1975 to 1979 Hostess observations

[David W]

I have been putting the Hostess sets together from 1975 to 1979 over the last 6 months or so. A fellow collector friend and myself have been buying bulk lots on Ebay and elsewhere,and beginning the process of assembling these sets.

Some of the cards were printed on less popular product, so finding a 1975 Gibson, or 1979 Nolan Ryan or Ozzie Smith pose challenges, but I am finding a few other possible oddities as well.

I am not really working on a Twinkie only series of sets, they have their own numerous variations.

Aside from the obvious condition problems from dull scissors and 10 year old kids, and the Twinkie stains on the individual packaged Twinkies, here are some anecdotal observations on these sets.


1 - 1975 is by far the most common, with 1976 and 1977 also being pretty easy to find. The Robin Yount rookie is not tough at all. The error cards are also relatively tough to find, but not impossible. (Madlock, Hooton, Yaz, and Rader). There are also several uncorrected errors. Milt May/Lee May, Mike Sundberg, George Hendricks, Craig Nettles and possibly more.

2 - The brown backs are really tough. Not all cards have brown printed stats on the back, and I don't have any for 1977, so perhaps only 1975, 76, 78, 79 were printed in brown instead of black.

3 - The higher numbers are harder to find, specifically the cards numbered over about 100. I'm about 2/3 of the way to completion, and the majority by far, I would estimate 75% are numbers above 100. Since numbers 100 to 150 are only 1/3 of the set, this seems to indicate a much lower card run. This seems uniform across the sets.

4 - 1978 is harder to find than 1975-77, but 1979 appears to have the lowest number of printed cards.

Here are scans of some brown backs next to the normal black printed backs for comparison. There is also a scan of Bill Madlock listed as a pitcher and some print defects that have come in as well.

Thoughts or comments appreciated.

[laughlinfan]

Interesting observations, David! I did collect these all of those years - my extended family all still blame me for a few extra Hostess pounds from the 70s. Do you know if the brown backs were printed only on select products? Guessing some of those type questions are much better answered with full boxes. Can't say I ever noticed that the high numbers were harder to find, but I might have written down what I had back in the day, so I will see if that was generally the case based on what cards we found. Look forward to any other observations you come up with in your quest!

[darkhorse9]

Don't forget about the Rod Carew "Big Head"/ "Little Head" variation from 1979

I've collected these since they first came out. I have a complete run of all the panels and a near complete run of all the "Twinkies" cards including the panel size variations of the 1977 set.

The brown printing had to do with using a different printing plant at times. Personally I've never really viewed them as variations. More like anamalies.

As for the higher number issue, the only time I've noticed anything like that is in the 1977 set. I'm pretty sure that had something to do with the expansion teams. Notice that all the Seattle Mariner and Toronto Blue Jay players are in the high numbers higher than 124. Also Sal Bando is the only player to be treated to an airbrush cap job. He signed with the Brewers in November of 1976. They likely held back those last panels to get the logos on the expansionplayers.

[IndyDave]

During the pandemic I spent some time rooting around in some long forgotten boxes in the basement and found the shoebox (a Converse box) with my Hostess panel collection from all those Ding Dongs and cupcakes that Mom bought back in the day.

I found that I didn't have too many 1979 panels, but I got my want list in order. I had a good number of 1975-78 panels. There were a few Slim Jim football and Kellogg's football in the box as well.

When I started searching eBay for panels that I needed I was shocked at how many single cards were available. Back in the 1970's I don't remember many collectors cutting apart the panels. I set up at shows in the late 70's and early 80's and I don't recall singles.

I've been on a search to fill out my sets since I pulled the list together. At the 2021 National there were 2 or 3 dealers with some in stock. I've found one dealer with some at another show but they aren't easy to find, particularly at smaller shows where new and shiny dominate.

I definitely have not seen the high numbers as hard:

1975 - I need 5 panels, 4 of them numbered under 20

1976 - I need 5 panels all numbers under 50

1977 - I need 1 panel : 34-35-36 (Yount, Garvey, Brett)

1978 - I need 5 panels - 3 are over 100

1979 - I need 7 panels, 2 are over 100

I'm doing my best not to pay more than $10-$12 a panel and trying to keep the cost of the panels with stars in the $25-$30 range. That may not turn out to be a successful strategy

Seems a lot of the ones I find on eBay are priced much higher. I will go in and search for newly listed items about once a month. Obviously there is no cheap postage options in mailing a full panel.

[cannonballsun]

There were some SHORTPRINTS in 1975 that were tough. I still need a few. Those are the only cards I need. I'm complete in all the other years.

[David W]

[
I have some panels.

Message me with the ones you need


QUOTE=IndyDave;2310386]During the pandemic I spent some time rooting around in some long forgotten boxes in the basement and found the shoebox (a Converse box) with my Hostess panel collection from all those Ding Dongs and cupcakes that Mom bought back in the day.

I found that I didn't have too many 1979 panels, but I got my want list in order. I had a good number of 1975-78 panels. There were a few Slim Jim football and Kellogg's football in the box as well.

When I started searching eBay for panels that I needed I was shocked at how many single cards were available. Back in the 1970's I don't remember many collectors cutting apart the panels. I set up at shows in the late 70's and early 80's and I don't recall singles.

I've been on a search to fill out my sets since I pulled the list together. At the 2021 National there were 2 or 3 dealers with some in stock. I've found one dealer with some at another show but they aren't easy to find, particularly at smaller shows where new and shiny dominate.

I definitely have not seen the high numbers as hard:

1975 - I need 5 panels, 4 of them numbered under 20

1976 - I need 5 panels all numbers under 50

1977 - I need 1 panel : 34-35-36 (Yount, Garvey, Brett)

1978 - I need 5 panels - 3 are over 100

1979 - I need 7 panels, 2 are over 100

I'm doing my best not to pay more than $10-$12 a panel and trying to keep the cost of the panels with stars in the $25-$30 range. That may not turn out to be a successful strategy

Seems a lot of the ones I find on eBay are priced much higher. I will go in and search for newly listed items about once a month. Obviously there is no cheap postage options in mailing a full panel.[/QUOTE]

[Zach Wheat]

David,

Nice cards! I have always thought the '75 brown back Hostess cards were way underappreciated.

At the time the cards were printed, the manufacturers of Twinkies gave the printer a lot of leeway in terms of making the first sets of cards. As has been discussed on N54 before, Topps would not let them use the approved 1st images - but gave them inferiro 2nd images to make the cards. Also, it was suggested the printer made the backs of the initial set of '75 Hostess cards with other colors also. That being said, I have never seen another color.

Also, the '75 black bar Hostess cards can be found in unissued panels. The panels were actually proof sheets the printer made trying to figure out the layout of cards. You might still find some panels here and there. All cards in the set can be located. They originated from an employee that took the discarded sheets out of the dumpster. This is also how a number of miscuts got into the market.

If you are successful, you should be able to put together a high grade set of hand cut black bar panels without the oil stains. Best of luck!

[Zach Wheat]

Following is a scan of a 2-card panel of the black bar '75 Hostess Twinkies. I have seen them in 2, 3 and 4+ card panels.

[steve B]

Well, since we're on to Hostess...
May as well show these again.

[Zach Wheat]

Here is a 4-card panel

[Jenx34]

I was in the grocery store today and saw Hostess cakes were BOGO. I grabbed one, looked at the back and no baseball cards, so I put it back. Oh well. The good old days are long gone!