Hi Marty:
Long time no "talk". Hope all is well with you and yours!
I too have the same Maris piece you are inquiring about. There was a companion piece with Mantle as well.
I have done extensive research on this piece after wondering like you if it is original or a repro/fantasy piece as others have suggested. I will give you my take at the end of this post.
I acquired mine from a LONG TIME major collector from the Northwest. Here is what he told me on how he got it:
I was the purchaser of several of Lew Lipset Jello and Post items when he resided in Centereach, NY. years ago before his move to Arizona. That was many decades ago. The Maris and Mantle signage placards all came from General Foods out of NY.
Some months back I was lucky enough to obtain an almost complete 1962 Post Cereal Supermarket Display kit in the original shipping carton. It was sent to a Mays Brothers Supermarket in Minneapolis, MN. Any Net 54 members from Minnesota remember May Brothers?
You can see photos of the kit here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/161320162@N07/
you can click on each photo to enlarge them then run your cursor into the top right corner to get arrows to enlarge again.
In one of the photos you will see a Baseball Merchandising Guide. This has ALL the items in the 62 Post Baseball Advertising plan for the year. This guide gives all items a 4 digit number to ID it. For instance the large 2' x 3' Mantle/Maris banners shown in my kit is Form 3083, the pennant group Form 3081. Even things like the stationary is in the guide with the number Form 3105.
All of my items from the Supermarket Display kit have these ID numbers very small by the bottom corners etc. I did not get either the Maris or Mantle like the one you have in the kit
On page 32 of the guide in the bottom right corner you can see what is labeled Ad Mats and Proof Sheets of an item that looks to my eyes to be a mock up of your/my item.
See close up below
It is assigned number 3009-M or 3009-P
Does your Maris have one of these numbers at the bottom? Look closely. Mine does not. Thus my dilemma. ALL other items in the Merchandise guide that were in the kit I have have those small ID numbers.
Other knowledgeable collectors have told me stories about many of these being available that they assume are repro's, all looking the same "aged" and with water marks etc. to make them look old/original.
I have to believe the collector I got my Maris from that he got it from Lew way back in the day out of General Foods. However the fact that mine has no number 3009 on it seems to indicate it is not legit. That mine may be one of the repro's which flies in the face of it's history and it lineage.
OR.... the fact that this came out of General Foods in NY and not Post in Battle Creek, MI may account for the lack of ID numbers at the bottom. Perhaps the items from MI came with ID numbers and the Ad Mats/Proof sheets came from NY without. The fact that the Merchandising Guide at the top of page 32 shown says "YOUR POST REPRESENTATIVE CAN FURNISH THESE...." indicates to me that the Ad Proofs/Mats were NOT included in the display kits.
The only way I believe we will ever know for sure is if someone has one with the 3009 printed on it. Then it would be easy to differentiate between the originals and the repro's (if there are any).
So, Marty, PLMK if yours has the ID number, or if anyone else out there has one with the ID number, please post it here so we can put this mystery to bed.
Until/unless one pops up with the ID printed on it, I will assume mine is original, and one of those requested of the Post Representative.
Fred