Cataloging a Garbage Pail Kid collection

[TimothyC]

The time has finally come for me to get serious about clearing out my junk room in the back of the house.  Unfortunately for me I have 1,000+ cheap items to catalog and list over the coming months, but hey it took years to amass everything so I don't expect it all to go away overnight (it would be nice though ).  I've sold most of the higher dollar stuff, but I still have a few oddball collections to clear out and first up is my box of Garbage Pail Kid items.  I'm not going to attach large pics of each item in this thread (I'll use photobucket for that), but figured I would for some of the neater stuff. 

First up is vintage MIB (mint in box) Itchy Richie costume.  All of the costumes are uncommon to find MIB, but Itchy Richie is much tougher to find than the most common one, Rob Slob.  This one is gorgeous mint condition and I hope it brings $100+ on eVilBay when I list it shortly:

[number six]

Man I remember those 80's costumes. A fire hazard plastic smock and a stuffy mask. Hot as hell and guaranteed to shred before Halloween was over.

I don't recall ever seeing the Garbage Pail Kids one but I think by that time I was making costumes as the problems with the off-the-rack ones (per above) made those hard to deal with. Must be rare to find an unused one though.

I'm still trying to put together a first edition set (I have about a 3rd of them) so if you have any extras of that please let me know. I'm not overly worried about condition

[TimothyC]

Must be rare to find an unused one though.

Years ago when I used to search GPK stuff daily on ebay I would go months without seeing one on ebay though upon searching completed items this week it looks like someone sold a small collection of them last month so they do turn up from time to time.  Still, it's the type of thing that you would spend years and years searching for in the pre-ebay days. 

Today's entry isn't nearly as sexy, but the reality is most GPK items are essentially dollar store items or toys you would have purchased off a spinner rack in a convenience store.  I guess these didn't sell that well BITD or they made too many of them, but cases of these things turned up years ago so they are readily available on ebay for very little:

[MilitiaMan]

Puffy Stickers were the SHIT !!!

[TimothyC]

Tonight's entry isn't worth much so I thought about using them for my son's upcoming 3rd birthday, but I'll probably just put them in a lot with a bunch of other $5 or less GPK items.  Still, it's cool to see Haggy Maggie cook'n up some frogs :
 

[Niloc]

Man I remember those 80's costumes. A fire hazard plastic smock and a stuffy mask. Hot as hell and guaranteed to shred before Halloween was over.

Yeah... you weren't dressing as the character, you were dressing as an advertisement for the character or franchise. That must have been the nadir of Halloween costumes, they were complete shit.

Those plastic masks always had sharp edges. These days that'd be a lawsuit. The rubber band for the mask was always too tight and rolled itself into your hair immediately. It was more of a relief than a disappointment when it inevitably broke halfway through the night.

[number six]

Today's entry isn't nearly as sexy, but the reality is most GPK items are essentially dollar store items or toys you would have purchased off a spinner rack in a convenience store.  I guess these didn't sell that well BITD or they made too many of them, but cases of these things turned up years ago so they are readily available on ebay for very little:

Yeah!! I have these stuck all over my sticker book, lol.

If anyone remembers there was this sticker craze in the early 80s. I guess in a time before Pokémon or whatever kids too young to care about football or baseball cards had to trade something. Plus teachers used to give out stickers as rewards.. anyway everyone had sticker books where you could trade and such. You used to get them at grocery stores, etc. These GPK stickers were towards the end of that but it was definitely feeding into the craze.

I'll have to see if I can dig mine up. It's a treasure trove of 1982-1984 sticker goodness.

[number six]

Tonight's entry isn't worth much so I thought about using them for my son's upcoming 3rd birthday, but I'll probably just put them in a lot with a bunch of other $5 or less GPK items.  Still, it's cool to see Haggy Maggie cook'n up some frogs :

I don't recall these specifically but they had GPK themed everything. I remember having buttons and folders (like trapper keeper style folders)

There was also the 'cheap toys' but I don't remember ever seeing them.. so either they were mega rare or they came out towards the end.

I fell out of GPK collecting around series 6 or 7. The cards started coming out way too fast, like every 4 months there was a new set which sucked because you were still working on the previous series. Plus after they lost the lawsuit the designs got kinda crappy.

[number six]

Yeah... you weren't dressing as the character, you were dressing as an advertisement for the character or franchise. That must have been the nadir of Halloween costumes, they were complete shit.

Those plastic masks always had sharp edges. These days that'd be a lawsuit. The rubber band for the mask was always too tight and rolled itself into your hair immediately. It was more of a relief than a disappointment when it inevitably broke halfway through the night.

not me but example of the darth vader costume

Yeah exactly.

I think I did these for 1 or 2 years as a kid. I was Pac-Man one year and Darth Vader another year.

Thing was it didn't try to be an actual costume. It wasn't like the darth vader had the chest piece on the smock to somewhat simulate darth vader.. far from it. It had a full picture of Darth Vader on the smock so you were basically saying 'I'm not Darth Vader but I really like him, see!' weird. It's surprising these things lasted as long as they did but I guess they were cheap and easy for parents.

I think I then moved into being Zorro for a few years as you got a pop-gun and a sword and it was super easy to put together as you just needed some black clothes and that mask they always sold as Halloween  anyway.

[TimothyC]

I don't recall these specifically but they had GPK themed everything. I remember having buttons and folders (like trapper keeper style folders)

I have some of those trapper keeper folders, but they weren't in the box I pulled out so I guess I have more GPK stuff somewhere .  I don't think I have any extra first series cards btw as even though I collected GPK stuff from the mid 90's through about 2005 I never tried to fill any missing holes in my card collection so my childhood box is exactly the same as it was when I stopped collecting in 1987.  I need to find that box and take pic or two of my first series cards as I looked at those so often as a kid that they're pretty much trash .

Today's entry:

[TimothyC]

I was going to wait a while before posting this item as, IMO, it's the 'holy grail' of GPK toys made by Imperial.  However I just listed one of the two bop bags that I have on eVilBay and it sold in minutes for the full $199.  I knew the bop bags were rare, but given the fact I received an offer from one person and moments later someone else clicked BuyItNow it's clear I priced it too cheaply.  Meh, I had much less into it, but I'll definitely ask for much more when I sell the Adam Bomb bag. 

 Garbage Pail Kids GPK Bop Bag New in box MIB Hot Scott & Mad Mike

[number six]

That's insane, i never knew half this stuff existed and i was big into GPK at the time.

[HFK]

Wow, never would have thought that was a $200 toy. Nice.

[TimothyC]

Wow, never would have thought that was a $200 toy. Nice.

I have a deal for $400 for the Adam Bomb version of the bag on the table so needless to say I'm probably going to take it.  I've been texting a guy back and forth about GPK stuff all day long today.  He confirmed that the bop bags are as rare as I thought and even shared pics of a couple items I never knew existed even when I was searching for this stuff daily.  Prices have exploded compared to when I was searching for the stuff in the early 2000's .  For example I have a sealed box of German GPK cards from the early 90's that I paid $30ish for fifteen years ago, but he told me it's a $200 - $300 item these days .  Prices on all the foreign stuff in particular are nuts so I'm wishing I had hoarded more away instead of just buying mostly common trinkets when I saw them cheap.  Still, I can't complain too much as it's nice to be up on something as opposed to losing money like normal . 

The character inside the box is denoted by a small sticker underneath the image.  If you look at the back of the other bop bag a couple posts back you'll see the sticker there as well.  Here's the Adam Bomb version of the bop bag that is probably leaving shortly:

[number six]

Some of these "modern era" Garbage Pail Kids collectors can be nutso (not unlike coin-op people, lol)

There's the forum GPK underground I'd look at from time to time. Whenever a new set comes out people will buy cases.. maybe upwards of $1k worth.. then only find one or two of the super premiums (printing plates or sketch or whatever). Its like damn man..