Number one...
They are the only reason I attended 3rd through 5th grade! I was only there to trade Wacky's! :-) I did very well and put together almost all of sets 1 - 8. In just the last few years I have finished them all off via ebay. AND - Much to the chagrin of my wife, last year Wacky's made a come back and are releasing all new series of stickers! Great stuff!

Number two...
When I uncovered all my old baseball cards from the early 70's I thought I had struck gold! I told my wife we could pay off the house, this was back in the 90's when the sports card craze was really hot. I took great care to load all the ones that had not made it into my bike spokes into plastic sleeves. I held onto them thinking that we could really make a killing in a few years.

Then in 1999 I started collecting casino chips. I fell in love and decided I would sell of some of the baseball cards to finance my newest destructive hobby! I took all my baseball card gems to a local sports card show to "cash in". I was told by several dealers there that they would not buy them because they were not graded. I was talking to one guy who was telling me "send this one in, don't send this one" etc. I asked him why some and not others, and he told me that they will grade this one as a 92 and it will be worth it, and this one as a 75 so it's not worth it to send it in. I asked him, "why don't you buy them off of me and send them in yourself, I'll take off the $20 it may cost to have them graded." He said no because "if it gets graded lower, I will be screwed". I told him "these guys have the whole hobby in the palm of their hands! Nobody can make a move without them giving their blessing". I had one dealer tell me "send these cards into (GSA or something) because they are easier graders." They will give higher numbers to these certain cards. I said well if everybody knows that they grade easier, aren’t they worth less then the other company who would grade the same card with a high grade? He said, yes, but it’s better than a low grade from this other tough grading company. I told them they were all insane. So I took them all home and still have them sitting in my basement.

And that brings me to the Wacky Package connection. I found the Wacky’s at the same time I found the baseball cards. I looked at all the Wacky’s remembering trading during recess at school; asking my dad for 27¢ which would get me 5 packs at the neighborhood pharmacy. I put them aside not thinking they were worth anything. As it turns out, it was much easier to buy and sell the Wacky’s because the grading companies had not interfered! I was able to sell a few of my doubles and collect the holes in my sets via ebay without any trouble. It was as simple as describing the condition of the sticker and showing a picture.

Here’s one of my all time favorites “Hostile” brand - “Thinkies”! :-)

Todd Barrett
Elgin, IL
#5068-91