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.
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