1962 Jello Baseball Box
 

I have had this box for a while and finally sent it in to PSA. Really happy with the grade but wish they had secured it a little better inside the holder.

Very NICE!

Bravo, Mike. As far as I can see, it came out Near Mint 7, which is super, though I don't see why it would not have been more accurate to put it an 8, 9, or even 10.

My advice on the position of the card is to gently bump the holder against your palm, and when you get the box centered the way you like, leave it alone.

As one who owns a pair of 1962 JELL-O unfolded boxes, I can truly understand why you're so thrilled with it. You should be. They are rare as hen's teeth. The '62 JELL-Os are underrated, misunderstood, and underappreciated. It has SLOWLY become confirmed that for 1962, they were test issued in the Chicagoland area, as well as Milwaukee. I covered them in the first chapter of my book, NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. Anyway, an unfolded box is extraordinary, period. Congratulations.

If you don't mind taking the time to discuss, where did you get that precious Pinson unfolded box? Did you get any background information from the gent you bought it from that you will share? Please, I would be very interested.

Regardless, thanks for sharing your bounty with us. Glad too that PSA has finally decided to encapsulate AND numerically grade such prize pieces!

Have a swell day, bro. ---- Brian Powell

I picked this up along with the Carl Warwick a while back in a collection I bought that also included over one hundred Wheaties panels and 9 unfolded boxes of 1962 Post Football boxes. I started a thread on the Warwick large box a few weeks ago.Beckett graded that one and gave it a 9. Is your book available in print ( hard cover or paperback)?

Mike,

To save a long explanation, my editor, former Sports Collectors Digest editor in chief, Tom Bartsch, tried and tried to get it into paper print, but the cost at Amazon for a print on demand for just plain paper would have been about $72, and for all photo paper, $95.

So, the book is only available as an E-book on a CD for $30, whereby you would insert the disk into the disk drive of your computer and read it on your screen, or on Amazon as a digital download for only $9.99.

Believe me, Mike, at 480 pages, you're getting a load of information, a treasure trove of stories and anecdotes, and some good insight on these once-free prizes that always seemed to prove expensive at the time, kinda hard-to-very hard to get back in the day, and tough to get AND expensive today. Hence, my book's title---NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. Oh yes, I almost forgot, there's also approx. 32 color photos (1 b&w), with at least one picture for each of the 20 chapters.

I do want to convey my thanks for sharing how you came to own those two prize pieces. They are .... tough to find the words .... the stuff that dreams are made of ..... for the regional / food rarity connoisseur.

Whatever you decide, bro, and I mean this, I am happy for you that you came to own them. You certainly must have taken good care of them once you bought them, and discovered them in the collection. Again, now that they're graded / encapsulated, they make marvelous display and conversation pieces. There's a boatload of '62-63 Topps baseball; you can count the number of essentially mint unfolded JELL-O boxes in one breath.

Best regards, my fellow collecting warrior. --- Brian Powell

Jello boxes
 

Brian,
In terms of scarcity, which year is harder to find in terms of unfolded boxes? 62 or 63? I have 3 unfolded 63’s I picked up in about 1974 or so. Warwick and 2 Osteens from different flavors.
Thanks

So I'm reading along while not logged in and see Brian's "where did you get that precious Pinson unfolded box" comment!!! I'm drooling. If, by chance, you ever decide to put it on the market kindly keep the BST section here in mind.

Hey Mike E.

That is a tough question for which I could not begin to answer, but in m' own inimitable way, I have a few words to say. On the one hand, the 1962 JELL-Os were a test issue, marketed only in the Chicagoland area and Milwaukee. While the 1963 JELL-Os were a nationwide release, the matter of unfolded boxes will likely remain a mystery as to their existence. As I wrote in NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, either a workman at the company that printed the JELL-O boxes grabbed a few as souvenirs, or some were used for promotional purposes of some sort, or even a JELL-O promotions division meeting to discuss their test baseball card campaign, or in '63, their imminent coast to coast "free card" offering. Regardless, they were saved and not destroyed, fortunately. Mind you, no customers at the supermarkets would have had access to unfolded boxes. Never. At the time, such souvenirs were essentially worthless, anyway. In 1962-63, the adult baseball card hobby was tinzie-weenzie, and highly unorganized. The prices were minuscule. It took until the last year of the 60s for this to BEGIN to change.

As the adult baseball card hobby skyrocketed, and John Q. Public became aware that older baseball cards might be worth some money, little by little, those souvenirs saved in a drawer or box in a closet of personal "stuff", began to be dug out and brought to a baseball card show to sell. Someone like Mr. Mint Alan Rosen was always interested in rare, unusual pieces, especially if they were in pristine condition. He knew the dyed in the wool collector loved these sorts of items, as did Alan when he was a voracious collector. How would I know that? Alan Rosen told me so in the priceless phone interview he granted me when I was researching my book.

In fact, the pair of unfolded boxes I own were both purchased at the big Philly show in the fall of 1988, one of them from Mr. Mint himself. It cost a pretty penny then, but I had never heard of, nor seen, a virtually mint UNFOLDED 1962 JELL-O baseball card box. So intriguing. So unusual. What an escape from the conventional!

Love at first sight.

This was NOT the time to quibble, or haggle, or wait and sleep on it, to think about it. NO! I BOUGHT THAT GORGEOUS, ENORMOUSLY RARE '62 JELL-O UNFOLDED BOX RIGHT THEN AND THERE! I paid The Mint Man's price. Worth every penny I spent. It's now been almost 30 years later, and I still treasure it. The first box I bought that night, with none other than Mickey Mantle as the free prize card, wound up on the cover of NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN.

Sorry, here I get going with my enthusiasm for these babies!

Mike E., I'm sorry I cannot give you an answer. You'd have to scour old Mastro auction catalogs, and boxes of back-issues of Sports Collectors Digests from the late 70s til the late 90s. As you probably well remember, that's when SCD was thick---over 200 pages loaded with ads and great articles. Let me just say that I would scrutinize my SCDs back in the late 80s, cover to cover, looking for postwar regional / food rarities I did not have. Seldom-to-rarely would a year's worth of SCD back then contain an advertisement offering an unfolded JELL-O box. They were few to be had, and once offered and sold, they were regarded as prized pieces and special favorites that stayed in those collections for many years. I mean, the collector fortunate enough to own one jolly well understood that if he parted with it, he'd NEVER get it back, or likely see another again. That's an unusually hard thing for most collectors to grasp, since many haven't been in that situation, because they're usually concentrating on collecting mainstream gum or tobacco cards. When you get into postwar regional / food, you really escape the ordinary. It's a different world. Anybody can get a 1954 Topps Henry Aaron rookie. IF you've got the discretionary boo coo, there are literally hundreds of 1952 Topps Mickey Mantles out there, which is honestly very good for the hobby.

Back to Hank Aaron. Consider and ponder his 1967 Coca-Cola premium, as printed for them by Dexter Press. That huge card is one of The Hammer's finest, most breathtaking "free prizes" to be seen---a real gem. Sure, Hank's rookie is worth more, as is his '67 Topps, in top condition. Nevertheless, I would select Henry's '67 Coke premium in a heartbeat. At the time the '67 Coca-Cola premiums were issued, ONLY CONSUMERS IN GEORGIA WOULD HAVE HAD ACCESS TO COKE BOTTLES WITH ATLANTA BRAVE PLAYERS UNDER THE CAPS. YOU HAD TO SWILL LOTS OF COKE TO COLLECT ALMOST ALL OF THE BRAVES CAPS, TO REDEEM THEM AT A COCA-COLA BOTTLER FOR A DEXTER PRESS BRAVES TEAM SET OF 12, WHICH OF COURSE INCLUDED HAMMERIN' HANK AARON. Just an example. There's much more to the 1967 Coca-Cola premium story, but you'll have to buy NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN to find out. Sorry, but you know .....

Please excuse me; again, the author gets to waxing lyrical about his subject.:)

You may never get a concrete answer on which of the 2 years did the most JELL-O unfolded boxes survive. All you can do is continue to ask around, and get all sorts of opinions, or looks of "huh?" I seriously doubt anyone knows. Look for yourself at the major auction house catalogs, or even eBay, though I doubt checking eBay would turn up any, though there are certain eBay dealers that specialize in the postwar regional / food. However, one of them is known for his "museum prices". This is when he could truthfully chide you with the old dealer line, "Try to find another." You could go to the National at Cleveland this year, and wear yourself out walking the aisles, studying each table. There are a few dealers that specialize in just this sort of exotic rarity. Nevertheless, the thrill of the hunt will only be thrilling if you spot one. Be prepared mentally and psychologically for sticker shock.

Trust me, your JELL-O unfolded boxes are each genuinely rare, and fully worthy of the adjective.

Well, enough of my palabre.;)

Happy hunting, friend. --- Brian Powell

A bit of a Johnny-come-lately, but great items and discussion Brian and Mike. My favorite set! So if I might, a couple of questions for you guys and a couple of other points that may be of some interest.

First a quick bit of background on myself and this set. Probably six years ago Dan Mabey and myself started an effort to build a document that tied the players in the set to the various flavors players they appeared on (by size of box also). And certainly Dan did most of the heavy lifting initially ... and led him to publish a listing on this site and another internet site of the findings. Believe this was back in 2013. Since that time, Dan's time has been extremely limited given all his work with the Ministries that he supports. But I have carried on the effort and perhaps maybe doubling the listing size. While I am not sure a complete listing will ever exist, will continue to chip away. During this time, I have spent time looking at the promotion itself. For example, while we all know that this issue was a "test" set; but what does that mean. Until the last few years, I just assumed it was as simple as the company was making a determination on whether cards on their boxes would increase sales. But it has become clear that their testing was much more complex with the things they were looking during the promotion.

So it is with this background and perhaps gaining more information, I would like to ask you guys about these flats you have or have seen. So Brian if I might (and how have you been since it seems we "talk" every couple of years), I would like to find out more about the cards you talk about in this thread and your book. We certainly have talked a decent amount your Mantle (WONDERFUL PIECE!!). So questions:

Is the second flat you mention you have in this thread the Maris that in your book you talk about and seemed to have bought at that the Philly show in 88 (and which is a Blackberry flavor)? Your book also talks about a large Pascual Strawberry flat and a small T. Davis Strawberry flat you had seen in auctions. I am just wondering if you have other 62 Jell-O boxes where I could learn of the player appearing on the box to correlate with the size/flavor (the four cards discussed about are all presently on my player-to-flavor listing).

For Mike, have a simpler question. I believe the Warwick flat you are talking about is a 63 Jell-O, but just want to make sure. Also might you have knowledge or specimens of other 62 players where you know which flavors they appeared on. And I guess another question whether we have "met" on the internet before (Being I struggle with knowing exactly who is who and all you know if a persons user name for the site, so just wondering.)

I know this is long, but am going to make one observation that may be helpful to you guys in tracking the history of your flats. Within the hobby there are copies of a very old advertisement for 1962 Jell-O flats. I probably have had it for 20 years and looks like it is a copy of a copy of a copy....... It is an ad run by Lew Lipset where he is selling like 85 1962 Jell-O flats. The ad shows player, flavor on, and price he wants. (It does not show size but I would bet a ton they are all small boxes and none pudding, just based on what I have seen over the years). What is interesting is every small box discussed on this thread (Mantle, Maris, Pinson, Davis including the flavor) is on on Lew's ad for sale. I certainly suspect that your flats may have gone back to this sale by Lew. For what it is worth, it is my understanding that Lew made sales of about half these flats then wholesaled the remainder to a collector who has slowly sold them himself over the years.

Going to call it a day with this note, but would also as anyone else reading this, if they know a box flavor a player appeared on (and hopefully a picture) would love to know. Ken Marks bwnrot@aol.com

I posted a picture of this a while back. You are correct in that it is a large box 63 Jello.

1962 Jello baseball box
 

Ken, in case you can use this information for your project, here are 5 1962 Jello boxes I have you can add to your list: Large box #64 Schwall, Cherry; and these four small boxes: #178 Friend, Black Cherry; #27 Gentile, Apple; #37 Power, Lemon Pudding; #125 Brosnan, Lime

Jello Boxes
 

I have worked with Ken on compiling a list of cards and their particular Jello boxes. This includes pudding and whether they are 3 ounces and 6 ounces. We have a pretty good list for the 62's. I believe we have a complete list for the 63 Jello cards. It should be noted; ALL of the "short prints" or rather the most difficult cards in that set were on 6 ounce boxes. I have been working on a paper that compares the difficult cards in the 63 Post Cereal set with the difficult cards in the 63 Jello set. It was the intent that they were one set not two as they are considered now. I would be glad to share the 2 Jello lists we have now.

Mike

thanks
 

seattlebaseball--thanks a ton for sending the information on the five jello boxes you have. while i was aware of three of the players/boxes, both the gentile and schwall is absolutely new information. very much appreciated. in combing your net54 posts looks like your name is charles. would love to talk to you about your jello boxes and some other stuff if you have the time. ken bwnrot@aol.com 916 508-7872

Wow, Ken, I should have known you would come to our buddy's rescue with some genuine information, to go with the accurate conjecture. I will be trying to call you soon, my dear fellow collecting warrior. We've got issues at the house---A/C on the fritz!!!!!!!!!

Very late to answer you, but yes, the other 1962 JELL-O unfolded box I own is a Blackberry Roger Maris. Truly, it is one of the prized pieces of my small collection. I do not own any other complete boxes, but am extremely thankful to God that I own the two I do.

Since the dealer I bought it from at Philly fall 88 worked with Alan Rosen, it would not surprise me if the Mantle & Maris were once a part of the huge batch you wrote of that Lew Lipset offered. "The stuff dreams are made of" indeed.

Ken, are you working with Dan Mabey on his 1962 JELL-O baseball card research / book project? I want to let Dan know he can use anything from my book he wishes. I figured he'd love my story from summer of '62 when I saw a whole slew of them at the Jewel Supermarket. Sad story.

Kindest regards to you, Ken. --- Brian Powell

1962 Jell-Os
 

Hey Brian. Hope that A/C problem gets fixed. Always goes out in the summer, huh.

Related to 62 Jell-O research, that continues for me. Maybe five years ago, Dan and myself started a 1962 Jell-O set effort trying to build a listing of the various flavors that players appeared on ... since there was no manufacturer's listing known in the hobby. During that next year (with Dan doing most of the heavy lifting), a listing of players who had been identified as appearing on a specific flavor of Jell-O was produced. Dan published that listing in maybe 2014, and it can be found on this Net54 website and also another one. Forget the name of the other website, but it is not hard to find.

Since that time, Dan's time has been extremely limited given all his various ministerial work that he does. Just a matter of priorities for him and sportscards rightly are not at the top of heap. But I have continued the effort and probably added maybe another 100 entries to the player/flavor chart. Beyond that, have put work in on trying to understand the promotion itself. For example, it seems certain to me that every player appeared on at least one Jell-O Gelatin flavor box. In addition to that, I believe that 72 players appeared on at least one Jell-O Pudding flavor box (I have identified 68 players to date, but am pretty confident there are 72). As probably obvious, players that also appeared on pudding boxes are not tough to find if working on a set ... with a lot of them being stars. Have also built a listing of the 20 toughest players to acquire in the set (and circulated the listing through to hobby to other collector friends of this set for validation). Additionally have been trying to build a listing of exactly the Jell-O gelatin flavors that had cards appearing on them in the set ... including size of the box too. Finally the other thing that comes to mind is the development of a possible explanation of why the three players were completely left out of the set while appearing in both the American and Canadian Post Cereal sets (Brooks Robinson, Kluszewski, and Burgess) and one other star player (Colavito) was substituted for a journeyman player in the set. While this could be because of contracting issues as sometimes suggested, it also appears to me to perhaps have been an intentional change.

I guess bottom-line, will say progress is slow for a number of reasons, especially lack of documentation and just general limited availability of cards. But will continue on when I find collectors such as yourself who are able contribute valuable data. This probably has goon too long so will say good night and hope things continue well with you.

Just back from PSA. Sorry about the poor picture quality.Attachment 366094

Attachment 366095

Attachment 366096

Attachment 366097

Attachment 366098

Sweet boxes..I have one flat one of Claude Osteen and a Tito Francona Box that was opened and saved carefully. One time my friend found a unopened Jello box while cleaning out his mom's pantry when she had to move to a group home...and it was a Luis Aparicio unopened box. He put it up on ebay on a lark and was shocked when the bidding went high. I let him know BB collectors love that sort of stuff.

Ricky Y

Mike, thanks for sharing your joy with us. The unfolded boxes are magnificent. A resplendent group in a display, I'm sure. All the best, Brian Powell:)

1962 Jell-O Boxes
 

Nice. Very Nice!!!

Just picked up this one. Still has the jell-o in it. My wife’s only comment on it was “ I wonder if I could make Jell-O shots out of it”. I don’t think that would be a great idea. It would be nice to go back and buy theses for 3/32 cents.

Mike fantastic pickup!

You've got a great collection of Jell-o boxes.

Mike, thanks for sharing scans of your latest '62 JELL-O acquisition. I love the price stamp on the side! The concept of each card costing a tsch over a dime apiece at the time they were issued fires the imagination. "Good 'ol vanilla" Topps would give you 30 cards for that same money in 1962. Us kids were happy with those at the time, but I loved my Post Cereal even more. We had to work harder for those. Then we have the 1962 JELL-O. I lived in Skokie, Illinois at the time and saw them a few times at the JEWEL Supermarket. Late in the summer of '62, I was 8 and the significance of those JELL-Os had finally dawned on me. However, my mother did not want to help get me started on ANOTHER baseball card set. She was almost at the point of being "up to here" with me and baseball cards! The vulnerability of kids is very much a part of the drama of childhood collecting. I really tried to express some of those memories and scenarios in NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. It's one of the reasons those immediate post-war sports issues are so very special!

Anyways, I trust your dear wife was just musing about making shots!;)

Again, congratulations Mike, upon your harpooning of a white whale that's part of a school (set) of white whales. I of course am referring to the ultimate '62 JELL-O whaling adventure---- complete box collecting. ---Brian Powell

Does anyone know
 

if a 1962 Clemente full box (with or w/o the Jello) exists?

Picked up today from LCS. It still has the
Jell-o in it. I have been eying it for awhile and finally pulled the trigger.

The O’toole pictured previously is a 63 Jell-o as well are these. Just received these back from PSA Saturday. This is the 2nd Warwick I have. The other one is in a Beckett holder.
Attachment 388409

Attachment 388410

Here’s a couple of new 62 Jell-o’s. You would think PSA has a uniform way to put the cards/boxes in their holder. It makes it kind of difficult to display them in orderly fashion.
Attachment 388411

Attachment 388412

You're right, Mike. Uniformity makes for better display power.

I imagine since PSA rarely grades an unfolded JELL-O box, and since graders have their own idea of how the box should be oriented in the holder, ..... and since PSA loves to listen to collectors for their ideas of how they should do things:rolleyes: Try your best to suppress the feeling of being screwed, and bask in the beauty of your unfolded '62 JELL-O white whales with ultra-high grades!:D I am very, very happy for you. I'd love to own the Early Wynn, but I'll just be pleased to gaze at your neat scan. Looking at your suite of sweet boxes, the Wynn is the one that needs to be re-holdered and oriented as the others are.

If you're going to the National, bring 'em both to show PSA; perhaps they would re-holder for nothing, and decide with you as to what would be the best way to holder it. My gut feeling is they'd look at you with a "Beat it, boy; Ya bother me!" glare. What I'm really suggesting is, don't they have a holder that would accommodate a 1962 box straight on, without turning it on its side? Both my unfolded boxes were done by SGC, and that's how they did it, and I love the appearance.

--- Brian Powell

PS---As I reflect upon your "ultra-high grades", it is quite true that they are ultra-high for the idiotic standards PSA begrudgingly judged your boxes. However, it just doesn't compute with what I know of the unfolded boxes' provinance. Don't they have any clue these are 1 of 1s, and how literally impossible they survived in pristine condition, having escaped the ravages of what would normally occur to a retail box offering a single baseball card??? Therefore, to judge unfolded boxes as yours with numbers such as 5 - 6, based upon what they grade a standard gum card, when in reality they are 9s and 10s, leaves me with some "full of feces" remarks about TPG immature sense of appropriate wisdom for rare items that are not regular old gum cards. How did I formulate my deep-seated TPG beliefs on this matter, you might ask? Because SGC would "only" give my two 1962 JELL-O unfolded beauties that are in the same pristine condition as yours the blunted, insulting graded of "A" for authentic. Since they couldn't open up the boxes to examine their insides for creases and other such degradations and potential qualifiers, the "A" was all they could say. At the time, I bought their explanation, but the more I think of it, it is extremely insulting to me. I know, they care not for our feelings; they're trying to make a lot of money giving their objective opinion as to a presented item's genuineness and its technical grade of condition. I am not lambasting their business, nor their desire to make money. The hobby needs them. I'm calling down their lack of knowledge and reasoning about this matter of unfolded 1962-1963 JELL-O boxes. At least PSA has seen the light of wisdom to grade your Malzone and Wynn with a 5 and a 6, respectively. That's much better than my pair of "A"s, though any collector could detect their pristine condition for themselves, but I realize with those words, .........

I realize these are 63's, not 62's, but here is what I can contribute to this thread:

Mike E: those boxes are really neat. If you ever want to get rid of them please let me know.

Brian: I am going to the Chicago show this coming weekend and I am going to inquire about how they grade these. My main question for them is going to be “ do you grade the box as a whole or do you grade the card itself”. Most of the cards are in really nice condition and I would expect significantly higher grades on the cards if I cut them out and submitted them by themselves ( something I would never do).

It sure seems as though the post and Jell-o’s are really heating up over the last 6 months or so.

I am sure they consider the entirety of the item. If the box is creased, but doesn't go through the card itself, it's still creased. If you only wanted the card graded, you'd have to cut the card off.

62 & 63 Jell-o boxes
 

Picked these up over the last little while.
Attachment 501513

Attachment 501514

Attachment 501515

Attachment 501516

Attachment 501517

Attachment 501518

Attachment 501519

63 Jell-o Berra w/ Jell-o still inside
 

63 BerraAttachment 501520

Attachment 501521

62 Cepeda w/ Pudding still inside
 

62 Cepeda
Attachment 501523

Attachment 501524

62 Jell-o Pinson w/ pudding still inside.
 

62 Pinson
Attachment 501525

Attachment 501526

63 Jell-o Al Smith Blackberry jell-o inside
 

63 Al Smith
Attachment 501528

Attachment 501529

63 Jell-o Ralph Terry Lemon Jell-o inside
 

63 Jell-o Ralph Terry
Attachment 501532

Attachment 501533

63 Jell-o Kralick Blackberry still inside
 

63 Jell-o Kralick

Attachment 501534

Attachment 501535

Just posted 12 62 and 63 Jell-o boxes.
 

Hadn’t posted anything new on here for awhile. I finally got around to it today.

62 Jello boxes
 

Hi Mike:

You show an Apple flavor box above, between the Jensen and Lumpe. Which card is the Apple? Or I guess what I am asking is what flavor are the Jensen and Lumpe?

Jensen: Apple
Lumpe: Black Cherry

6 more Jell-o Boxes
 

These are all 63 Jell-o boxes.
Attachment 504821

Attachment 504822

Attachment 504823

Attachment 504824

Attachment 504825

Attachment 504826

Attachment 504827

Attachment 504828

Attachment 504829

Attachment 504830

Attachment 504831

Attachment 504832

Mahaffey #199 62 Jell-o Box
 

Just in and happy to add it to the collection.Attachment 514217

Found a few more
 

One 62 and a couple of 63’s.

Forgot this 63
 

Really nice shape and happy to have it.

Buhl 62 Jello Box
 

Mike,

Great posts. We did not have a flavor listed for the 62 Mahaffey. I have added it as Lime. Could you tell me the flavor of the 62 Buhl? I want to verify it against what we have on our list. Thanks.

post jello
 

I wish any of those Post cereal books were still avail...at a reasonable price

Additional pictures of Buhl
 

Mike: here are the pictures.Attachment 518155

Attachment 518156

Attachment 518158

1962 Roger Maris Jell-O Box
 

Maris box
 

Wow, great item !