Just when I thought I was out…they POG me back in.

§ August 6th, 2012 § Filed under pogs, retailing § 32 Comments

So the boss had some friends who came into the possession of a storage unit full of material that once belonged to the distributor of a certain product. Those friends had no particular use for said product, and they said to the boss, they sez “here, you can have it all, and see if you can get anything for it.”

And thus, on a warm Sunday afternoon, the boss pulled the rental truck up in front of the shop, and this was the scene within:


And here we are, a little closer and at a slightly higher angle:


Yes. Oh, yes indeedy. So, we meet again, my old enemy:


Yes, that’s right, boxes and boxes and boxes of POGs and milkcaps and slammers and carrying tubes and oh sweet mother an entire CASE of Ultra Pro POG sleeves and uncut cap sheets and a generous handful of SLAMINATORS:


This fellow was apparently a distributor and / or manufacturer of cap products during the height of fad, in the early ’90s, and these rare jewels have apparently been resting in storage for nearly two decades since. I haven’t had much of a chance to actually go through the boxes, since mostly we were just hauling them out of the truck and making a giant POG box pyramid in a corner of the shop. However, one employee drew the short stick and he’s going to go through and sort everything out…and when I’m back on Tuesday, I’ll begin the process of getting these things on the eBay and finding homes for them.

Yes, this means I am back in the POG-selling business. …Don’t you judge me.

As we were hauling boxes into the shop, I was carrying a smallish box which caused some wag to call out “Hey, Mike, way to pitch in!” to which I replied “Here, you hold this box” which was filled with brass slammers and thus heavier than your mother:


And if you don’t know what “slammers” are, please don’t ask me to explain. Speaking of which, another customer, a young fellow of about twelve, asked us what POGs were as he’d never heard of them, and I envied him his youthful innocence.

By the way, SHAQ POGS:


And all of these caps were presided over by their true and rightful king:


Just to allay any concerns, I took this pic on top of one of our glass cases, so Pogman isn’t directly sitting on top of our copies of Daredevil #7 (1965), Marvel Tales Annual #1 (1964), or X-Men #8 (1964), as it may appear.

There was one of these as well, a videotape sealed in its original shrinkwrap, and thus presumably the “6 Collectible Wackers” are still included:


The back, since I know you’re curious:


Oh, there are no winners here.

Most terrifying part of this video?


Yeah, there was more than one in this series. Seriously, I am tempted beyond all belief to pop this open and watch it.

In an odd sort of way, I’m sort of excited, just for the sheer “OH MY GOD WHAT’S THIS” entertainment of it all, not to mention seeing what actually does sell and for how much. And believe you me, I’ll be taking full advantage of the “pogs” category on this site if I find any more treasures.

In the meantime…drop by the shop! Scale POG Mountain! See Mike just kinda stand there and shake his head in bemusement!

32 Responses to “Just when I thought I was out…they POG me back in.”

  • Ed says:

    I have more than a passing interest in Power Ranger POGs. They say that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, but if that was true, we never would have had the 90’s to begin with…

  • Kurt Onstad says:

    Most terrifying words on the “Slaminators?”

    The World POG Federation.

    If that’s where Starfleet gets it start, kill me.

  • Roger Green says:

    I stopped understanding popular culture in the 1990s: Image Comics, Nirvana. and POG; definitely POG.

  • Tim O'Neil says:

    Before today I never believed in God . . . but after today, I do believe in God and I know that he is bent on destroying Mike Sterling.

  • Old Bull Lee says:

    No need to ruin the value of that video by opening it:

    http://vimeo.com/20866179

    Best part of the video is watching arrogant kids brag about POG victories on “the street”.

  • Amelyn says:

    How much for the stuffed Pogman? It would make a nice addition to my stuffed toys collection. Seriously, I’d be really interested to buy it from you.

  • IvoryTower says:

    Every time I roll my eyes in disdain about stupid fads, I have to remember I had POGS. Mostly to play with a friend who wasn’t much of a friend, but we kept our Shredder for a long, long time.

  • Rob H. says:

    Did POG mania ever reach the South? I distinctly remember Previews and such pushing them as this huge fad in the 90s, but I never saw any local stores selling them and never knew any kids who collected them. Magic: The Gathering and the CCG craze was so big that maybe they stopped POGs before they migrated here.

  • Casey says:

    The most intriguing thing to me is that they sat there untouched for the better part of two decades. While I’ve been living my life, they’ve been out there…waiting.

    On a related note, I’m pretty sure I still have all my pogs, though I never played with them, which is weird in retrospect.

  • philip says:

    I am sitting right next to a folder full of trading cards I bought once upon a time. In the folder are two full pages of Simpsons POGs. I just now noticed that I have two pages of POG sleeves holding the Simpsons POGs.

    POG SLEEVES!

    And I know for sure I have a plastic “The Tick” POG in a drawer in my house because it’s The Tick and I love him beyond reason.

  • Andrew Leal says:

    Add me to the love for Pogman. The rest, eh, but Pogman is indeed a rightful king. Just look at him! Bright orange, majestic main, suitably orange and fuzzy, lolling tongue and teeth bared to bite into a brass slammer at any moment… I too would love to have him rein in my home. Strapped due to dental procedures, but in the unlikely event you decide to put him on eBay instead of letting him reside majestically in the shop until the One True Pog Heir can heft him, give us the link here, Mike!

  • Mike Walker says:

    I’ll give you… $4 for all of it.

  • swamp mark says:

    Strange to see one of the inner circles of hell localized in the back of a rental truck.Did you have any premonition of the evil that was bearing down on you?

  • Chance says:

    “Remember ALF, Bart? He’s back… in POG form.”
    – Milhouse, 1995

    Remember POGs, everyone? They’re back… in POG form.
    – Mike, 2012

  • Odkin says:

    “Drop by the shop”. Interesting, but WHAT shop? Where?

  • David G says:

    I remember seeing POGs back in the day (and Tazos, which one of my kids liked for a while), but never knew what the point of them was. Thanks to this post and Wikipedia I now know. There was no point to them.

  • Daniel H. says:

    I had the misfortune of managing a discount toy store when the company briefly tried to bring Pogs back (about 2003-04 or so). You think trying to sell them when they were popular was an ordeal… sufficient to say our back room looked like that truck for months until we were allowed to throw the stuff away. I did pick up some cool looking slammers including some Batman ones for free.

  • Snark Shark says:

    “Be an instant winner”??

    mor elike an instant LOSER. that old TABLE is worth more than that useless pile of cardboard!

    and why was there a table in the pile? “Everything Must Go!” indeed! “TAKE THE FURNITURE! It’s been cursed by use with POGS!”

    “SHAQ POGS”

    even worse than his movie!

  • Snark Shark says:

    “I’ll give you… $4 for all of it.”

    I’ll give Mike $5 to BURN all of it.

  • Jonathan Miller says:

    My first day of vacation in Hawaii a few years ago: “Oh right, it was a drink first!” (Actually, POG the drink–which POGman is the mascot for–is pretty good!)

  • Anonymous says:

    And in other news, Marvel renumbers it’s entire line!
    Brand New Day, indeed!

  • Old Bull Lee says:

    I’ve been reading this blog for years, and cannot remember the last time I saw this many comments on a single post!

    POGS FOREVER

  • Anonymous says:

    Avengers vs. X-Men = Uncanny Avengers!

  • Mikester says:

    Old Bull Lee – Oh, I get lots of comments on some posts…most of my End of Civ posts tend to get quite a few.

    Anon. – And your point is…?

  • swamp mark says:

    he seems to be unhappy and is rightfully blaming pogs

  • Bryan says:

    I’m still surprised Pogs were actually a thing. The first time I’d ever heard of them was around 1993 and “Entertainment Tonight” did a story on them. the next time I heard of Pogs was the aforementioned Simpsons quip, which I thought was making fun of a fad that never caught on, but the DVD commentaries make it sound more like the writers had intended to reference this super hot thing that would surely never become dated.

  • Bill Reed says:

    Pretty sure I owned, or still own, that Shaq set. I found a dry-rotty version of that pog mat in the basement a few months back.

  • Daniel McG says:

    If nothing else, you could sell those brass slammers to a smelter for around $1.50 a pound.

  • David G says:

    “If nothing else, you could sell those brass slammers to a smelter for around $1.50 a pound.”

    But save one, thus making it SUPER collectible.

  • Corey says:

    I believe you mean Hakeem Olajuwon Pogs, my friend. After all, ’twas the Rockets who won the 1995 NBA Championship. #scoreboard

  • Snark Shark says:

    “you could sell those brass slammers to a smelter for around $1.50 a pound”

    or you could THROW them at your ememies!

    “BONK! DONK! CRASH!!”