'Someday they could be worth real money', a 1990 article by Roy MacGregor

Published in the Medicine Hat News, April 9, 1990

Jan 24, 2025

This is an article about the 1990 Animals of the World Panini Sticker Album, and the frenzy for kids to buy the mixed packages of stickers to complete their album.

Items published on the same page:

Article - Yukon land claim settlement sets precedent
Article - Gorbachev is not the revered leader at home that he is abroad
Doonsbury comic - April 9, 1990

You can watch a (non-English) flip-through of a complete album on YouTube.

Someday they could be worth real money by Roy MacGregor
Published in the Ottawa Citizen and reprinted in the Medicine Hat News

OTTAWA — There are times when it all seems so sweet and innocent and worthwhile and, yes, even educational.

But there are also times when it seems like it might be but the first small step toward a gutter life of hard drugs and handguns1.

Lately it begins at the crack of dawn, and does not end until the day is well done.

A small figure — his eyes red from tormented sleep, his body shivering with fear that he is somehow falling behind — suddenly appears at the side of the bed.

“Will you get them today?” he asks each dawn.

“Will you get some tomorrow?” he asks each night.

“Maybe,” you say.

It is never good enough for him.

What he wants to hear is this: “Yes, I am seeing the bank manager first thing in the morning. He has agreed to a second mortgage. By noon Brinks will be delivering 10,000 brand-new unopened sticker packages. They will wait while you rip them apart with your teeth and they will even sweep up the doubles. If, by chance, you still do not have Sticker No. 121, the male Proboscis Monkey, a Lear jet will be standing by to fly you to Animals of the World headquarters where, by court order, your album will be completed.”

We are talking about collecting.

The obsession of the moment is Animals of the World, and over the past few weeks it has turned into what will go down in history of this house as a full blown Monster Craze.

They are, mercifully, rare occurrences.

But they do happen. Anthropologists with enough nerve to enter this basement would find somewhere among the detritus assorted evidence of the last truly big craze: 1983’s safety pins and beads.

They would also find some evidence of McDonald’s Muppet Babies2, miniature Smurfs3 and googly-eyed Garfield stickers4, but these lesser crazes are only there because no one has yet stumbled across them while cleaning and placed them out for the only collection they deserve: garbage.

I know, I know — someday they could be worth real money. Everybody knows about Mickey Mantle’s rookie year Topps’ card. Everybody knows original toy Batman utility belts go for $5005.

But who can dream of future fortunes when you’re losing current fortunes?

Think about it the kid comes home from school one day with a sticker album that the company is giving away free on a special promotion.

At the store the album costs 59 cents. So for a brief moment you’re 59 cents to the good.

In Animals of the World, there are 180 empty sticker holes to fill. A package of six stickers costs 35 cents. Even if you never came across a single double, you would need 30 packs, so the absolute minimum it would cost to fill up the book is $10.50.

The absolute maximum has yet to be reached. Animals of the World is put out by Panani of Montreal, and they know they’ve got a big hit on their hands — unlike, say, the Rambo sticker book they had out a while back.

“We’re talking major success,” says Carlo Tarini, Panini’s marketing spokesperson.

Now remember, he’s talking major when an average sticker album promotion runs around 200,000 books with sales running about 15 sticker packs per album.

Average is slightly more than $1 million — which is just about what this household has spent on Animals of the World in the past four weeks.

The good news is that these things only last three months.

Which means Animals of the World is soon going to be of interest only to the basement anthropologists. “What’s next?” you ask.

“Baseball now that the season’s actually going to happen,” says Tarini.

“Then Barbie — and we’re working on a project for Looney Tunes.”

“Looney Tunes?”

“Yah, you know - ’T-t-that’s all folks'.”’

Try telling that to the kid at the foot of the bed.

(Distributed by Southam News.)

The Trading Card Database is an archive of trading cards and all things trading card related, including stickers. Which ones did you have?

I’m not a sports (or animals) gal but I had a LOT of Barbie cards and stickers.