1991 Starline Hollywood Walk of Fame

 

We are looking at a pack of 1991 Starline Hollywood Walk of Fame cards. The wrapper is foil and features the word "HOLLYWOOD" in a "Broadway" style font at the top. This is touted as the "Premier Set" and as the "Official Hollywood Walk of Fame" trading cards. The center of the pack has a sample star with yellow floodlights in the background. Each pack contains 12 cards and the "Starline" insignia is displayed centered at the bottom.

The set contains 250 total base cards, including checklists. In addition to the base cards, there were seven promo cards which had the word "PROMO" across the back of the card. There were several errors produced in th emaking of the set which were corrected or removed (See checklist link below).

The fronts of the cards feature a colored gradient (different cards have different colors used for this) serving as the border. The word "HOLLYWOOD" in the same Broadway font as the pack sits large and centered at the top. The majority of the card features an image of the star being portrayed. At the bottom, the left corner shows the "Walk of Fame" logo and the person's name is centered in yellow text on a light purple background. Next to this, at the lower right, is the "Starline" logo.

The first three cards show Connie Stevens, Danny Thomas, and Gale Storm:

The first three cards above all have orange/yellow gradient, however the Mike Douglas card below uses yellow/blue/green. I don't know if the colors are significant or just what Starline used at their whim. We also have Jan Murray:

Seeing a young Betty White (and in this photo, she is not THAT young) brought a smile to my face. One of the greats. We also have Jose Feliciano and Julie Andrews. I know these are the "Walk of Fame" stars, but having all of them in a collection like this back in the 90's is a huge journey into the land of nostalgia:

Speaking of nostaliga, we have Jane Russell, Michael Jackson, and Liberace. I can't imagine what the licensing costs were for this set:

As we finish out the pack with Anthony Quinn, we also see the back of the card for Gale Storm. The backs feature a small inset photo of the featured star on the top left. Next to this, the name, "occupation," and biographical information. The center of the back of the card is filled with "Career Highlights." At the bottom, a Trivia Quiz question is asked with instructions on where to find the answer on another card. The card's number and the word "HOLLYWOOD" in a different font from the front appears in a banner near the bottom. Below this, the answer to a trivia question from another card is revealed. The very bottom of the card contains copyright information. 

As mentioned above, there were several errors during production. These consisted of name misspellings and/or card numbering issues. Corrections were made after cards were recalled, though I suspect copies of the errors made it into the wild. 

A complete checklist (including errors and corrections) appears here: https://www.nslists.com/hollywlk.htm

1987 Zoot U.S. of Alf Stickers Series 1

 

In this post, we're showcasing a pack of 1987 Zoot U.S. of Alf Stickers. The wrapper is a paper/wax combo whose seal let loose many year ago. The wrapper features ALF in the lower left corner telling us to "Collect all 50 states!" This is the 1st Series, though it appears there were no subsequent versions. The wrapper also shows the Zoot branding at the top and the middle is dominated by a rough liine art outline of the United States filled in blue with a thin black border and a soft white glow.  Each pack has 5 stickers. Theoretically, one could complete the set with just 11 packs (including the title card).

There were 50 stickers (one for each state) plus a Title Card in the set.

The first three stickers include Washington, Nevada, and Florida. Each sticker is full color with the state's name at the top in various fonts and colors. The stickers each highlight something about the represented state as ALF has a witty/sarcastic phrase to go along with the image shown. In some cases, the state's shape is shown, but not all stickers have the actual state outline. 

Some of the stickers show off the state's "claim to fame," as shown in the South Carolina sticker:

Still, other stickers provide tourist attraction suggestions, like the one from Virginia:

The backs of the stickers show the sticker's number in the upper right corner along with the "Bend & Peel" instructions for folks who aren't sure how stickers work. The artwork mimics that of the wrapper, though the U.S. is filled in red instead of blue. A list of state facts about the featured state displays the Capital, motto, attractions, and other information. The left side of the card is dominated by ALF. 

For a complete checklist, visit: https://www.nslists.com/alfus.htm

1981 Amurol Chu-Bops Album

 

You are looking at a "pack" of 1981 Amurol Chu-Bops. Each album measures 3" x 3" and is a miniature replica of actual album covers. The one above is Pat Travers Band "Crash and Burn." The original release featured Volume 1 and Volume 2 sets consisting of 16 different albums. Each of these packs had a bubble gum "record" inside as well as lyrics to the featured song.

The back of each pack features the Chu-Bops logo with the "card" number displayed at the top between the "P" and the "S." Ingredients and other information was included on the back as well, however, not e the lack of copyright dates. The series ran from 1981-1983 and featured a huge variety of artists.

Once you removed the cello wrapper, the pack unfolded to reveal an offer for a folding album cover binder and the lyrics to the featured song. As mentioned, inside the album, a round bubble gum record. Unfortunately, the one from my pack did not stand the test of time.

You can see the record has grooves and a spindle hole. Very cool novelty back in the day.

When I bought mine from eBay, the seller included several empty albums as well. 

These are readily available on places like eBay, though unopened packs and full display boxes fetch a pretty penny. Special edition sets included multi-album compilations of Elvis, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.

There are two websites worth mentioning here:

Chu-Bops "Official" Website - https://www.chubops.com/

Jeff's House of Checklists - https://www.nslists.com/chubops.htm

As a GenXer, I remember these being a thing, but I do not specifically remember collecting these or even actually seeing them in the store. Like much of the 80s, we just seemed to have "known stuff" without knowing HOW we knew stuff.

2019 Topps Clear Travel

Today's pack was originally intended to be passed out at participating ballparks and airports to using the Clear Travel service.  That's not how I acquired it though.  I purchased a bunch of these at a local flea market last month and noticed nobody had reviewed it yet.

Inside of the clear cellophane package you'll find six cards.  The top card is a player:

On the back, there's an advertisement card for Clear, which is a membership program at airports that allow people to get through security faster:

If you're wondering if these cards are the same as the ones pulled from 2019 Topps flagship packs... the short answer is no.  But let's use this pack to point out the differences...

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-4

Based on the packs that I've opened so far, the card fronts look almost identical to the ones issued in the flagship packs. 

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-59

However if you look closely at the Topps logo, it's printed in white.  The logo on the flagship cards are printed in silver foil.

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-34

The easiest way to differentiate these cards from the ones in the flagship base set is to flip them over.  There's a CP- prefix in front of the card number.

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-26

And if you look closely, you might notice that these cards lack the CMP code under the stats that the flagship cards have.

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-10

Other than those three things, I didn't spot any other differences.  All five player cards utilized the same photo Topps used in the flagship set.  That being said... there's always a chance that one of the other ninety-five cards in the set has a different photo.

The final card in the pack is the Clear ad card:

For those who are curious... I had two packs with Freeman on the front and wanted to know if players were inserted into packs randomly or if there was a pattern.  Both Freeman packs contained the exact same cards.

However it should be noted that I opened up two packs that featured Trea Turner on the front and the results were different.  The first two cards in both packs featured Turner and Justin Verlander... while the final three cards were different.

If you're interested in checking out the entire 100 card checklist, click here.  Based on my brief research on this set, these cards seem to be in much smaller supply compared to the flagship set.  But considering the state of our hobby, that's not too surprising.  But I am curious if any of you have been able to track down any of these cards for your own collection.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

2024 Topps Heritage

 

I get the feeling people are waiting for me to post a pack of 2024 Heritage here, so I've got a quick opening.

This is actually a hanger pack that I received from Torren' Up Cards. He said in the accompanying note that sending unopened packs in the mail was underrated. We shall see, I guess.

 

Let's get started.

 

276 - Corbin Burnes, Brewers

383 - Christian Walker, Diamondbacks

402 - Zach Remillard, White Sox

331 - Gerrit Cole, Yankees

Those who read my blog know I pulled these exact cards in probably the same order from the hobby box I bought. I still have no idea who Zach Remillard is (he's spent most of the season in the minors). Also, to those new to 2024 Heritage, the All-Star cards in this set do not have yellow and red borders.

387 - Osleivis Basabe, Blue Jays

236 - Clarke Schmidt, Yankees

299 - Bryce Miller, Mariners

224 - Korey Lee, White Sox

That's a youthful crew. Nobody here has come close to hitting age 30. Also, the Basabe card was incorrectly labeled a Blue Jays card. Basabe has only played for the Rays.

485 - Tyler Rogers, Giants

446 - CJ Abrams, Nationals

127 - Marcus Semien, Rangers

158 - Joey Estes, Athletics

After pulling 11 straight dupes, I finally landed a card I don't have in Joey Estes, who has two whole major league games to his credit.

 

 

215 - Vidal Brujan, Rays

245 - Bryan Woo, Mariners

494 - Forrest Wall, Braves, white border parallel

352 - Triston Casas, Red Sox

Now we're cooking. The first three here are new to me. I found a white border in each of the hanger packs I opened, I don't know if that's a regular thing with these.

82 - Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers

337 - Declan Cronin, White Sox

273 - Oswald Peraza, Yankees

294 - Miguel Amaya, Cubs

Back to more dupes. And guys with limited major league experience. At least Eovaldi has been around for a good while. Also, the Eovaldi card is the only card numbered below 100 to not be a short-print. So no SPs were pulled in this pack.

That will do it. I don't blame you if you don't know who anybody is here.

2007 Topps Series 1 Hobby

Here's a pack I picked up for a buck at a recent card show. You don't see a lot of Topps flagship packs this old in the wild anymore, so I had to do it.

194 - Edwin Encarnacion - Here's the familiar '07 design with the black borders. It's tough to find these cards in perfect shape.

122 - Luke Scott - Here's a wide shot of an Astros player from their NL era.

33 - Ervin Santana - Born Johan Santana, Ervin may not have been as famous as the guy he formerly shared a name with, but he had a nice long career of his own that included a couple of All-Star appearances and a no-hitter. 

219 - Chris Gomez - It's all oranges and reds so far.

304 - Kenny Rogers Award Winner - I recently watched the Reno 911! episode with Kenny Rogers (the late singer and occasional actor) and it was pretty hilarious.

164 - Zach Duke Gold 1331/2007 - Hey, it's former Cardinal Zach Duke!

310 - Jonathan Papelbon Red Back - For a couple of years, the Topps flagship set had parallels that were a bit more subtle than what you see today. Instead of white lettering, you get red on these.

74 - Jose Valverde Red Back - I don't recall these being so easy to come by. Two in a pack of ten cards?

158 - Noah Lowry - He was definitely a pitcher.

273 - Miguel Montero - Here's a look at the old Rookie Card logo.