Are you tired of hearing about the latest Panini vs. Fanatics drama?
Do exclusive league licenses have you down?
Have you grown sick of paying inflated prices for new wax, only to get substandard quality cards, poor customer service, and cards worth a fraction of your purchase cost?
Well then, I’ve got some great news for you. There are over 100 years of sports and entertainment cards which you can collect which aren’t impacted by those things in the slightest!
I have found that when I get frustrated by current products and hobby drama, focusing my hobby efforts on a player collection, a vintage set build, or learning about a random odd ball set brings back some of the enjoyment I might have lost.
Today I want to highlight several of my favorite Canadian food issue wrestling sets. Each of them have features which buck “hobby norms” and provide a unique product that could bring back the enjoyment that comes from discovering a new hobby focus!
1987 Stuart Cakes
The Stuart Foods set is a 16 card release from the Canadian snack cake maker. The cards are larger than a traditional card and measure approximately 3.5” x 5”. Upon release they included a cut off promotional tab on the bottom. Often you will find these with the coupon already cut off which results in collectors going after these sets both with and without “tabs”.
The cards are actually made on a something more like a thick magazine paper stock and feel more like a mini-poster than a traditional cardboard card. This can create a bit of a challenge to store and display them, but fortunately we have some options. I use 4 pocket binder pages which work pretty well, especially for the versions with the tabs removed.
These are also extremely hard to find. There are typically only a couple available for sale on eBay at any given time, but from time to time you can find a full set for sale. I had been slowly piecing the set together one at a time, but a couple months ago a couple full sets became available and I was able to two sets, one with and without tabs.
The checklist is pretty stacked with the likes of Hogan, Macho Man, Jake the Snake and the Honky Tonk Man.
1988 and 1989 Quaker Dipps
In 1988 and 1989 Quaker included three wrestling cards on the boxes of their Quaker Dipps granola bars. An 18 card checklist made up each year’s set and was full of the biggest names of the day. However, The Ultimate Warrior was probably the most notable name. His 1988 card was one of the first cards he had.
With these cards being on the back of food packaging, and many of the cards being hand cut, not too many copies of these cards survived. Like the Stuart cards, these non-standard sized cards are pretty tough to find.
I’ve got an uncut set of 1988s and a cut set of 89s. I’m still trying to find a British Bulldogs card so I can also have a cut set of the 1988s.
1988 Hostess Wrestling
There were 35 stickers that made up the 1988 version of the Canadian Hostess Wrestling set. These stickers came in a cellophane wrapper inside bags of chips. They are tiny little things that measure about 1.5”x2”.
With 35 stickers, this is the largest checklist of the four releases, and it provides an opportunity to collect a wide variety of both individual and tag team characters. However, there were several individuals who got multiple stickers. Hulk Hogan, Miss Elizabeth, Macho Man, and Strike Force all received a second sticker.
1991 Swanson
This 12 card set which was distributed in Canada as two card packs in Swanson TV Dinners.
The checklist is small, but it truly has some legends. Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Million Dollar Man, Macho Man, and the Rockers are a few of my favorites. These cards are pretty affordable compared to the Stuart or Dipps cards, and with the black borders, they can be harder to find in great condition.
If you prefer “standard sized” cards, then this is the one set of the four I highlighted that will perfectly fit in traditional top loaders or binder pages.
This just scratches the surface of the collecting options for oddball food issue wrestling cards. If anything about these four sets peaked your interest, I encourage you to dig in and do more more research. There is plenty more to learn!
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