I’m always on the lookout for a few 80s era collectibles that I deem as essential pick-ups if I can find them for the right price. This is stuff that I actually use either because I think it’s awesome and fun, or because I legitimately prefer it to any contemporary versions or counterparts. I’m thinking of stuff like vintage Pentel Quicker Clicker mechanical pencils that I use for my illustration work, lunchboxes that I use as storage for the random small piles of junk that I tend to accumulate, and Mead Trapper Keepers to store trading cards and ephemera. This pickups are as much about the usefulness of the objects as much as it is about their collectable nature. If I run across a Trapper Keeper for under $20 that sports a design I either had as a kid or think is pretty cool, I’ll pick it up to replaces some of the boring modern binders I’m currently using. So I’m always on the lookout on eBay or when I’m strolling through antique stores.
Well, about a year and a half ago I made an amazing discovery while trying to broaden my search for these elusive binders. The problem with Trapper Keepers is that they’ve very popular, and even though Mead is currently producing a new crop of semi-vintage-style binders lately, these really only act as a reminder for nostalgia nerds like myself to hunt down the originals. So prices tend to be pretty high on anything vintage that sports the name Trapper Keeper, usually ranging in the $75 to $150 range. For me, that’s kind of insane and an example of sellers inflating the value of these old school supplies almost tenfold. I mean, let’s be real here. These are binders, not toys. Sure, some of them sport some pretty fun artwork, but most are a bit more than “gently used” after surviving the beating a year or two of being slammed into lockers, shoved in book bags, or thrown across classrooms. I have to assume dropping a Franklin on a binder has to come with some serious buyer’s remorse. Like 20 minutes after you open that box and have had time to test out the sound of the Velcro or whether or not the plastic ring mechanism still works properly, you have to be asking yourself, “Now what in the hell do I do with this?”
So frugality is the name of the game in my estimation, even for something that I do in fact end up using as it was basically intended. So after hitting a brick wall in terms of finding affordable Trapper Keepers I started taking a deeper dive into Mead products of the 70s, 80s, and 90s to see if I was leaving some other search terms out that might help me find some cheaper vintage binders. While reading an article from a newspaper detailing the launch of the Trapper Keepers the reporter mentioned that the previous line of similar Mead binders were called “Data Centers”. I never had a Data Center growing up, but apparently this sub line of binders was introduced in the mid to late 70s and was carried all the way through the 90s. The main difference, style-wise, was the data centers either lacked a closing flap, or if there was a flap it didn’t have a fastening mechanism, be it Velcro or a snap button. But they featured the same sort of off the wall artwork and basic design, so I started doing eBay searches on Mead Data Centers. About 50 or so auctions into my initial search and I stumbled upon a sub-brand of the Data Centers that I had never seen before, but took my breath away.
Called Mead Rad Dog Data Centers, the line of school supplies was released in 1989 and almost exclusively featured design and artwork in the genre of extreme sports like Skateboarding, Surfing, and BMX Biking. “Holy Shit.” was all I could think and say as I fell down the rabbit hole of the Rad Dog binders. Not only was the artwork on these as radical as advertised, these also had the exact same design as Trapper Keepers, only with funkier, angular closing flaps. Even better is that most of the auctions I was stumbling across were capital “C” cheap. Like $10 to $20. I might be getting a little loose with the hyperbole here, but it was like finding a storage locked full of gold for $100 at a non-payment consignment auction. I mean I love a good Trapper Keeper with an F-14 Tomcat or a Lamborghini on the cover, but if I had to choose between those and one featuring the pattern of an zebra striped BMXer in a hot pink and electric blue color scheme, I’m picking the biker ever single time.
I mean, how much do the semantics matter in a find like this? Okay, it doesn’t say Trapper Keeper, but it’s still from the Mead brand and they are funky and just plain badass. Between September and December of 2021 I managed to pick up six of these for less than the price that one Trapper Keeper tend to fetch. In addition to the binders there were also 3-prong paper folders, chunky ball point pens and canvas pencil cases that were like fanny packs meant to strap onto the binders. To say that I fell hard for this niche of vintage school supplies is putting it mildly. I’m sharing photos of the first two I picked up in this piece and as my collection grows I’ll probably share more later.
