1981 Wausau Timbers TCMA

Set size: 29 cards

Front Design: The very basic design has a black and white photo inside a rounded red border, with a white band across the bottom containing the player's name and position in black.

Back Design: The backs duplicate the rounded border, surrounding the player's name, position, team and league names, biographical information and prior year statistics (when available). The bottom of the horizontal backs has a black band with an advertisement for TCMA cards.

Parallels and Similars: All 1981 TCMA minor league sets have the same design. Some team sets were issued with color photos; those have black borders and red printing (the opposite of this design).

Distribution: Team sets were sold by TCMA, through hobby dealers, and through the team.

Thoughts: Ivan Calderon might be the most well-known of the minor leaguers included in the collectors set this card was reprinted for. He had a respectable .272 career batting average over 10 seasons, and was an All-Star in 1991. Sadly, Calderon was murdered in 2003 in his home country.

These TCMA cards are almost done! One more tomorrow, and it's back to major league releases!

1981 Wisconsin Rapids Twins TCMA

Set size: 23 cards

Front Design: A red rectangular border with curved corners holds a vertical black and white photo and a white band at the bottom with the player's name and position in black.

Back Design: The horizontal backs are black and white, with a rectangular border holding the team logo, player's name and position, and vital statistics. A big black box across the bottom has an advertisement for TCMA sets.

Parallels and Similars: 1981 TCMA minor league sets all have this design. It looks like some sets use black and white photos and others use color photos. I recall finding information a while back (I can't recall where) showing that TCMA gave teams a choice between the two. Color sets use black borders with red text instead of the red borders with black text seen above.

Distribution: Team sets were sold through TCMA, hobby channels, and minor league teams themselves.

Thoughts: This issue is a step backwards for TCMA, with an extremely uninspired design and no stats - the 1979 sets had stats, even if they were quite limited. That said, I like the inclusion of the team logo on the back. It would have been better on the front, in color, with a color photo, but this is an early 1980s minor league team set, so I can't expect much.

1981 Perma-Graphic Credit Cards Reggie Jackson

Set size: 32 cards, shaped, sized, and made of the same material (plastic) as credit cards.

Front Design: A color photo is on the left of the horizontal card, with the player's name, position, and team in the white space on the right. A black line border surrounds the photo and text on the otherwise white card.

Back Design: The backs are black-on-white, and are designed similar to a regular trading card. Vital stats, career statistics, and career highlights fill the back, except for an empty black-bordered box for autographs. The card number appears in the bottom-right corner - this is card number 7 in the set. Note the TCG copyright in the middle of the bottom line of text.

Parallels and Similars: Perma-Graphic issued a few sets in this style between 1981 and 1983, but this set has no parallels and can be distinguished by its design and the 125- prefix in the card number.

Distribution: Sets were sold for about $40 in 1981.

Thoughts: The design is quite plain, with the photo on the front of the card taking up a very small amount of space, and plenty of white space left around it. Future designs are more interesting. The company still exists, by the way, manufacturing similar (generally non-collectable) cards.

1981 Dodgers Police

Set size: 32 cards, which have the odd measurements of 2-13/16" by 4-1/8".

Front Design: A color photo appears surrounded by a white border. The bottom of the card contains the player name, jersey number, and position, and "LAPD SALUTES THE 1981 Dodgers" in black ink.

Back Design: A police tip attributed to the player and the LAPD badge with the number (year) 1981 in black ink fills the back.

Parallels and Similars: Many of the police issues of the era have similar designs and card sizes.

Distribution: Cards were distributed by LAPD officers. The Ken Landreaux and Dave Stewart cards are short-printed due to being last-minute additions to the set; this set provides Stewart's true rookie card.

Thoughts: I like reading the tips on the back of these cards. I remember all the PSAs integrated into 1980s children's programming and they bring back memories. I'm just wondering if any of these crime tips are useful or just based on urban legends with no basis in fact. Snopes did a good job looking at the poison and sharp objects in Halloween candy (read the whole article about sharp objects - the only real incident is from the rumor creating the idea for the crime). Are there burglars out there who really knock on the door and break in when a kid answers? Are there predators out there luring kids into their cars with candy bars? (I'm not saying these are false, I'm just asking if they are.)

Additional Links: Old Baseball provides a checklist.

Additional Images: Card back: