David Roth, on the occasion of the first-ever 3D baseball card, reminisces about the '80s:
Even the iciest hipsters retain dorky traces of their ten-year old card-collecting selves, and come alive at the mention of the subject. Oddly often, they want to talk not about Topps, but Sportflics, a short-lived line of holograph-enhanced cards from the 1980s. Tilted just so, Sportflics displayed a flipbook-style progression of, say, Dale Sveum in action; more often, kids just ran their fingernails over the ribbed plastic surface for a satisfying "wicky-wicky" effect. Sportflics were the last real attempt I can think of to challenge the idea of the baseball card. After they failed, it was business as usual: picture on the front, stats and text on the back, forever and ever, amen.Sportflics were the best. I used to do the "wicky-wicky" thing with my teeth, which couldn't have been good for the resale value of the cards. Posted by Stephen Silver at March 11, 2009 03:59 PM
I just had a conversation about Sportflics the other day!
Posted by: Jeremy at March 12, 2009 12:06 AMI don't know if you recall, but before sportflics were actual 3d cards. They were postcard size and the "contoured" into a 3d shape. I recall that I have a few of those still, I'll have to search through my box of cards I left at my parents (assuming they haven't been thrown away yet).
Posted by: Jeff S at March 12, 2009 10:29 AMDavid Lee Roth writes for the National Review?
Posted by: LilB at March 12, 2009 11:52 AM