A hockey "card" I forgot I ever had

Generally speaking, I'm not the kind of person that does fads. It's not that I have a hatred of new things, of popular things, like some people do. No, it's just that my collecting habits are so well defined, so established, that it's difficult for something to catch my eye enough for me to reallocate some of my hobby funds from one hobby to a new one.

In the mid-1990s, I went into Pogs in a big way. I loved those things...and I still do, actually. But they were pretty much only made from 1994-96, and then, gone forever. I guess it didn't hurt that they were from the happiest period of my life, right before my health problems kicked in in the 1996-97 school year. My brother and I actively collected them and we even played the game a few times, although mostly I was collecting them as round cards. And really, that's all that they are. In the 1990s, I didn't realize that, because they were not rectangular. I didn't count them as cards...even the ones that came as inserts in card packs. (Heck, I don't even think I counted the oversized and undersized standard card issues, either!) If Pogs were still made, I'd still collect them.

A couple of months ago I discovered that the Trading Card Database had a listing for the Michael Jordan pogs put out by Upper Deck. I knew I had a stash of them but couldn't find them- they were not stored with my other pogs, and they were not stored with my cards. I knew that they were in a zip-lock but they weren't where I thought they were- as it turns out, they had accidentally gotten put into a box with some of my model car stuff. I found them last month, and eventually got them scanned and posted.

But it wasn't all just Jordans in there...oh no, it was a mixture of those, about 75% Power Rangers, and the rest was a mix of everything else...including some of the Garfield pogs from 1995.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but Garfield is my favorite newspaper strip. We used to get the books, and I'd pull them all out and reread them every so often, although it's been a while since I've done that now...and we stopped getting them, not for any good reason, other than they stopped being in Previews so we couldn't just order them and have them show up at the door. Don't remember where we left off, either...

Anyway, this is one of the Pogs in there:

I had zero memories of ever having this! At the time, I would have gotten it because it was Garfield, but now, 20+ years later, it's even more fun for me as a die hard hockey fan.

I hadn't seen this since probably 1997 or 1998, until April 2020. How cool is that?

I have been putting off scanning my pog collection for a while because being round, it takes more work. I put off scanning the ziplock for about 3 weeks. But when I finally did them, it didn't seem so bad...I may have to move them up in the scanning order. Now that I found this bag, I'm pretty sure my entire collection is accounted for.

I know I never completed the Garfield set...I remember getting them out of a big tub of assorted Pogs at the local Party City, but they never had all the numbers. I'm glad I was able to get this one!

And yes, they will all appear on the Cardboard History Gallery. After all, they are just round cards. I know enough to know that now.