[brian1961]

PACKS--

Howdy, bub. When a company, be it General Foods' products such as Post Cereal or JELL-O, Holloways' Milk Duds, Topps' subsidiary Bazooka, Royal Desserts, Milprint, Inc.---with its various customers for whom they designed some of the most elegant trading cards to grace a product package or even the package stiffener, or whoever, printed those free trading card prizes on the back of their packages, they usually told the kids to cut them out and collect them, trade them with their friends, etc.

Simply, they were intended to be cut off the package. The consumer recipient of the free prize now took the place, so to speak, of the printing department cutter to do the final cutting and render the trading card. It is ludicrous to conceive that the cards should always just be left on the package. True, there are very valuable examples of box design cards left on the package. Actually, in some rare instances a reputable third party grader has encapsulated a few of them; an example being a small box of JELL-O from 1962 having the free prize baseball card on the back of the package.

Permit me to elaborate; I shall endeavor not to bloviate.

Vintage postwar regional / food issue box design cards encompassing the product container and a single free prize trading card are in a class of their own. The classiest are those that have been authenticated and encapsulated by PSA and SGC. The class is most high, esoteric, very valuable, with numbers representative of "the favored few". Almost always, they are among the favorites of their happy owners.

Among my own personal favorites are a pair of boxes from a set I referred to earlier, GENERAL FOODS' 1962 JELL-O, a test issue only available in the Chicago-Milwaukee area, on top of everything else. Both specimens are mint unfolded, with the fold lines scored, all ready to be put through the final packaging process. Insanely rare in this form!

With a 1962 JELL-O card cut off the product box, as was done 99.9% of the time, you have a gorgeous regional with numerous differences from the much more common, but still very beautiful, Post Cereal cards of the same year. With a complete, unfolded JELL-O box, resplendent in its SGC holder--we now have a vastly different ensemble that is perfection, in this instance, to a Mickey Mantle baseball card connoisseur. The unfolded nature is extraordinary, as it beautifully expands the card, presenting the full-figured boundaries of the box itself, multiplying the card's appearance without any distracting unwanted excess. Yet, the still small size makes it all the more attractive and desirable. As one appreciates the opportunity to see the complete front and backside of the small three-ounce JELL-O product package size, the eye candy is rich indeed, a nostalgic wonder piece, with simply outstanding ambiance of the time period and the limited time promotion.

The pair I own (Mantle and another player) must have been snatched away from the loading hopper that would have sent all the boxes on their way through the packaging apparatus---to be opened up, the bag of gelatin inserted, and a strip of glue applied to the top and bottom flap. The flaps were then sealed shut. Whereupon the box followed a couple gross of others (288) to fill a case, to be loaded in a delivery truck bound for supermarkets and grocery stores in Chicago or Milwaukee, and their respective suburbs. I saw them at the huge Jewel Supermarket on Touhy Avenue in Skokie, Illinois where I grew up.

Yet against all odds, my pair and an extremely few others (I have seen a Tommy Davis and an Early Wynn) were spared from the final packaging process, with Sportscard Guaranty Company performing their usual outstanding authentication and encapsulation. A 1962 JELL-O unfolded box would stand out in ANY world class collection of postwar regional / food issues. Perhaps I sound as if I'm offering it up for sale; no way. I guess my zeal and passion for the postwar regionals needs to be expressed once in awhile.

If the box was a piece of music, it is the immortal violinist Isaac Stern and his accompanying orchestra playing the magnificent crescendo of the opening title to the movie, Fiddler on the Roof. But then I would hear that glorious music with my favorite dozen Mantles. If this perhaps unique Mickey Mantle prize was a gem, I'm seeing a flawless 500-carat Padparadscha Sapphire. Should you doubt my words, and believe I'm just sticking you with a hypodermic shot of hyperbole, my son uploaded a photo from my book, NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN.

The recent spring, 2015 Robert Edward Auctions sported another complete, but normal, 1962 JELL-O Mickey Mantle box that the original owner had opened and removed the gelatin package to prepare for enjoyment. The box was saved and preserved all these years. It was offered raw, and looked terrific, with the Mantle free prize intact, unspoiled for the most part, and in visually superb condition. Evidence of the growing interest in these esoteric pieces may be seen by the fact the box attracted 18 bids, with the winning bid and buyer's premium coming to $3,300. That's not a milk toast Mantle price guys, nor a world class '52 Topps price, either. Yet, 33 c-notes for an opened 1962 JELL-O Mantle box should cause more than a few of you to raise your eyebrows. It is such a classic conversation piece, as opposed to a mundane bubble gum card of Mr. Mantle, much as I love and respect those mainstream Mantles. By the way, should you wish to check out REA's neat JELL-O Mantle box, it may be found on their web site. Simply type: ROBERT EDWARD AUCTIONS, Spring 2015, Lot # 607.

Back to the general discussion on "hand cut cards". As others have stated, it's all about the quality of the cut. Also, I would urge collectors to strive to find an example with the player photo having outstanding picture registry, and as few print defects as possible. After all, when it comes to trading cards, the picture is the piece de resistance! If there is extra cardboard outside the card's borders that may be carefully trimmed to provide a better appearing cut, and to the point, a higher grade, that is perfectly acceptable. If you wish to call that an unfair advantage, go ahead. You're right. How 'bout that? It's the owner's privilege to upgrade his own raw hand-cut card, to the betterment of its grade, and value. But remember, if he should botch the cut, he scotches the grade, and perhaps ruins the whole thing. He has one chance----"do you feel lucky?", so to speak.

Hand cut cards are among the most special and meaningful to player collectors, because the advanced collectors know how rare they are in high-grade. They are ultra-prized, believe me. I suppose I speak from experience since I own a few of them.

Must go. Hope this helps, mate. Take care.

----Brian Powell