1950 Wheaties Tin Trays

[JLange]

I found this ad for Wheaties "Metal Pictures" of your favorite "Baseball Champs" in the Apr 6, 1950 edition of the Elmira NY Star Gazette. The ad lists four different pictures - Jackie Robinson, Ralph Kiner, Phil Rizzuto, and Stan Musial to complete the set.

The promotion also shows up in a small detail ad by IGA Food Stores in the May 4, 1950 Winona MN Daily News. Both ads seem to suggest that you had to buy two packages of wheaties to get the metal picture.

The Standard Catalog has these dated to 1952, but it looks like they were actually issued in 1950.

Also including the tin of Stan Musial for reference (not mine)

[hcv123]

I am not sure who is editing the standard catalog these days, but probably relevant to send to them. I wonder if they issued them for more than 1 year? ironically just looking at a Kiner I have today

[bigfanNY]

First Thank you very much for posting this. I am among a very small minority who find wheaties backs interesting. What I find most interesting about this is the Jackie Robinson reference. The Robinson tray is VERY SCARCE. And yet the other trays are fairly common. And yet this ad says that you can go to the local market and on the back of a two box wheaties pack will be all four trays.
I had the first 3 trays somewhere around 1976 and I did not even see a Robinson tray until the early 1990's. In fact in some early catalogs George Kell is listed as the 4th tray. Certainly brings up the question of why it became so scarce even 20 or 25 years after it was issued.
J

[RedsFan1941]

great post. LOVE stuff like this

[buymycards]

I love the tin trays and the fact that most of them still have the glue and the cardboard from the cereal box attached to the back. I have had several of the Kiner, Musial, and Rizzuto trays, but I have never seen the Robinson tray for sale. I'm not sure why that particular tray was short-printed. Possibly to sell more boxes of cereal?

Thanks for the info on the dating.


Rick

[sflayank]

1 tray with 2 box package
the question is why arent they all rare since it says distributed in greater elmira area only

[Baseballcrazy62]

This might be a really dumb question but I am going to ask it anyways. Were the tins attached to the inside or outside of the box? I have always assumed that they were on the inside if for no other reason than to protect the tins. I have never seen a box that had the tins attached. If anyone has one please post a picture. Thanks!!

[bigfanNY]

Looks like ad shows that trays were on the outside of box pack. I always thought since glue was on back of tray that it was outside of the box. And it looks like the tray was protected by the wrap that held the boxes together. As to why the Jackie tray is so scarce I have no answer. But I have purchased trays st flea markets from PA. NJ NY . And it always seemed like the Musiel was the most plentiful.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by sflayank

1 tray with 2 box package
the question is why arent they all rare since it says distributed in greater elmira area only

They weren’t. The OP says there were ads found from NY and MN publications. Odds are the advertising agency’s copy changed slightly for each market.

As for why JR seems to be short printed my guess is race. He was a controversial figure in a large swath of the country. Perhaps they were concerned that his trays wouldn’t sell in the South? Remember this is 1950 not 2018.