Today I’d like to go back to 1985 when Garbage Pail Kids stepped onto the scene with Series 1 of their first trading cards. Going back to the 80s, I had no idea that Topps owned the GPK franchise all the way back then. Just think, on the Baseball side of operations, Mark McGuire was in that USA uniform for his rookie card is so iconic of a card. But that same year, Adam Bomb was making just as much noise… Or wait… Were GPK hot right out the gate? Yes… Hot is an understatement as liquor stores and gas stations and toy stores couldn’t keep them in stock. I mean… how do you pass this wax pack up if you were a kid in the 80s?
The artwork was immaculate. A little kid pushing a button to a bomb and his head is exploding… Adam Bomb and Blasted Billy were officially on the scene and check this out… We all know the first series of Garbage Pail Kids dropped in 1985 but were you aware that GPK were so hot in these streets that they dropped 9 series in the first 24 months of their launch… How wild is that? Kids needed these cards in their lives. The Mad magazine was always cool and so were nudie mags your homie might have came up on, but early GPK were a straight flex… Me and my bro were getting packs of sports cards… packs of Wrestling Cards… Oh wait… DId you realize that 1985 was also the year that Topps dropped their WWF Wrestling Cards? Was 1985 one of the most important years of trading cards history? Those ‘85 Topps Football Cards were dope too with that fly Warren Moon rookie card… yall know about Warren Moon though right?
Yall hip to Nasty Nick? Yup… I feel people thing Adam Bomb was the first card of the debut 1985 series but it was actually Nasty Nick… Guess how much a PSA 10 of Nasty Nick is going for on eBay right now… nah, really… play the game… how much you think Nasty Nick gem mint is going for? $32,500… yup… go look for yourself… only 19 PSA 10s in existence so if you’re looking to invest, back the Brinks truck up homie…
How about Dead Ted? Or what about that junkfood baby with the worst teeth ever… what was that kid’s name? Junkfood John… Crushing candy and he is a baby… To a 5 year old kid like myself, I saw this card and it made me laugh… it made me truly enjoy great artwork. The font of the Garbage Pail Kids logo was so good the way it was dripping… Thw name plate was always so simple… That artwork though? Next level… In 1985, you could get a pack of GPK cards for 25 cents… For perspective, Tootsie Roll Pops were 15 cents so you could either get 2 of those or snag a pack of Garbage Pail Kids. If you were at the video arcade, it was $0.25 to play a game… If you needed your parents to come swoop you at the mall, that was $0.20 - $0.25. So yeah… GPK Series 1 was one of your best bang for the bucks in a game… These and the 80s wrestling cards… Legendary stuff right here yall…
Slobby Robby and Fat Matt are legends in their own right… you got one of these at least right? No? Nooooo??? Wait… everybody doesn’t have Fat Matt in the stash? These are tangible assets kid… don’t overthink it… GPK will not be going down in value anytime soon… No way Jose… Fat Matt PSA 10 can be yours for 2 g’s right now on eBay… Whoa…
Why am I sitting here staring at this Graffiti Petey and trying to talk myself into the fact that this is a rare gem to have in my collection… But it is really $1400 for a PSA 10? Guess I’ll just be happy with my raw cards which hold so many core memories for me… Cmon tho… Graffiti Petey??? Just take a look at this artwork…
Whenever I show some GPK Series 1 on my socials, I get great engagement… People still get a kick out of them… Kids do too… But because these were sticker cards, a lot of peeps using these to put stickers on their school folder… I’m guilty of it too… I wanted people at school to see that I was down with the Garbage Pail Kids. That was straight street cred in Kindergarten where I was just trying to find my footing on the playground… People see my notebook and it’s filled with GPK stickers? I’m stamped at that point… Nobody is messing with me. So why don’t you get totally thrown off when you look at these cards on eBay… you are honestly going to flip… Str8 bangers on this one.
Tell me this isn’t better than any Picasso art purists call a masterpiece… I’m siding with Garbage Pail Kids all day. John Pound is the artist who did all of the artwork for Series 1 and while every series after that has brought fire, that season 1 splash was something… Kids going crazy over these cards where we laughed at things that weren’t cool at home. These cards took us to a place in our minds that made us happy… they still make some of us happy… that is art.