Not sure if this is the exact store, but this seems like the best picture that I can find on the internet that fits my memories of Grandpa Pigeons. It's floating around on Pinterest, so I am not sure who originally posted this picture, or where it was taken. The main thing I remember buying at Grandpa Pigeons was fishing tackle boxes for my Legos. I had tons of them as a kid, I built the castle sets, and I used the tackle boxes to keep the different pieces organized.
They are still in my parents' basement. My son plays with them when we visit.
Not having a KMart near my house resulted in me not having any KMart baseball cards in my collection until I was much older. Somehow I survived, probably by collecting thousands of other baseball cards. As an adult, I found that KMart made some quality baseball cards, and luckily most of the cards can be found in dime boxes at card shows.
One of my favorites is the 1987 Bob Gibson card that was included in the retail chain's 25th Anniversary set. Here is the front of the card.
It's not a terrible design for something that is a really cheap mass produced baseball card from a discount retail chain. I actually like the picture on this card a lot. If you know anything about Bob Gibson, he was a rather intense player. There are not many pictures or cards of the Cardinals Hall of Famer with this type of expression on his face. It's different, I like it.
Back of the card.
The set is organized by decade, with the majority of players coming from the 1960s and 1970s. They may not be very expensive cards, and there are some really good names on the checklist. I kind of like that they broke the set down by time. Gibby is one of the "Star of the Sixties" portion along with Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Juan Marichal, Roger Maris, Willie Mays, Brooks Robinson, and Frank Robinson.
Lou Brock is another Cardinals card in this set. Maris was also on the Cardinals, but obviously pictured as a Yankee. Same with Steve Carlton and the Phillies.
This set of cards is a really great hidden gem of the 1980s. If you don't have any of these cards in your collection, they are dirt cheap. There are several copies of the set available on Ebay at the moment for less than $5 shipped.
Back when I was a kid, Kmart didn't have a very good reputation at my school. Kids were teased if their parents shopped there. I'd always stay in the car while my parents went into the store. These days I wish there were Kmart still around. I'd love to find baseball cards there.
ReplyDeleteI know Topps does some retail exclusive stuff now with Target and Wal-Mart, but I would love to see some place make some sets like the K-Mart and Woolworths types of sets that were out in the 1980s.
DeleteI always liked K-Mart, especially during the mid to late 90's when they still had action figures sitting on their shelves from 5-10 years earlier. They also had some great card sections at that time, tons of cheap boxes from the late 80's and early 90's, I can't even begin to tell you how many $5 boxes I bought during that time. Although like Fuji mentioned, products that were sold at K-Mart, especially the clothes and shoes, did not have a good reputation amongst my peers, "K-Mart fall-apart" was the common phrase of the day.
ReplyDeleteI guess I really missed out on K-Mart. I never really did a lot with action figures, but I loved retail boxes in the mid 1990s. I remember Target used to have all sorts of older wax for dirt cheap. I am guessing K-Mart was similar.
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