The Curious Case Of The 1977 Hostess twinkies Cards

[darkhorse9]

I have been on a mission to collect the entire Hostess baseball run for many years, and only one aspect of the collection still has my brain hurting: the 1977 Hostess Twinkies (black bar) set. I am writing this partly to share what I do know, and to elicit response from others to provide information I don't know.

This was the only year that Hostess released all 150 cards in single card form with individual packs of cakes. I have been working to complete the set in it's original uncut form, meaning all the original side borders still in tact. This has proved to be a challenge not only since a lot of collectors trimmed their cards (**shudders**) but there were also several cards that were issued in multiple product sizes. I've never really been able to confirm what products came with what sized backing, but to date I have identified six different sized panels. I've listed the full measurements of the panels along with an identifier of the card in the picture that goes with that group.




TYPE 1 - 3 1/8" x 4 1/8" Twinkies Cards (Pete Rose) - These follow the standard Twinkie size from previous years. All of these cards are numbered 1-60 but not all 60 are in this size. Cards 9,10, 19, 20, 39, 40, 49,50 and 59, 60 were not issued in this size.

TYPE 2 - 4 1/2" x 4 1/4" Cards. (Louis Tiant) It's easy to notice a trend on the missing. They are all numbered ending in 9 or zero. A look at an uncut sheet of these cards show those were on the end of the roll and still printed on the same sheet. It should be noted there are no creases or folds on the side panels of any of these cards.

Now is when things start getting interesting

TYPE 3 - 6 1/8" x 4 1/8" (Johnny Bench) - These cards do indeed have factory folds on their flaps. The folds occur about 3/4 of an inch from the outside. Clearly this was to create a side panel to hold the product in. To date I personally own just 10 of these but they are all numbered between 2 and 20 (2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 19, 20) An educated guess might say there are 10 more out there and that 20 total exist in this form. There doesn't seem to be a numbering pattern that would indicate they are part of another strip like the wider cards above were.

TYPE 4 - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" cards (George Brett) - I'm pretty confident on this group. I've seen uncut sheets of theme so this is what they are. They were released with Cupcakes and are numbered 31-135. Besides the border difference these have dramatically different back printing. The lettering is much smaller than any other Hostess card.

TYPE 5 - 3 5/8" x 3" (Bill Madlock) This is a group where I really need help on. The cards I own are numbered 118-150 but I don't have cards #'d 122, 123, 131, 140, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 150. I think I've been told these exist starting from #111 but I can't confirm. Adding more confusion is an additional size in this higher numbered group

TYPE 6 - 5 3/4" x 4 1/2" (Bill Stein) - To date I have two of these #136, 150. I don't know if these come from the same sheet like the lower 60 cards did or not I'm not sure. These also have flaps on the side for product. The numbering of the two I have doesn't lend itself to easy placement on a printing sheet, however.

There you go. That's what I know , and if anyone can help out with photos of missing uncut black bar cards from the higher numbered group I'd love to hear from you.