Topps is best known for their sports trading cards, but for nearly 50 years, Wacky Packages have been a staple of the company. The Wacky Packages – sometimes better known as Wacky Packs or just Wackies – have been such a hit for Topps that they’ve been put out every couple of years. They parody commercial products and have been most often produced as stickers instead of as just cards; Topps hires cartoonists and comic book artists to come up with the concepts and artwork.

The first Wacky Packages line came out in 1967, featuring 44 cards similar in size to baseball cards of the time. The parodies were created by Art Spiegelman and were painted by Norman Saunders. The cards and related merchandise (which has included posters and comic books) have become highly collectible over the years.

Hake’s Americana & Collectibles currently has a number of pieces of original Wacky Packages art in their auction. These pieces come from some of the most recent series in the line but are a must-have for long-time Wackies fans.

The pieces include a parody of Raid bug spray, “Roid,” with art by David Gross. It was used for the 2007 seventh series stickers and depicts a grotesquely muscled ant flexing at the viewer. Another Gross piece is for “Kellump’s Coal Flakes,” a parody of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. The original art features the rooster wearing a miner’s helmet and is covered in soot.

Joe McWilliams is the other artist with original pieces in the Wacky Packages selection at Hake’s. Coca-Cola is certainly a recognizable brand, but McWilliams’ parody – “Coca-Cobra” – is probably not so much. The mixed media art depicts a soda bottle with a cobra bottled inside along with the cola itself. Other McWilliams parodies include “Kongsford,” a parody of Kingsford charcoal, and “Ranters Mixed-Up Nuts,” a parody of Planters Peanuts.

Bidding ends on November 12 so interested parties should take the opportunity to get in soon.