Ok, I give in! What are Wacky Packages?

[clemso]

The first time I stumbled upon the word 'wacky package' was on a OA collectors web site. Now there even seems to be an OA market for this. But! What is a Wacky Package? Clem..

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wacky-Packages-Original-Art-1st-SERIES-HOSTAGE_W0QQitemZ290197803984QQihZ019QQcategoryZ60240QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[armydoc]

Trading cards from the 70's I believe. I remember stumbling upon a detailed historic post about them previously. A lot of big money collectors love the art.

[mister_not_so_nice]

WACKY PACKAGES are collector cards/stickers. As you can tell by the art they were parodies of products. I remember these fondly.

 

From what I hear, one of the collectors of these is the guy who keeps getting confused for Julia Roberts brother.

[Hepcat]

Wacky Packages are easily the most collected series of bubble gum cards from the seventies when they outsold baseball cards for a few years. They're very cool, though somewhat after my time.

 

http://www.wackypackages.org/

[MutantKeys]

WACKY PACKAGES are collector cards/stickers. As you can tell by the art they were parodies of products. I remember these fondly.

 

From what I hear, one of the collectors of these is the guy who keeps getting confused for Julia Roberts brother.

 

http://www.triksr4kids.com/?id=home

[Transplant]

Wow. I had completely forgotten about these. I loved these as a kid. Damn you. Now I want some.

[armydoc]

Wow. I had completely forgotten about these. I loved these as a kid. Damn you. Now I want some.

 

Good luck (seriously). These things go for crazy money and once they end up in a collection, they tend to never resurface. That Roberts guy is fanatical about them and's rich.

[spider9698]

There are a few VERY passionate collectors out there with several having insanely deep pockets. The Capt Crud (Captain Crunch) cereal box original art went for over 35K a year or so ago. I heard reports that Gadzooks (Bazooka) sold for 50K.

The art is by Norm Saunders and traditionally quite small 5x7inches.

I would to love to own some but have ZERO chance of getting one through public auction.

 

 

[spider9698]

Here is a great article:

 

 

 

link

 

[armydoc]

It's worth it to register on Robert's site. Link was listed by Danny, but here it is again. His collection's insane.

 

http://www.triksr4kids.com/?id=home

[armydoc]

Here is a great article:

 

 

 

link

 

Thanks Spider, that was the article I'd read about these when I first heard about Wacky Packages. It's a great history lesson. I vaguely remember them as a kid, but they were a little ahead of my time. It's crazy how some things beome so desirable in this hobby. You just never know. I've noticed that the OA for the Hollywood Zombies cards has sold for good money through the TOPPS vault (probably speculation due to the current value of the WP stuff).

[Hepcat]

I actually prefer the Leaf Foney Ad cards from 1962 which presaged the Wacky Paks by most of a decade. For whatever reason, the Foney Ad cards are not nearly as popular and a NM set can be had for just over $200.

 

http://www.lostwackys.com/odd-stuff/foney.htm

 

Cool, eh?

[Bronty]

Those are pretty cool. Didn't know there was a precursor. How big was the set? Probably not as collectible just because not as many people know about them I would guess.

[Hepcat]

There are 72 cards in the Foney Ad set. The back is also particularly cool with Funnies being related by a cigar smoking bum called Mr. Foney. I can't find a pic of the reverse though.

 

The Foney Ads are not as pricey because they're less scarce. There was a high destruction factor for the Wacky Pak cards beause they were, after all, stickers. Not surprisingly, kids did precisely that. I also suspect that there have been vending box warehouse finds of the Foney Ad cards (as opposed to unopened box finds since the wrappers are rather scarce).

 

(thumbs u

[Bronty]

cool, thanks for the info

[dem1138]

Here is a great article:

 

 

 

link

 

Thanks for posting this article, Stephen!

 

I can't believe how comparable that article is to many sentiments about comic book OA - you basically could replace Wacky Packs with OA and it would read the same (save for the limited number of pieces). But the same competition and questions of "where is all of the art?!?" mimic comic book OA exactly as well as the hope for future appreciation by a larger audience. And it's amazing how ONE collector can come in and literally change an entire market. It's also interesting to see how a recession shook out lesser pieces but that the "A" art was still gold. I think this will hold true for OA in the coming months/year.

 

 

[Transplant]

Wow. I had completely forgotten about these. I loved these as a kid. Damn you. Now I want some.

 

Good luck (seriously). These things go for crazy money and once they end up in a collection, they tend to never resurface. That Roberts guy is fanatical about them and's rich.

Let me clarify. I can tell I won't be getting the art. Anything I have to compete with Eric Roberts for is beyond me. I like the cards and remember them from my childhood.

[Hepcat]

cool, thanks for the info

 

There's also a Canadian variant called Mr. Baloney's Ads that were issued by Goodies at roughly the same time. The Baloney Ad cards had orange as opposed to red backs and were the size of Parkies/Zip cards. The cards had the same subjects and style but were redrawn by a different artist. The Mr. Baloney's set could therefore have been a ripoff of the Leaf Foney Ad set as opposed to a licensing of the set.

 

[Sharkey]

Wacky Packs were the hottest thing going when I was a kid in the late 60s/early 70s -- I was born in 1964, so I probably remember the series when I would have been 6 or 7 years old. They were VERY popular among kids, and we frequently traded them amongst ourselves. There were of course a bunch in each series that were darned near impossible to get. I loved the things. I didn't love them to the extent that I'd collect the art for tens of thousands of dollars, but they are awesome parodies and now is the perfect time for the demographic that grew up with them to look back with maximum pocket book nostalgia.

 

Great stuff, thanks for posting about these gems! (thumbs u

 

 

 

 

[Hepcat]

The Ratz Crackers sticker may be the most coveted Wacky Pak card of them all. That's because the killjoys at Nabisco threatened Topps with a lawsuit over the card so Topps pulled it from the set. Well the verdict of history is in now - and the joke is still on Nabisco.