1979 Hostess brown backs

[paul]

An ebay seller recently auctioned off a bunch of uncut 1979 Hostess panels with brown printing on the back. See the link below.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...&LH_Complete=1

I picked up the panel with the Tom Seaver for my Seaver collection. I had been under the impression that Seaver did not exist with a brown back in any of the Hostess sets. Do any of you know the relationship between the issued brown-back cards and these proofs? Do all of the brown-back proofs also exist as brown-back issued cards? Thanks.

Paul

[Zach Wheat]

Paul,

No one responded so I will give you what I know about an earlier set.

It is probably similar to the 75 brown backs also called "black bar" and "brown bar" cards - but basically Twinkies. You can find various threads on N54 regarding them. I believe the printer was experimenting with other color inks - brown being the most popular - and made various scrap sheets.

I spoke to the dealer that bought the 75 Twinkies sheets with brown bars. He said, in the 1975 Twinkies set you could find Twinkies printer's scrap in colors other than black bar and brown bar cards. He mentioned there was even a trial sheet made in pink.

However, I have never seen another color other than the black bar and brown bar twinkies in 1975. I suspect the brown backs in 1979 were due to the same reason. Also note the pics should have minor differences than the photos used by Topps. Per my research Topps execs didn't let them use the original negatives in 1975, but allowed them to pick thru the alternate shots - many of which are similar to the original Topps cards.

[paul]

Thanks for the response. So is it your understanding that there were no brown backs or brown bars actually issued in stores?

[Zach Wheat]

Good question. From my earlier discussions regarding 1975 Twinkies brown bar scrap sheets, that is correct. Not sure about the other years, since they were experimenting with brown ink for later productions purposes.

At the time I ran in to the original source of brown bars, he had already sold a number of sheets from his initial purchase. He also cut up most of his sheets into the configurations (2, 3, 4 and 5 card panels) you can still find on eBay. He told me brown bars were printed at the end of the 1975 season.

As you are probably aware, most Twinkies cards actually packaged have oil stains somewhere on the card and will rarely grade very high. That would be a good indicator on if they were ever issued. All of my brown bar cards are fairly clean with no oil stains.

It would be a pretty impressive feat if someone could put a set of brown bar cards together for each year available....or even one year. Twinkies are an under appreciated set, and in 1975 at least, represent one of the least produced cards for the key rookies.

[steve B]

Another thing to remember is that the boxes were prined for multiple packing plants, and I suspect were printed locally in some cases.