I'm assuming it's already known, but besides the color difference, I noticed there is also a big cropping difference between those two 1961 Post cards. Most notably the amount of hand appearing below his chin...

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Post Cereal Variations.
 

The two Red Schoendienst cards look different because they came from two different cereal panels. The top card came from a 12 oz Post Toasties panel and the bottom one came from a 14 oz Raisin Bran panel. It is common (in fact a certainty) that a player's cards coming from different box panels will have differences. Could be color. Could be picture cropping (look at the difference in the Schoendienst hand at the bottom of these two cards and you certainly see more of his hand in the lower card). Adhesive marking (or lack of) on the back of the card is another clue for some of the players.

Wow, thanks for the comments, I had no idea. I figured the contrast was so stark this had to be noticed by people before. Are other players cards this obviously discernible? I guess because both are meant to be just as they are neither can be a variation. Hence why I've never heard of post cereal variations.

1968 Topps Vern Fuller #71. Yellow streak on hat.

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1953 Topps #46 Klippstein
 

I just saw that my card had the yellow line at the top so I bought the other one as a contrast. These are very common in both versions. A look on eBay shows that about 90% do not have the line and 10% DO have the line. The "ear ring" appears to show up on the lined versions.

1968 Topps Glenn Beckert #101 partial right black border missing.

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post variations.
 

All players who made appearances on multiple panels have multiple card variations ... one unique variation for each of the appearances. Now some are easier to spot than others. But the differences are there. Color is not the best way to determine variations because during production, colors can change a bit. Amount of ink. Different print runs. Stuff like that. But it is an indicator. Picture cropping is the best and most certain determinate. As I said, whether a not a card has packaging adhesive marking on the back is a clue. Also differences in the narrative occur occasionally with one box having a word or two different from another for a player.

There are a handful of advanced Post Cereal collectors who go after a Master Set for each of the Post Cereal card promotions. A Master Set is a card for every cereal box panel a player made an appearance on. It is challenging but there are reference book out there written by Dan Mabey that help and let one know the universe of a master set in terms of how many variations each Baseball player has out there in each of the sets (I wrote a similiar book on the 1962 Post Cereal Football Promotion).

Collecting Post master sets is so much more challenging and fulfilling than going after other sets. Rather than a basic Post set of 200 cards, one is looking for many more cards. For example in the 1962 Post master set there is something like 550 cards. And all variations are not printed equally in terms of quantity. The popular cereal aimed at kids (Sugar Crisp, Alpha-Bits) have cards that are very common. Large boxes because families were cost conscious are also very common compared to smaller boxes of the same cereal. At the other end of the scale, adult focus cereal are less available. And if a player came on a small Grape-Nuts box ... good luck. So very tough.

Price guides have never recognized many variation. Mostly on narrative differences due to a player being on two different boxes.

Did I put you to sleep?

Ken is one of the most knowledgeable experts on all things Post cereal as well as 1962 and 1963 Jello cards. Anything he says you can take to the bank!

Um...you do realize you referred to the exact same thing I did (with pictures) in the very post before yours (and 48 minutes earlier), right?????

Sorry, I don't see where you referenced the cards came from two different cereals as Ken did, nor did you ID the cereal "flavors", or the adhesive markings that he noted.

Thus I don't think you can say quote "you do realize you referred to the EXACT same thing I did" Rather he EXPANDED on the differences. And noted one thing of many in his post that mentioned the same cropping difference as you did

I thought NET 54 was there for information/learning etc. not who is first with information.