A Geographer Looks at Desert Storm Trading Cards

The recent Persian Gulf war had an immediate and intense impact on myriad aspects of our popular culture, both material and non-material. American vocabulary quickly expanded to include Scud and Patriot missiles, Smart bombs and Humvees (High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles). Our great desire learn about the Middle East region generated a staggering rush for theater of war maps. Hammond, Inc. sold more than one million special edition Middle East maps in just four months, and described it as one of the fastest selling maps in their 90-year history. Rand McNally & Co. stated that its special edition Middle East map generated the most spectacular demand for a single map since World War II this map alone eclipsed their 1960s and 1970s combined sales of lunar maps and maps of the Vietnam conflict. Both Rand McNally Co. and The National Geographic Society had to set up special toll-free 800 numbers solely to take Middle East map orders Lewis 9).Material culture enthusiastically reflected the overwhelming public support for Operations Desert Shield (i.e., the military build-up) and Desert Storm (i.e., the military offensive). Merchandise ran the gamut from T-shirts, bumper stickers and pins, commemorative plates and mugs, yellow ribbons and American flags to marquees, billboards, Saddam Hussein dart games and video war games. A 29-cent stamp commemorating this successful military operation was also released by the U.S. Postal Service. In these and many more diverse forms, the Persian Gulf war ephemerally became ubiquitous on the American Landscape.This presentation focuses on one specific form of material culture: Desert Storm trading cards. Although many people might assume, incorrectly, that long-sports cards are a recent innovation, they have long been in our culture. In the nineteenth century, pictorial card games were sold with printed questions for players answer (e.g. "Famous Authors," "Bible Characters" and in geography--"A Game of the World," "A Game of States," "A Game of Cities"). During my childhood in the 1950s, in addition to baseball and football, various types of pictorial trading cards existed such as presidents, airplanes, movie stars, entertainers and 3-D movies. New categories have since arisen such as Garbage Pail Kids, TV shows, Disney movies, famous rabbis, drug-sniffing dogs, fire fighters, fugitives and missing children (Forward Spin").Operation Desert Storm stimulated significant merchandising activities. On February 10, 1991, The Topps Company, a well-known sports card manufacturer, issued a set of 88 Desert Storm trading cards. They became an instant success with collectors (Kalette B1). As a result of such unprecedented demand, five other rivals rushed to participate in the market for military cards. America's Major Players, Operation Yellow Ribbon, Pacific Trading Cards and Pro-Set all supplied products.Topps, the initiator of the Desert Storm trading card fad, expanded its first offering by releasing two additional card "series" in quick succession, yielding a total of 264 cards. For comparison, Pro produced one set of 250 cards, Troops produced two series containing 120 cards (of an advertised five series totaling 300 cards(1)), America's Major Players and Pacific Trading Cards each produced one set of 110 cards, and AMA Group produced one set of 60 cards.While responding to collector's enthusiasm by producing huge quantities of Desert Storm trading cards for sale, not surprisingly perhaps, these companies, in the face of obvious economic profit, were careful to appeal to and perhaps appease consumers' patriotic values (Castaneda B1). The following are some of their printed statements in this regard:* "100% of Pro Set, Inc. profits from these cards benefits families of Desert Storm veterans." (Pro Set, Inc. 1991)* "Portions of Troops trading card sales will be donated to: U.S.O." (Troops 1991)* "Part of the proceeds from the sale of these cards is donated to Operation Yellow Ribbon (AMA Group 1991)As Desert Storm trading cards were produced by different companies, it is logical to expect differences along with the similarities. …