1975 Hostess

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

Thanks for the update Zack.

It still doesn't explain why the three card panels numbered between 82 and 99 are so hard to find compared to the rest of the set. The easy culprit to blame would be the product they were exclusively (?) printed on. Was it on Ho-Hos and thus are damaged, or on an unpopular product? Another reason?

Hostess clearly intended the cards to be produced in equal numbers - presumably this carried over into producing the panels in equal numbers as well. However, I feel the original intent was more difficult to create in reality. It appears that there were more than 1 printer - and each product had different print configurations because of the product differences ie ingredients, photographs and even layout of the cards.

I suspect the rarity of certain sheets had more to do with the popularity of the products and how the printer printed panels in "batches". If you look on eBay you will find a seller selling 100+ unused Hostess boxes of the same players. I suspect this occurred because the printers and/or ITTC did not print the panels 1-150, but rather the panels were printed in batches of a single panel at a time and then used accordingly.

Good question that remains unanswered.....

Z

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

Hostess clearly intended the cards to be produced in equal numbers - presumably this carried over into producing the panels in equal numbers as well. However, I feel the original intent was more difficult to create in reality. It appears that there were more than 1 printer - and each product had different print configurations because of the product differences ie ingredients, photographs and even layout of the cards.

I suspect the rarity of certain sheets had more to do with the popularity of the products and how the printer printed panels in "batches". If you look on eBay you will find a seller selling 100+ unused Hostess boxes of the same players. I suspect this occurred because the printers and/or ITTC did not print the panels 1-150, but rather the panels were printed in batches of a single panel at a time and then used accordingly.

Good question that remains unanswered.....

Z

I picked up most of mine new, either from the grocery or from the outlet store which was much cheaper.

I didn't keep track, but my recollection is that there were different panels on the shelf at the same time, even for the same product. But probably a limited group as I don't recall any long searches through the stack on the shelf.

So they probably did batches of a particular group.

Some being tougher than others is almost certainly from the product popularity differences.

Steve B

[mrmopar]

I vaguely remember looking through boxes for "better" players or players I liked, but i didn't get many of the cards new at the time. Most families probably didn't plow through the snack cakes at a frequency that would enable the average kid to get an entire set, let alone most of it. Same with the Kellogg's 3D cards. I remember getting a few and then either the promotion ended or we were buying a different cereal all together.

[steve B]

That's pretty much how it went. Just got what I could and what I could trade for. Moved from a rural area to a more urban one in late 77, and 78 was a pretty crazy hobby year for me.

card shop in town so I get into old cards.
Topps- all four sports
Chillee Willee discs at a local white hen pantry
Papa Ginos Discs
Hostess
RC Cola Baseball AND Football cans. (And basketball, but I never found one in the stores, although I did get one I found in the street near my grandmothers house)
Fleer baseball stickers
Fleer Football
Wiffle ball discs.
I think there were others available locally maybe some ice cream football stickers? NASL stickers? Drakes Superman?
So many sets all at once.

Got pretty close to the RC can set, maybe 80/100, all 40 of the Papa Ginos thanks to a waitress who handled a request to swap the duplicate I got late in the promotion by bringing an entire bucket of the discs to out table and telling us to take what we wanted, and maybe 35/70 chillee Willee discs. The other stuff was somewhat controlled by mom refusing to buy way more snack cakes or cereal than we needed.

Good thing I was young and had the typical runaway metabolism of a teenager or I'd have been 300+ by the end of the year.

Steve B

[bnorth]

Great info guys, I am going to try to complete the 75 Twinkies set. Now what I am about to write is meant in the absolute best way. We have a gentleman on this forum that is like a very bad crack cocaine dealer. He gives out free samples, then forgets so sell the rest of the set at crazy high prices. Thanks to that gentleman and his wonderful gift I have a very good start on the set.

[steve B]

All the best hobby dealers are like that.

My first two prewar items were a Beckley T206 with lots of creases and a very bad tear -but it was only 20 cents! And a P2 that I don't recall who it's of but a common in horrible condition they gave to me for free.

It's been all down hill from there.

Steve B

[Zach Wheat]

Ben just sent me some pics of brown ink Twinkies cards....which look like these cards were probably issued in product as well. The photos sure look like they have oil stains on them!

Didn't think the brown ink cards existed in "issued" condition.....good observation Ben.

Z