That's a Wrap (per) 1981

There it is. That unopened pack of cards.Just lying there on the car seat or maybe tucked away in a pocket.You know there could be an incredible game -used or autographed card inside . You hear it calling ! Can you wait until you get home ? Maybe , maybe not. When you have an unopened pack of cards do you just want to rip it open any way you can to see what kind of treasures are inside ? Sure , we all want to know what's inside , but I always try to be as careful as I can to only break open the seams without tearing the wrapper itself. The reason being that I also have a wrapper collection. To me the wrappers represent a kind of history of their own. They show the changes in materials , the changes of the advertising styles and sometimes the changes in pricing. Some of the older wrappers are also very collectible and bring good prices on the auction web sites.A lot of old cards got saved but not many wrappers.

I store my wrappers in regular binders using various sizes and configurations of pages.

The oldest wrappers I have are from 1981 so I'll start there.

1981 Fleer Baseball - Premier Edition

Wax pack with 17 cards plus a stick of gum.

The year Fleer came back to baseball with a 660 card set.

Unlike traditional collectors, I fold the wrappers so they are about their original size.

Purists unfold them completely and lay them out flat,but that takes too much room for me.

This wrapper offers a 3" photo button of your favorite star for only $1.00 and that includes s&h !

1981 Topps Baseball Scratch-Off

Wax Pack with 18 cards and 1 stick of gum.

The cards came in panels of three with perforations for separation.

There were 3 sheets for the American League and 3 for the National.

144 different panel combinations were possible for the 108 different player cards.

The back of the wrapper advertises Bazooka Bubble Gum, the " juicest and bubbleblowingest around".

The top card has the instructions for playing a baseball game by scratching off the circles on the front one at a time. The circles reveal a single, double, triple, home run, ground out, strike out or fly out. The middle card has a score card section to keep track of your runs.The bottom card is reserved for more offers to get the rest of your money. In this case, a vinyl sports card locker to store 1350 cards. Only $5.75 +$.75 handling.

1981 Topps Giant Photo Cards

A wax pack conceals 1 - 5x7 glossy, color photo card.

10 different teams were represented with a total of 102 cards.

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Red Sox

Angels

Reds

Astros

Dodgers

Mets

Yankees

Phillies

Rangers

White Sox

The back of the wrapper has offers to purchase team sets @ 5.00 per set.

The card backs are pretty straight forward with player name, team name, position and team checklist at the bottom.