Every once in a while, you find yourself in a collecting rut.

For whatever reason, the excitement starts to dwindle and the frustrations seem to outweigh the joy.  When that happens you can do a couple things to help break the routine and get back to having fun again. There is nothing wrong with taking a break for a while.  Another thing that many people try is to change up your focus.

And that is the strategy I have recently taken.  Over the last few months, I’ve been starting to focus more and more on some cool wrestling cards from the 80s and 90s.  I’m not an avid watcher of the current wresting shows, but absolutely loved watching each week from the 80-s through the late 90s.  Some of those characters are simply fantastic.

Brett McGrath’s (@stackingslabs) constant coverage was first to peak my interest.  He connected me with Zhan Mourning (@zhanmourning) who is a wealth of wresting card knowledge.  He turned me on to the 1986 Carnation set which combined my love of oddball food issue sets and some sweet cards.

Next was the 1988 Quaker Dipps Canadian set, and now I’m fallen for another Canadian set: 1991 Swanson.

The Breakdown

This is a 12 card set which was distributed in Canada.  The two card packs were found in Swanson TV Dinners.

The cards have a black border and are printed on a fairly thin card stock, so some whitening of edges and corners is pretty common.  The backs of the cards have a bio printed in both English and French.

One of the other things I like about the set is that they seem fairly scarce.  Only eight of the 12 cards are available on COMC, there were none listed on Sportlots, and while more inventory can be found on eBay, they are still pretty sparse.  

The vast majority of sellers are from Canada, so higher shipping costs only further complicate things.  Well, I was fortunate enough to stumble across a Canadian seller who had 6 complete sets, and we were able to work out a deal!  After a week or so, they made their way south of the border, and I may have instantly become the person who held the most inventory of this set south of the border!

This small but mighty set truly has some legends.  Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Million Dollar Man, Macho Man, and the Rockers are a few of my favorites.   I plan to hold on to a couple of the sets, and I’ll be likely selling or trading the rest at the shop or online.  

Checklist

Big Boss Man

Bret the Hit Man Hart

Million Dollar Man

Hulk Hogan

Bushwackers

Jake the Snake Roberts

The Mountie

Legion of Doom

Rockers

Macho Man Randy Savage

Texas Tornado

Ultimate Warrior