To be honest I don't recall actually purchasing any specific baseball cards from Kmart, but I must have. I do know that I never actually purchased any of the Kmart boxed sets from Kmart, but I've been very familiar with the various sets for a long time.
Scott, from the blog Sports Cards Ate My Brain, recently sent me a care package with a bunch of great cards, one of which was this 1990 Kmart Super Stars Mark McGwire card. Not only was this card the last card I needed to finish off the 1990 set, but it was the last card I needed to complete the 5 Kmart sets (1982, 1987 - 1990). Huge thank you to Scott for this and the other cards you sent, which will be shared in future posts.
Let's take a look at the 5 sets.
1982 Kmart 20th Anniversary - Kmart paired up with Topps to produce this 44 card set paying tribute to the American and National League Most Valuable Players for each year; 1962 - 1981, which coincides with the 20th Anniversary of the Kmart store. Each card would feature a Topps card of the play who won the MVP award from the year that they won the award. The problem would be that there was one player who didn't have a Topps card for the year they won the award. The second card in the set commemorates Maury Wills winning the 1962 National League MVP award. Maury Wills would not have a Topps card until 1967 due to Topps not initially thinking Wills had a shot at the big leagues and then Wills signing an exclusive deal with Fleer. Topps would also create a 1975 Topps card for Fred Lynn since his 1975 Topps rookie card features 3 additional players. There were 3 MVPs in 1979 and Topps included 3 additional highlight cards for Don Drysdale, Hank Aaron and Pete Rose to finish off the 44 card set.
1987 Kmart 25th Anniversary - Topps and Kmart would not pair up again until 1987. This time to commemorate Kmart's 25th anniversary. This 33 card set is titled, Stars of the Decades and features cards of stars from the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's.
1988 Kmart Memorable Moments - This 33 card set features players with memorable moments from the eighties and the cards are numbered alphabetically by last name.
How many of you have one or more of these Kmart sets in your collection? Which one is your favorite? What memories do you have from Kmart?
I never realized K-Mart only had 5 sets - I could have sworn they had more. I'm not far off from completing the 1988 set, but the 1982 and 1987 are easily my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI'm 90% sure I have the 1982 set sitting in a box somewhere. I definitely have singles from a few of these sets sitting in player binders. Growing up I dreaded going to Kmart, because kids would tease other kids who shopped there. My dad and I still joke about that to this day, because I told him he'd be wasting his money if he bought me shoes there or at Payless Shoe Source. Luckily... my mom was the one actually in charge of buying me clothes and she was much more understanding of my need for name brand clothing.
ReplyDeleteBy the way... I realize that I kind of sound like a snob. I was that way as a kid, but these days I'm happy with my flip flops and Old Navy cargo shorts. :)
DeleteI was the same way about clothes when I was a kid.
DeleteI have a couple of the Kmart sets in my collection, but I did not get them as a child but in recent years as an adult. I enjoyed going to Kmart and going to their card section. If I am not mistaken, I got my first pack of Sportflics as a child at the local Kmart.
ReplyDeleteI have one or two of those Kmart sets complete, I'm not sure which ones right now.
ReplyDeleteThe one I SHOULD have complete is the '82 set. Not only is it the most available set of all-time but it was a major deal when it was issued. My brother worked at Kmart at the time (he can tell you lots of stories) and that set was unlike anything we had ever seen before. I've mentioned it on my blog before but I need to do a whole post about it.