Items You Thought Were Cool...That Never Were Popular

[Mario Mendoza...HOF Lock]

What items do you own (or used to own) that you love and think are the coolest thing, but never gained much popularity. For me, I have several.


Baseball Talk(mid/late 80's)-featured oversize Topps cards that you put into a player, and the machine played an interview & game highlights via the needle spinning on the plastic disc on the back of the card (like a record player). They never took off, and I was able to purchase discounted packs at 99 cents from Toys R Us many years ago. I still think they're cool and still play them time to time.

Sports Illustrated Pewter Figures- I just like the looks of the figure and their entire package, including the image of their first SI cover. They had a relatively low production run, and there weren't many of them, but they can still be found at prices below original retail (except maybe the Favre). I picked up a Maris dirt cheap a few years ago and it sits fondly in my sports/TV room.

Anyone have other items (oddball or not) that you think are cool but received "cool" receptions at the retail level?

[Dalkowski110]

1998 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Mini-Bobbleheads. Kept me buying the packs just to get 'em.

[Mike D.]

There were those "Collect-A-Books" from the early 1990's that I liked. I would (and still do) spend hours reading card backs, and these card-sized books were like a card with 6 backs!

[Dalkowski110]

Reminds me...I also like the 1969 and 1970 Topps mini comic books. Great set! Then there were the 1986 Donruss (when they were still sane) foldout promos with the player cutout you can put on a shelf. I have the complete set!

[ipitch]

I liked Perma-Graphic credit cards, Slurpee disks, and 1977 Topps Cloth stickers.

[Stray Cat]

Jose Canseco photo badge from the A's. :laugh

[Rockhound]

Those mini baseball helmets that were filled with ice cream were always a blast. We would go around the park after the game and try to collect as many as possible.

Mike D. is right....the Collect-A-Books were fun to collect. So were the puzzle pieces that came in the packs of baseball cards. I never did complete any of the puzzles.

[nyyfan]

I collect Wheaties boxes with baseball players on the front. I also collect Mcfarlanes (sp?) and now collecting unopened bobble heads.

[dabigyankeeman]

Regular common cards with great action shots on them. Most people nowadays seem to open a pack, keep the inserts and big stars and maybe players on the team they like, then dont care about the rest.

I love cards with great action shots on them. I would rather put a card in my album of a guy who i dont even know rather than a star card if the star card is a plain dull picture and the guy i dont know is a great photograph of him jumping at the outfield wall in front of a multi-colored fence to catch a ball or if it shows him running or sliding into a base with the fielder also in the picture. There have so many great action cards like this over the years, and nobody seems to appreciate them, well i do!