This is card #2 of 24 from the 1955 Barbers Tea “Cinema And Television Stars” cards series. These cards were originally inserted with tea in England. The cards in this series measure 1 3/8″ x 2 5/8″ and are in beautiful full-color. Besides the 24 color cards featuring movie stars, there is also a one-color checklist to go along with this series, which is extremely rare.

I may have never had heard of Arthur Askey before I had started collecting this series of cards, but I love this card anyways. The color scheme on this card may not have as much “pop” as some of the other cards in this series, but the portrait of Arthur Askey is great. The glasses and bow tie really make this card for me, he looks like some derranged super-geek.

The condition of this particular card is pretty much flawless to the naked eye. My love of this set, has led me to begin collecting other Barbers Tea series as well (click here to view some of my other Barbers Teas cards), but the “Cinema And Television Stars” series still remains my favorite.

The text on the back of this card reads:
Arthur Askey
Arthur Askey, born in Liverpool, made his first stage appearance in 1924, in Colchester. Well known in variety, films and revues and musical comedies, he made his first broadcast in 1933 and appeared for the first time on television in 1946. Arthur Askey, now firmly established as one of our most popular Radio and Television Stars, is married and has one daughter Anthea. His hobbies include motoring and golf.

The card featured on this blog in my “Blasted Billy” PSA card. This card is from the 1st Series of Garbage Pail Kids, and was released in 1985 by Topps (click here to view my blog of my Garbage Pail Kids 1st Series complete set).

This is a very low-grade card considering the year of issue. The only reason I ended up purchasing it was because I was able to get it for dirt-cheap (and I love Garbage Pail Kids). I notice a lot of people go overboard with GPK PSA cards, paying rediculious prices for cards, that in all actuality, are not all-that rare, nor all-that valuable.

PSA population reports show that the market has been flooded with GPK cards by morons that are under the false impression that GPK’s are a super valuable and rare item, when it’s just their imagination. Fun to collect and look through, GPK’s are a great and unforgettable part of 80′s memorabilia. I will always enjoy Garbage Pail Kids cards, but there are definately a lot more valuable cards to collect out there.

This is card #1 of 24 from the 1955 Barbers Tea “Cinema And Television Stars” cards series. These cards were originally inserted with tea in England. The cards in this series measure 1 3/8″ x 2 5/8″ and are in beautiful full-color. Besides the 24 color cards featuring movie stars, there is also a one-color checklist to go along with this series, which is extremely rare.

This card of Grace Kelly is a splendid example of the style and feel of this entire card set. Currently, the Barbers Tea “Cinema And Television Stars” is my absolute favorite series of cards.

This card isn’t my favorite in the set, but it’s right up there. Great composition, beautiful use of color as well as an elegant, minimalist design make this card of Grace Kelly a classy Hollywood collectible.  The condition of this particular card is pretty much flawless to the naked eye, and would most likely be graded very high by PSA. My love of this set, has led me to begin collecting other Barbers Tea series as well (click here to view some of my other Barbers Teas cards), but the “Cinema And Television Stars” series still remains my favorite.

The text on the back of this card reads:
Grace Kelly
Paramount’s “The Country Girl”
Although born in Philadelphia, USA (on November 12, 1928) Grace Kelly has a poise and beauty that is typically English. She is one of the busiest actresses of today. A blue-eyed blonde, she made her first film, Fourteen Hours, in 1951, followed by High Noon. In her short career has reached top stardom and set up a record by appearing in quick succession in director Alfred Hitchcock’s three latest productions - Dial M For Murder, Rear Window and To Catch A Thief. Bridges At Toko-ri, Green Fire and Academy Award nominations for her performances in Mogambo and The Country Girl complete her record. Educated in Philadelphia, she studied for two years at the American Academy Of Dramatic Art. Repertory and Broadway stage work was followed by radio and television appearances. 5 ft. 6 in. in height Grace is an accomplished pianist and speaks Spanish and French. Pastel sketching, playgoing, riding and swimming are among her hobbies.

This is the wax pack wrapper for the Garbage Pail Kids 3rd Series

The following is a sample of my Garbage Pail Kids 3rd Series complete set. This set of cards was released in 1986 by Topps. The 3rd Series was the first of four GPK series to be released in 1986.

I have several copies of this series, all of which are the complete 88 card variation sets. This (1986), marked the time that the Garbage Pail Kids really began to take-off in popularity.  I remember having alot of cards from this series as a kid, so the sentimental value makes this one of my favorite GPK series.

The sample slideshow image below the picture of the 3rd Series wrapper is a collection of 12 of my favorite cards from this series. The image below that is another slideshow, showing the two completed puzzle card backs.

To view my other complete Garbage Pail Kids sets click on Series 1 or Series 2 (to view other complete sets of collectible cards that I have posted on my blog, click here). Check back, as I am adding new cards/sets to my blog all the time.

Sample of 12 cards from the Garbage Pail Kids 3rd Series

The following is a complete list of the cards for the Garbage Pail Kids 3rd Series:

84a Joe Blow
84b Rod Wad
85a Stuck Chuck
85b Pinned Lynn
86a Horsey Henry
86b Galloping Glen
87a Hot Head Harvey
87b Roy Bot
88a Dinah Saur
88b Farrah Fossil
89a Hurt Curt
89b Pat Splat
90a Stoned Sean
90b Thick Vic
91a Blake Flake
91b Hippie Skippy
92a Marvin Gardens

Samples of the puzzle-backs, showing what the two completed puzzles from the 3rd Series look like

92b Spittin’ Spencer
93a Drew Blood
93b Bustin’ Dustin
94a Bruised Lee
94b Karate Kate
95a Grim Jim
95b Beth Death
96a Distorted Dot
96b Mirror Imogene
97a Punchy Perry
97b Creamed Keith
98a Charlotte Web
98b Didi T.
99a Beaky Becky
99b Picky Mickey
100a Ali Gator
100b Marshy Marshall
101a Mushy Marsha
101b Basking Robin
102a Mugged Marcus
102b Kayo’d Cody
103a Wriggley Rene
103b Curly Carla
104a Silent Sandy
104b Barren Aaron
105a Juicy Jessica
105b Green Dean
106a Fowl Raoul
106b Mack Quack
107a Totem Paula
107b Tatum Pole
108a Smelly Sally
108b Fishy Phyllis
109a Toady Terry
109b Croakin’ Colin
110a Snooty Sam
110b U.S. Arnie
111a Target Margaret
111b Bullseye Barry
112a Frank N. Stein
112b Undead Jed
113a Alice Island
113b Liberty Libby
114a Starin’ Darren
114b Peepin’ Tom
115a Warmin’ Norman
115b Well Done Sheldon
116a Eerie Eric
116b Berserk Kirk
117a Rocky N. Roll
117b Les Vegas
118a Half-Nelson
118b Glandular Angela
119a Ned Head
119b Still Jill
120a Babbling Brooke
120b Jelly Kelly
121a Apple Cory
121b Dwight Bite
122a Broad Maud
122b Large Marge
123a Glooey Gabe
123b Sticky Rick
124a Hugh Mungous
124b King-Size Kevin

This is the wax pack wrapper for the Garbage Pail Kids 2nd Series

Here is a sample of my complete set of the glossy-back Garbage Pail Kids 2nd Series. It was released in 1985 by Topps.

This is the Complete Master-Set of the 2nd series. What I mean when I say  “Master-Set”, is that this series contains all the cards that make-up the complete base set (82 cards), as well as all the variation cards (variant puzzle piece backs to complete both the “Live Mike” and “Messy Tessie” puzzles, the “Award” variations on a few card backs and also the name change to card #49b from “Schizo Fran” to “Fran Fran”, as well as  the changes to the backs of cards that contained checklist that featured the name changes for card #49b) to bring the total number of cards in this set to staggering count of 131 cards.

Here are a few of my favorite cards from the 2nd series

The 2nd series is probably my favorite of all the Garbage Pail Kids series. The reason I say that it’s “probably”  my favorite because when I was a kid and first started collecting a few GPK’s, the 3rd and 4th series were the current series available.

I remember having a ton of 3rd and 4th series, and then one day, I actually ended up getting my hands on a pack or two of the 2nd series. As I open those cards and went through the five, or ten cards I had, I remember feeling as if I had just found some ancient scroll, some long-lost secret.

Even though the 2nd series would’ve been only about a year old at the time, I was only six, so I felt my small collection of the Garbage Pail Kids 2nd Series, were infinitely better then my other GPKs. I think that

Card #49a "Double Heather" and the card #49b's name-changes "Schizo Fran" and "Fran Fran"

“2nd Series Pride” was branded deep in my brain, and still effect my appreciation of GPK’s to this very day.

I also love the Garbage Pail Kids 2nd Series because of all the variant cards that make-up the series that I had mentioned earlier in this blog. Being a non-sports card collector I love the idea of sets that contain so many variant cards. It makes it alot more entertaining to collect and fulfilling when the set is finally completed.

The 2nd series of the Garbage Pail Kids is in high demand. I’m always surprised at how much money some people are willing to fork-out for Garbage Pail Kids. The cards may not be even a quarter of a century old yet, but these great examples of a phenominal pop-culture fad from the mid-80′s prove that sometimes you can’t really put a price on such great memories of our childhood.

To view my blog on my Garbage Pail Kids 1st Series set click here. If you are interested in Garbage Pail Kids, or any other collectible non-sports cards, please check back as I am frequently adding new cards and sets to my blog.

Shown here are two card backs showing what the 2 completed puzzles from the 2nd Series look like

Fronts/Backs of cards #1, #7, #15 and #25

This “Aeroplanes” series is yet another beautiful installment of cards issued by Barbers Tea Ltd. These cards were inserted into packages of tea from England in 1956. There are 25 cards in this set, each card featuring a different aircraft that is portrayed in a beautiful full-color illustration. The back of each card features a detailed history of the aircraft and is printed in one-color (black). These cards measure 1 3/8″ x 2 5/8″.

Barbers Tea cards have become some of my favorite cards to collect. The Barbers Tea cards always have a certain style and feel to them that really sets them appart from rival tea cards from the same time period. This series differs from the other Barbers Tea card sets that I have collected just because of the subject matter of the series (though I still love these cards). Other Barbers Tea sets of mine are deffinateley of alot “lighter” subject matter. The “Aeroplanes” set is a very informative, and educational series (reminding me alot of Brooke Bond Tea Co.’s style of cards-content wise that is, Brooke Bond could NEVER come close to touching Barbers Tea’s style).

My set is in awesome condition. There are off-centered cuts, but all the cards are in beatiful condition. The colors are bright, the card stock isn’t discolored and all the corners of the cards are razor sharp. There are two image samples shown of these cards. The first (upper left hand corner image), is a slide show that gives anup-close look at the front and back of four select cards out of the set (cards #1 De Havilland Vampire, #7 Auster A.2/45, #15 Avro Lancaster and card #23 De Havilland Dove). The second image (show below), is a slideshow that shows you the fronts of all 25 cards in the set, in groups of 5.

For other complete sets on my blog, I usually would not show all the cards in the set. But, since I feel this set is so exceptional, I had to go the extra mile and display all the cards. I couldn’t put myself in a position to show only a select few, and then, in turn, edit out and discard the rest in such a brilliant series of cards. It just simply couldn’t be done. I decided that they must all be displayed.

The following is a list of the 25 cards that make up this absoluteley gorgeous set: #1 De Havlland Vampire, #2 De Havilland Chipmunk, #3 Douglas Dakota, #4 Handley Page Hastings, #5 Handley Page Hermes IV, #6 Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52, #7 Auster A.2/45, #8 Percival Prince, #9 Lockhead Constellation, #10 Avro Lancastrian, #11 Gloster Meteor, #12 De Havilland Tiger Moth, #13 Airspeed Oxford, #14 Short Sunderland, #15 Avro Lancaster, #16 Hawker P.1040, #17 Supermarine Spitfire, #18 Vickers Viking, #19 Short Sealand, #20 Boeing B-29 Superfortress, #21 De Havilland D.H.108, #22 Hawker Tempest, #23 De Havilland Dove, #24 Westland Sikorsky S-51, #25 Douglas DC-4.

This card is #4 in a complete set of 66. The set was released in 1965 by Fleer. The cards feature a black and white photo on the front of the card showing “favorite scenes” from the television show, along with a caption to go with the photograph.

The backs of the cards from this series are done in two-color, further detailing the picture on the front of the card.

The PSA graded card featured here is card #4, “Sergeant, I Hate To Say It, But You Just Don’t Whistle Pretty!” The back of this card reads: PYLE: “Sergeant, that whistle is gonna bust somethin’ inside mah head.” SERGEANT: “Pyle, whatever you’ve got in your head was busted a long time ago.”

This is a Rose Hobart card issued by Rothmans Cigarette’s in England for their 1939 card series “Beauties Of The Cinema”. This set contains 40 cards, the cards in this set are unnumbered.

The cards in this set measure 1 9/16″ x 2 9/16″. A beautiful illustration of a cinema star against a metallic gold background is the trademark signature behind this set.

I wish I had more cards from this series, but this Rose Hobart card is my only card from the “Beauties Of Cinema” set. There are quite a few “big” name stars that are in this set, to learn a little bit more about this set, click here. If you would like to read some biographical, albeit limited, information on Rose Hobart (via Wikipedia), then click here.

Below are a couple of links to a two-part movie I found on YouTube featuring Rose Hobart, entitled: Joseph Cornell’s “Rose Hobart” (1936).
To View The First Part Of This Video, Please Click Here.
To View The Second Part Of This Video, Please Click Here.

This is the wax pack wrapper for the Garbage Pail Kids 1st Series

Here is a sample of my complete 1st Series Garbage Pail Kids base set. This is just the basic 82 card set without the variation cards. These cards were release by Topps, in 1985.

For only being a little over 20 years-old the Garbage Pail Kids 1st Series is a fairly “Hot Item” for Savage Nuns and Renegade Gyro Stand Employees everywhere.

The image below shows my favorite cards from this series. That is, with the exception of card 1a Nasty Nick. I decided to show this card, just because it is the “first card” , and one of the more popular in the series.

Card 24a is my personal favorite in this series. “Nervous Rex” (shown in sample below) depicts a baby; chain-smoking cigarettes and ingesting large amounts of caffeine via coffee and coca-cola. I doubt any cards marketed towards children would even dare to try to put this on a trading card nowadays.

The Following is a list of the Garbage Pail Kids 1st Series:

1a Nasty Nick
1b Evil Eddie
2a Junkfood John
2b Ray Decay
3a Up Chuck
3b Heavin’ Steven
4a Fryin’ Brian
4b Electric Bill
5a Dead Tead
5b Jay Decay
6a Art Apart
6b Busted Bob
7a Stormy Heather
7b April Showers
8a Adam Bomb
8b Blasted Billy
9a Boozin’ Bruce
9b Drunk Ken
10a Tee-Vee Stevie
10b Geeky Gary
11a Itchy Richie
11b Bugged Bert
12a Furry Fran
12b Hairy Mary
13a Ashcan Andy
13b Spacey Stacy
14a Potty Scotty
14b Jason Basin
15a Ailin’ Al
15b Mauled Paul
16a Weird Wendy
16b Haggy Maggie
17a Wacky Jackie
17b Loony Lenny
18aCranky Frankie
18b Bad Brad
19a Corroded Carl
19b Crater Chris
20a Swell Mel
20b Dressy Jesse
21a Virus Iris
21b Sicky Vicky
22a Junky Jeff
22b Stinky Sam
23a Drippy Dan
23b Leaky Lou
24a Nervous Rex
24b Nerdy Norm
25a Creepy Carol
25b Scary Carrie
26a Slobby Robbie
26b Fat Matt
27a Brainy Janie
27b Jenny Genius
28a Oozy Suzie
28b Meltin’ Melissa
29a Bony Joanie
29b Thin Lynn
30a New Wave Dave
30b Graffiti Petey
31a Run Down Rhoda
31b Flat Pat
32a Frigid Bridget
32b Chilly Millie
33a Mad Mike
33b Savage Stuart
34a Kim Kong
34b Anna Banana
35a Wrinkly Randy
35b Rockin’ Robert
36a Wrappin’ Ruth
36b Tommy Tomb
37a Guillo Tina
37b Cindy Lopper
38a Slimy Sam
38b Lizard Liz
39a Buggy Betty
39b Green Jean
40a Unstitched Mitch
40b Damaged Don
41a Mean Gene
41b Joltin’ Joe

This is my only card from this series, graded, or otherwise. These cards are great and I wish I had more. Classic example of the times. An extreme phobia of communism.

These cards were designed to showcase pivotal events, military leaders, and instill fear of the potential effects that could be caused by nuclear calamities.

The back of this card reads:
“Children’s Crusade Against Communism”
24. General “Ike” In Command
You’ve heard lots of times about General Dwight D. Eisenhower-or “Ike”, as the GIs used to call him. You know how he led the troops of the western Allies in their crusade to free Europe from the nazis. Now he has another job just as big. The communists have grabbed eastern and most of central Europe. The people of western Europe don’t know when the Red Menace will strike at them. They have chosen General “Ike” to build up and lead an army large enough to defend their countries against communist invasion

-”FIGHT THE RED MENACE”