Jason from the
Writer's Journey sent me an awesome trade package that really indulged my love of oddballs. Its amazing how many different non-baseball-card companies are represented here.
This actually was from a baseball card company, the legendary TCMA. He sent me most of the cards in the 1984 Midland Cubs set. A lot of minor league card sets had a card for the groundskeeper. Judging by the condition of the field in this and many other cards in this set, I don't think Midland even had a groundskeeper.
Ames was a department store that got very big in the 1980s before some bad acquisitions led to a swift decline in the '90s. The
Ames Fan Club Forum is a surprisingly interesting internet forum where Ames and other defunct retail chains are discussed by people passionate about the subject. There are people who collect old shopping carts the way we do baseball cards.
Hostess is a brand of baked goods dating back to the 1930s that is struggling to survive some recent bankruptcies.
Kahn's Hot Dogs have been around since 1883 and are still going strong. They have done ballpark card sets for several teams including the Reds and the Mets. I got Kahn's cards at a game in Shea Stadium back in 1989. Kent Tekulve in a Reds' uniform is a rare find.
Some of the cards even had a coupon on the back! This will be useful when (not if) I time travel.
The first Kmart store opened in 1962, the same year as the first Target store and the first Wal-Mart store. All three are still around but Kmart is nowhere near as big as the other two.
A more recent stadium-giveaway set was sponsored by Thompson Pluming Heating Cooling. This appears to be a local Cincinnati plumbing outfit that now goes by "333 HELP".
Stadium giveaway cards sure have come a long way. Some of them had foil backgrounds to celebrate award winners, like Scott Rolen's gold glove.
I had no idea there were shopping cart collectors...now I kind of want to be one. I loved Ames. They always had great stuff, and they were the only place in the US that carried Majorette diecast cars. I have lots of great memories from our two local Ames. Kmart too, but it's been pretty well destroyed by poorly thought out redesigns. Last year I found some cards from 1990-91 still on the shelves. Unfortunately I already had them.
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