" I brought home. All of them are just as if they came out of the pack and placed in the sleeve. I even had a wax package of each series in the 2nd shoe box.

    So now I am trying to figure out how to sell them. I had a guy at a collectible toy store offer me 50 bucks for the entire binder, but I knew they had to be worth more than that. Then I was reading about selling the collection, and saw that I needed to have them graded. So I contacted a card grading company and to have 620 cards times 2 equals 1240 cards, it would be over 6,000 dollars to have them all graded! So what should I do guys please HELP!

JT

[Cory]

Jan 11, 2015 20:36:05 GMT -5 happyjack777 said:

 Well I went into business for myself with all collectors card when I was about 6. So everyday I would show up at Sundance elem. school walk out to the play ground and plop down on a small berm that separated 2 play grounds. Now that I think of it at age 36 I must have looked like a corner store drug dealer. One at a time kids would come and go with GPK's and baseball cards. Sometimes I would trade but mostly I would sell, and it was exact change only! The cards were only .25 cents a pack but I lived 10 miles from where I went to school. So in my neighborhood I had that market cornered and at school I was trying to get the entire turf. So for the next few years I was making about 40 bucks a week from both of my sales areas. Now remember back when the schools crunched down on these and if you were caught they ran you up a flag pole and made an example of you. I kept records of sales, purchases, and trades. Well one day my competition at school approached me to buy some specific cards, so I pulled out my notebook/ledger and began to see if I could make some extra money. Suddenly I was rushed by the Principal Mr. Gillet, and dragged to his office. Do they call my mom? Hell no, that bastard called my DAD! So the old man came to the school and I was read the riot act about selling contraband on school property. Honestly I think the guy was pissed that I was raking in money on his campus and it was a good some for a kid in the 80's. Lets face it a paper boy didn't make crap and I was also a collector.

    Fast foreword............................................. September 2014.

Ring, Ring, Ring.... "Hello, oh hey dad what's happening? Nothing much here either Ya I can come out tomorrow, OK see you then"

    The next day I motor the 45 miles out to my parents house. I walked in and there on the table was 2 shoe boxes. I was taken back to that day the principals office, the ride home, and ride my ass took from my dads belt for breaking the rules at school and for lying to him that I had thrown them out, and didn't. I walked over and took the lid off the first box, and there they were just like they were placed in the 28 years prior. Staring me in the face with his mushroom cloud was Atom Bomb, Max Axe, Alien Ian, and the entire family from card 1a-----------------620b !  After I left I went to the local big box retailer and bought some sleeves. I spent all night with my coffee table covered in memories putting them in order. My wife gave me so much grief that night about the 2 boxes of "Junk" I brought home. All of them are just as if they came out of the pack and placed in the sleeve. I even had a wax package of each series in the 2nd shoe box.

    So now I am trying to figure out how to sell them. I had a guy at a collectible toy store offer me 50 bucks for the entire binder, but I knew they had to be worth more than that. Then I was reading about selling the collection, and saw that I needed to have them graded. So I contacted a card grading company and to have 620 cards times 2 equals 1240 cards, it would be over 6,000 dollars to have them all graded! So what should I do guys please HELP!

JT

I wouldn't waste the money grading OS2-OS15. Only send the OS1 that have a high probability of getting 10's. Centering was terrible in OS1. There are some guys on there that are really into the grading scene. Maybe they'll see this post and respond.

[Dirty dog]

Pretty much agree with Cory. I would grade your OS1 potential 10's and if you get 9's, they will still bring decent money over your grading fees.

Certain cards in OS2 will bring good money if you can pull 10's as well so don't overlook your OS2. Schizo Fran and Fran Fran amongst others. OS2 prices are hit or miss right now as most of the active set builders are close to completing their sets so depending if they need the card or not will affect the price. That could change as new set builders enter the scene but for now, I've pretty much just seen the same few people building OS2.

Are any of your OS2's from the matte back Tessie run? If you have any nice examples of matte backs, they would be worth grading as well IMO.

OS3 and up are not worth it if you are just looking to sell. OS3 might be worth it some day and I've seen some cards go for $200 but OS3 has really cooled.

[happyjack777]

Thanks for the reply's guys, really! But who should I look into about grading my cards?
Also can you guys that read this point me in the direction of where to look up the rare cards that the hardcore collector is looking for please.
The old lady will slice my throat, But I was at Target the other day and swung by the card section. There they were again, so I picked up a few boxes of chrome, man the price has gone up from $.25 a pack the 2 boxes ran 40.00 with tax, but they sure look cool!
JT

[80sdood]

This pain in the a$$ kid in my 4th grade class was a know thief to us kids at the time. I had brought a decent size box of my GPK's to school that day for some trades. After school was over that day I was waiting outside for my dad to pick me up. The "thief" lol came over to talk to me he wanted to see what I had to trade. We I showed him against my instincts we sat down and was looking through them. He was very good at stealing, another kid came over and was talking to me so I got distracted. After the other kid left we continued looking through my cards. I noticed that some I had earlier that day was not there anymore! Then I knew he had struck, he was setting Indian style so, I shoved him over on his side and there they were under him. I grabbed them up and said a few choice words to him and got in my dads truck crisis was adverted that afternoon.

But the next year he struck again with some of my beloved G.I. Joe's and this time I wasn't as lucky.  

[Cory]

Sept 4, 2015 5:43:37 GMT -5 80sdood said:

This pain in the a$$ kid in my 4th grade class was a know thief to us kids at the time. I had brought a decent size box of my GPK's to school that day for some trades. After school was over that day I was waiting outside for my dad to pick me up. The "thief" lol came over to talk to me he wanted to see what I had to trade. We I showed him against my instincts we sat down and was looking through them. He was very good at stealing, another kid came over and was talking to me so I got distracted. After the other kid left we continued looking through my cards. I noticed that some I had earlier that day was not there anymore! Then I knew he had struck, he was setting Indian style so, I shoved him over on his side and there they were under him. I grabbed them up and said a few choice words to him and got in my dads truck crisis was adverted that afternoon.

But the next year he struck again with some of my beloved G.I. Joe's and this time I wasn't as lucky.  

Great story!

[pewipo123]

Jan 28, 2009 15:22:35 GMT -5 rusVan said:

Jan 28, 2009 11:58:43 GMT -5 goober said:

As a kid my dad would not let me have gpk's,and one day after coming back from the 7-11 store with some gpk's in my hand I saw my dad walking down the street coming home from work, so i hurried up and hid the cards! Well like in the cartoons I remember him picking me up and shaking me upside down an all my cards came spilling out (and o fcourse he ganked 'em an threw 'em away) I remember it so vividly to this day, I never had the chance to collect gpk's like most kids since I was not allowed and I think its part of the reason why I love them so much now!!

All but about a hundred of my childhood gPK cards are buried in an Atlanta landfill. My mom threw them out when I left for college. She always hated them, mostly because of OS2, believe it or not. Hot Scott threw her into a rage and she took that one card from me, the only one she actually took away. What sucks is I had aquired it through trade!

So along in the late 90's she threw them out in a real garbage pail. hundreds and hundreds! The only reason I still have about a 100 of those original ones is they were mixed up in my sportscard shoeboxes.

But really, my cards as a kid were in vg condition at best so I wouldn't have them anyway!

Do you remember when you saw your first OS1 on the street(not in a card shop)! Ashcan andy was the first I ran across in a friends hand and it was in p-g condition at best. But back then it didn't really matter! In fact it was kinda punk to write on the backs of them(names and stuff), it was kinda rare to find an unmarked card. The first OS2 card I saw was Dead Fred, which was the first GPK card I saw. That one card is what got me buying packs, then os3 JUST came out and a few OS2 packs could be found in stores. I NEVER found a 57 single as a kid, which always disturbed me and helped to bring me back into GPK later. Now I own close to 60 57a/bs. I love singles.

Im in atlanta..lets go find em

[banded]

this thread took me almost 30 yeras back remembering one of the most sad moments of my childhood that apparently I tried to forget...

it was 1989. the third Israeli series was allready running. I didnt have much money to buy any GPK's and my parents havent actully condone me collecting GPK. the first series album I had got lost one day at school a year before, I didnt have the second album and the third allready cost money and wasnet given away for free so I wasnt able to buy it.
a friend of mine who saw how much I loved GPK actually gave me his first series album which was full and in great shape. it was like god or something heard my prayers... I was so happy.
my mom gave birth to my baby sister a year before and we shared a room togther. those years I was a messy kid and my things were all over the place and I guess that album I got from my friend also found its way to floor or something.
I got back from school one day and found my sister on the crawling on the floor like any normal baby would but I was terrified to see bits and pieces of the album, torn pages, eaten pages and generally ruined album that was a source to my joy.
I was so sad by that and of course couldnt be mad at my baby sister so I think I just gave up on the GPK that day.
it took me all these years to remember this incident and understand as I understood through out my entire life: bad things happen. you can either suffer from them and let yourself be sad endlessly or you can accept them and move on. these days I choose the latter.

[GPKsetbuilder]

I don't know why I only had enough room in my life for one hobby at a time. I collected GPK from about Series 4-10. I collected other stuff afterwards and missed out on series 11-15. The price never went up. I don't know why I didn't stick with it.  I could have had another good year of GPK memories for series 11-15.  At least I'm collecting now I guess.

[80sgarbagepailkid]

It appears a reply to this thread is 2 years to late, but here's my 1980's GPK drama:

My best friend and I were hanging out at his house back in 3rd Grade (approx 1987). He was my best friend and we typically got along great, but he was kind of an a$$ sometimes. Overall he was a nice guy and we're still friends and hang out to this day (our young boys are on a soccer team together right now even), but he was competitive at everything he did, and I guess was just the "alpha" of our relationship, if there was one... makes sense because he was 1 year older than me.

Anyway, we were playing in his room that day doing whatever it was that we were doing and we must have been starting to fight about something, or we were slowing getting mad at each other for whatever reason. We started arguing more and more. Eventually, I took one of his GPKs that he had on top of his dresser (I'll never forget, it was a Santa Claus one - Chris Mess), and I crushed it in my hand. That turned our argument into a slug fest.

So we started fighting and hitting each other. The funny thing was we weren't full on punching, but we were swinging at each other with the sides of our fists. This was because tetherball (if anyone remembers that) was HUGE on our playground and we were trying to hit each other like we would try to hit the tetherball. It was just our natural swing at that point.

Eventually, his Mom came in and separated us. We were crying and I felt like I lost my best friend. Fast forward 10 minutes and his Mom gave us a snack and we talked and started looking at his fish tank and everything was back to normal. But me crushing his GPK (because he was being an a$$) started the only real fight we ever had.

[Jimbo]

Feb 24, 2020 12:50:16 GMT -5 80sgarbagepailkid said:

It appears a reply to this thread is 2 years to late, but here's my 1980's GPK drama:

My best friend and I were hanging out at his house back in 3rd Grade (approx 1987). He was my best friend and we typically got along great, but he was kind of an a$$ sometimes. Overall he was a nice guy and we're still friends and hang out to this day (our young boys are on a soccer team together right now even), but he was competitive at everything he did, and I guess was just the "alpha" of our relationship, if there was one... makes sense because he was 1 year older than me.

Anyway, we were playing in his room that day doing whatever it was that we were doing and we must have been starting to fight about something, or we were slowing getting mad at each other for whatever reason. We started arguing more and more. Eventually, I took one of his GPKs that he had on top of his dresser (I'll never forget, it was a Santa Claus one - Chris Mess), and I crushed it in my hand. That turned our argument into a slug fest.

So we started fighting and hitting each other. The funny thing was we weren't full on punching, but we were swinging at each other with the sides of our fists. This was because tetherball (if anyone remembers that) was HUGE on our playground and we were trying to hit each other like we would try to hit the tetherball. It was just our natural swing at that point.

Eventually, his Mom came in and separated us. We were crying and I felt like I lost my best friend. Fast forward 10 minutes and his Mom gave us a snack and we talked and started looking at his fish tank and everything was back to normal. But me crushing his GPK (because he was being an a$$) started the only real fight we ever had.

I love reading these GPK drama stories. Good stuff.

[Cory]

Feb 24, 2020 12:50:16 GMT -5 80sgarbagepailkid said:

It appears a reply to this thread is 2 years to late, but here's my 1980's GPK drama:

My best friend and I were hanging out at his house back in 3rd Grade (approx 1987). He was my best friend and we typically got along great, but he was kind of an a$$ sometimes. Overall he was a nice guy and we're still friends and hang out to this day (our young boys are on a soccer team together right now even), but he was competitive at everything he did, and I guess was just the "alpha" of our relationship, if there was one... makes sense because he was 1 year older than me.

Anyway, we were playing in his room that day doing whatever it was that we were doing and we must have been starting to fight about something, or we were slowing getting mad at each other for whatever reason. We started arguing more and more. Eventually, I took one of his GPKs that he had on top of his dresser (I'll never forget, it was a Santa Claus one - Chris Mess), and I crushed it in my hand. That turned our argument into a slug fest.

So we started fighting and hitting each other. The funny thing was we weren't full on punching, but we were swinging at each other with the sides of our fists. This was because tetherball (if anyone remembers that) was HUGE on our playground and we were trying to hit each other like we would try to hit the tetherball. It was just our natural swing at that point.

Eventually, his Mom came in and separated us. We were crying and I felt like I lost my best friend. Fast forward 10 minutes and his Mom gave us a snack and we talked and started looking at his fish tank and everything was back to normal. But me crushing his GPK (because he was being an a$$) started the only real fight we ever had.

Haha, I’d have fought you too. You can desecrate a Chris Mess or even the lesser Sandy Clod like that

[bezoot]

Apart from teachers confiscating cards from time to time, after school one time a guy I knew said can I look at your cards, he suddenly disappeared and got into his mothers car and went home (learnt this after the fact) I think I got my cards back though