Finding myself with a day off from work, it’s a winter wonderland outside, and I’m watching my two nutty kids, so it seems like a good day to chill out and do some nostalgic upkeep on some of my collections. One of my prized collections are the complete Garbage Pail Kids, series one through ten. I’ve written about my love of these gross and silly Topps sticker cards before, in particular how I totally lucked into a set of series one cards as a gift from a co-worker, and they’re one of the few treasures that I have that I try and pull out on a pretty consistent basis to just flip though and bliss out. I’ve had these ten sets stored in protective card pages in one of those modern Trapper Keeper binders, the ones that Mead has been issuing as Wal-Mart exclusives each fall. I made the decision to switch from basic binders for cards to these newer Trapper Keepers as soon as they started hitting store shelves, but to be honest, I really don’t love the modern trapper keepers. For all intents and purposes, these new binders are generally the same as the originals, but all the little details are off enough they don’t feel right. The plastic is too slippery, the interior rings are metal, the designs are boring, and the flaps seal with either buttons or magnets, and I’m just kind of over them.
But, as I’ve also written about recently I’ve started collecting a bunch of vintage Mead binders, in particular the Data Center collection which are almost exactly like the OG Trapper Keepers, just branded a bit differently. The collection I adore is called Rad Dog, and they’re all extreme sports related in theme. Think skateboarding, surfing, and BMX, with graphics that are very in line with the late 80s, early 90s clothing fashions as design inspiration. I fact, as much as I love Trapper Keepers, the Rad Dog binders have way cooler graphics.
Since I’ve managed to collect quite a number of these binders, I thought it was finally time to start adding a bit of functionality to my collecting by using these to house all of the loose leaf ephemera and trading cards that I’ve amassed over the last 25 years. My intention is to put up a small bookshelf underneath the window next to my home office desk and line it with all of my Rad Dog binders full of trading cards and stickers. So, this morning I dug through my closet to find my stash of vintage binders and I picked out three of my favorites to house my collection of Garbage Pail Kids stickers.
The idea is to not over-stuff these binders, so I figured putting three sets per binder should do the trick. This would also sort of work in terms of the eras of the Garbage Pail Kids releases, as the first three are the ones I have the most nostalgia for and are mainly illustrated by John Pound. I chose one of my absolute favorite Rad Dog binders for this first volley, a neon green, hot pink and yellow design featuring a zany electrified skater.
Series four was a bit of a departure by adding more artists and triplets cards, and my original collecting took me up through series six, so it feels right to have these three together. For this second binder I had to go with the sister binder to the first one which is electric blue yellow and hot pink and features a bunch of BMX dudes that kind of look like mummies. This is a very special binder too as the original owner plastered the inside covers with a ton of cool stickers including puffy Ninja Turtles, Rescue Rangers, Alf, prismatic monsters, Roger Rabbit, Muppet Babies, Batman and the Simpsons characters.
Unfortunately, for now I’m going to have to squeeze series seven through ten into a single binder as I don’t have quite enough vintage binders to just house a single set of cards. Maybe some day I’ll be able to acquire series eleven and twelve, but at the prices these later sets fetch these days, it’s not going to be anytime soon. I was extra happy to break in this binder though, as it’s one of the few that I’ve found that were never used back in the day and it still had the original Mead label stuck to the back.
All in all it feels really good to double up on the vintage so that there are two collections in one, and also to have them out and on display so that I don’t feel like everything is just stuck in boxes in the closet. I’m hoping to transfer all of my trading card sets to vintage binders before the year is out. This will also make it easier to reference all of the old card designs at my fingertips for inspiration when I design digital trading cards; something that I’ve been meaning to dive back into.
