Post/Jello Books?

[toppcat]

I believe a series of three were published about their various 60's card sets about 20 years ago but don't remember the name of the author. Explored all these sets in depth. Looking to purchase depending upon price but any details would be appreciated.

[buymycards]

This article was on a cereal website. Possibly the person who wrote the article will have some knowledge of these books.

Good luck!
Rick




Milk, Hot Water, And Cardboard
by Dan W. Mabey Okay, sports card fans. The year is 1962. The Yankees are World Series Champs, having disposed of the Reds in five games in the Fall of 1961. The 1961 football season is over, with the Green Bay Packers having come out on top in the NFL, while our friends to the north have seen the Winnipeg Blue Bombers seize the CFL's Grey Cup. You have anxiously awaited arrival of Spring, the start of baseball, and your first glimpse of the 1962 trading cards.

Now, fast forward to 1999 and answer the following questions: What major manufacturer produced the largest number of different baseball and football card sets and separate card numbers in 1962? For the U.S. market? For the Canadian market?

For certain, it's got to be Topps. Nope! Then Fleer? You're not even close! Gee, how about O-Pee-Chee? Three strikes and you're out!

Would you believe the folks at General Foods (GF)? Well, it's true. Those purveyors of breakfast flakes and wobbly blocks of sugared gelatin pulled out all the stops in 1962, with a promotion campaign that permeated the upper two-thirds of the North American continent. Plastering baseball and football cards on the back of U.S. and Canadian cereal boxes, Post was out to prove their slogan that they were "a little bit better", while a less flambouyant Jell-O promotional campaign was launched to affirm that the "light dessert" was the right dessert!

In all, collectors in the States and Canada saw the marketing troops at GF oversee issuance of 5 separate sets and 998 different numbers, with scores of card text, photograph cropping, and tint variations. You could say that Post milked its product for all it was worth, while Jell-O ran into a little hot water. The 1962 GF promotion created the following classic card sets:

- 1962 U.S. Post cereal baseball (200 cards, not including variations);
- 1962 U.S. Post cereal football (200 cards, not including variations);
- 1962 U.S. Jell-O baseball (197 cards);
- 1962 Canadian Post baseball (200 cards, not including variations); and
- 1962 Canadian Post football (200 cards).

Not a bad one year sports card output from the White Plains, New York and Battle Creek, Michigan conglomerate. And in 1963, they'd do it all over again with the exception of scrubbing the Canadian Post baseball card set.

For complete set, team set, and individual player hobbyists, the GF cards offer a challenging and rewarding addition to their collections. First, let's take a look at the 1962 baseball cards.

As a departure point, all three sets of baseball cards virtually mirror each other, sharing almost identical numbers, photographs, and basic text. The U.S. and Canadian Post cards depict the same players in the same order, with the photographs in the maple leaf issue shrunk to give a wider view perspective. Most interesting is the fact that the Canadian cards contain both English and French text, which account for shortened narratives and generation of some language and grammatical errors. Both sets appeared on the back of cereal boxes in panels of four to seven cards (and in panels of three on the bottom of U.S. Post Tens). The promotions were nation-wide, with a television, newsprint, and in-store campaign that featured Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford encouraging kids "to collect all 200 cards".

The 1962 Jell-O promotion and card distribution was far less boistrous than its cereal munching and crunching counterpart. In fact, a complete set of 1962 Jell-O baseball cards - in any condition - is very rare. Although never confirmed by GF insiders, many advanced collectors believe that the set was a test promotion centered in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois regions of the U.S. Baseball hobbyists enjoy a good mystery, and the 1962 Jell-O cards read like a classic "whodunnit". While sharing the same photographs (with cropping alterations) and parallel text as the Post cards, the Jell-O set is absent Brooks Robinson (#29), Ted Kluszewski (#82), and Smoky Burgess (#176). To complicate the plot, one of the premier players of the game - Rocky Colavito of the Tigers - was omitted in deference to Cleveland's Ken Aspromonte! Hobby lore places Apple Jell-O at the scene of the crime in explaining the disappearance of Roby, Klu and Smoky. Veteran collectors allege that the Apple flavor was pulled from the grocery store shelves after the first shipment, denying the trio their rightful spot in the set. Why Aspromonte would have been substituted for Colavito is anybody's guess, since the statistics and player popularity are hardly comparable, and insertion of a well-travelled, banjo-hitting Indian in the midst of Tigers demonstrates questionable judgment.

Considering that each of the Post and Jell-O sets were one-third the size of the Topps 1962 baseball offering, the GF execs and marketing folks did a superlative job in representing the top players in the major leagues. Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, Cash, Colavito (except Jell-O), Kaline, Bunning, Gentile, Brooks Roby (except Jell-O), Wilhelm, Fox, Aparicio, Minoso, Wynn, Yastrzemski, Jensen, Woodling, Klu (except Jell-O), Killebrew, Hodges, Maury Wills, Koufax, Drysdale, Snider, Pinson, Frank Robinson, McCovey, Kuenn, Cepeda, Marichal, Mays, Mathews, Aaron, Burdette, Ken Boyer, Flood, Mazeroski, Groat, Clemente, Santo, Ashburn, Banks, Robin Roberts -- they're all there! While some stars and players with distinguished 1961 seasons were missed - notably Spahn, Musial, Billy Williams, Frank Howard, Steve Barber, Wally Moon, Ken McBride, Bill Monbouquette, and Jimmy Piersall - photographer Art Shay and art director Bill Betts created sets that were extremely ambitious and attractive, particularly for the early '60s.

Today, the Post and Jell-O cards are a must for individual player enthusiasts who desire challenging, distinctive, and (generally) affordable cards of their diamond heroes. For team and set collectors, acquiring well-cut and well-preserved specimens requires patience, luck, and deep pockets or strong trading fodder for the "toughies" appearing on less popular cereal and Jell-O varieties and box sizes. And to add to the fun, the photograph cropping and color/tint variations seem virtually endless. In the next issue of The Boxtop I will discuss the 1962 Canadian Post baseball card short prints, and text, photograph cropping, and color variations of Hall of Famers and minor stars.

Until next time, keep your scissors sharp and cut straight along the lines...

Subscribers are invited to contact Dan Mabey regarding Post and Jell-O issues, c/o keepmeposted@msn.com or KEEP ME POSTED, 21375 Sparrow Place, Potomac Falls, Virginia 20165-7630 U.S.A. FAX correspondence may be sent to 703-450-5317.

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[toppcat]

Thanks for that-may be the lead I am looking for!

[bobc88]

Here's an ad from an old SCD:

4161

Bob C

[toppcat]

I think dose are dem. The prices are a bit rich though. Can you advise the url, I can't make it out even if I zoom.

[bobc88]

I don't know if this will be any better...

I have been interested in these books for some time but the prices held me back too...

4166

[toppcat]

It's keepmeposted@msn.com and it hasn't been updated in 10 years!

[Butch7999]

That would be the e-mail address for the article's author (whether or not it's still valid after all this time, someone else can test).
The URL for the article, however, is this:
http://www.lavasurfer.com/boxtop/boxtop-11.html
-- and while that 1999 page has not been updated, the website itself is still going strong and updated regularly:
http://www.lavasurfer.com/boxtop/boxtop-112.html
Unfortunately, the promised follow-up article(s) never appeared, as far as we can tell. There's only one related bit we can find in there, a reminiscence from the author providing no substantive information about the card sets:
http://www.lavasurfer.com/boxtop/boxtop-21.html