Hostess panels - advice?

[Belfast1933]

Would love some advice from collectors of the hostess panels… forgive me if this belongs in another area of the site

1. I have a couple of nice panels that are hand trimmed but uneven. I am tempted to cut myself to even them up AND so they will fit ultra pro sheets for larger “cards”. See images below - they have some room to be trimmed (ie, they were not cut along the fake perforated lines from the original owner, I guess

2. Speaking of sheets, any advice on right-sized sheets for these hosted 3 card horizontal panels? I’d love to add the Yount panel to my Yount binder, etc.

3. If I ever do decide to grade/slab these, what is the experience of others to get higher grade in terms of hand cutting?

4. And overall collectibility… I am thinking of buying a couple of full hostess boxes to give my collection a different look (vs the card panel alone). Personally, I like the Twinkies boxes best - more recognizable when I torture my non collector friends and family to view my collection 😬

Thanks for any advice - love to hear from you experienced Hostess card collectors!

Jeff

[swarmee]

There is a Post-War board that this should go in, since it's between the years of 1945-1979.
Re 1) Yes, you can recut them closer to the border if you don't like the cuts. With hand cut cards like this, it doesn't matter if they were cut when they came out or yesterday.
3) Cut as straight as possible as close to the outside of the lined borders. I used a normal pair of long scissors and got a 9 on a bazooka panel. Paid $50, sold for $600.

[Belfast1933]

Originally Posted by swarmee

There is a Post-War board that this should go in, since it's between the years of 1945-1979.
Re 1) Yes, you can recut them closer to the border if you don't like the cuts. With hand cut cards like this, it doesn't matter if they were cut when they came out or yesterday.
3) Cut as straight as possible as close to the outside of the lined borders. I used a normal pair of long scissors and got a 9 on a bazooka panel. Paid $50, sold for $600.

Cool, thx for the advice… nice pick up on the bazooka panel

[rdwyer]

I just got the last one needed and completed my 1976 Hostess panel set today! Mine are cut oversize and if I cut close to the dotted lines, I can expect PSA 9's. Panel sets are getting rare, because many of them are being cut for the single cards instead.

[Belfast1933]

Originally Posted by rdwyer

I just got the last one needed and completed my 1976 Hostess panel set today! Mine are cut oversize and if I cut close to the dotted lines, I can expect PSA 9's. Panel sets are getting rare, because many of them are being cut for the single cards instead.

Good for you - I’m a total novice in these but I really like the ‘76 look better than others…. Colorful and perfect with that “Bicentennial” look of that day.

And, wow, I’m really surprised the people would cut those cards into individual sections. I don’t think they’re nearly as interesting that way. I dig the look of the panels (and maybe a full box too)

[HistoricNewspapers]

Having complete Hostess boxes is most preferable. Complete boxes check off two collectible areas; cards and food products. Swanson's TV dinner boxes from the 1960's have been selling from $75-$150. Those are just pictures of meatloaf and mashed potatoes! No cards. Hostess combines the food product of a bygone era along with great looking baseball cards. Future is strong there IMO.

If putting together a collection, I would recommend an example of each product, ie. Twinkies, Cupcakes, HoHo's, etc... Chocodiles boxes are pretty hard to find. Having a display with the different products, along with the different years, would look pretty neat.

Complete panels are great as well. The full bottom panel that has the Sporting News ad, bar code, and offer for batting gloves still in tact is the coolest looking IMO.

I would much rather have a complete box with my favorite player on it than a cut up PSA 9. I'm not much interested in the opinion of a guy in California...the complete box is far more interesting....although as noted by a gentleman above, money can be made by cutting them up as that is all part of the game.

I personally cringe seeing the boxes cut up, but to each their own.

Hostess Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith rookies are much, much harder to find than their Topps counterparts. Finding their panels and complete boxes are really tough. I personally got bored of looking at the Topps cards from that era as I've handled them a million times over and they will survive earth's next extinction event just by sheer numbers alone .


Here is a 1978 store display piece(NFS).