Hostess Baseball Cards

[Jayworld]

I have a fondness for the Hostess baseball cards during the years 1977-79, mostly because my mother was very supportive and purchased said product (Ding Dongs, Cup Cakes, etc.) for the three panel baseball cards on the back. I would always search for boxes that contained Padres players, and in the case of Twinkies (which I never liked), I would force myself to eat them for the cards.

I've noticed a few things, mostly on eBay, about the Hostess cards:

1. They are fairly inexpensive
2. Seemingly there is a desire more for the back panel that contains three uncut cards. So, do collectors generally cut them out themselves once they've obtained an uncut panel, or leave them on the panel intact?
2. The fact that they were designed to be cut out from the bottom of the product box is a quandary to me. I don't collect graded cards, but I have noticed that PSA grades the Hostess cards as "Hand Cut" and assigns them a "regular" PSA numerical grade (6, 7, 8, etc.) and condition. In the same vein, I have seen other cards (pre-war, post-war) cut from packages or product (non-Hostess) graded as "Authentic" because they had been cut. This is kind of confusing for me.

Heck, when I was a kid, I would carefully cut out the cards just outside the dotted lines (so that the dotted lines could be slightly seen all the way around). That was my preference for my cards; yet I see some graded cards that have been cut out on the lines, just inside the lines, etc., and it does not seem to affect the grade one way or the other.

So, for Hostess collectors, what's the general consensus or "rule" regarding cutting the cards, etc.?

Thanks!

[David W]

I've been kind of working on those sets for years. If you are not condition sensitive, you can get them real cheap, they are very plentiful.

I have no desire to put the set together as 3 card panels, mine are individual cards.

I imagine a set could be put together in a few weeks via Ebay if you wanted.

[darkhorse9]

The true challenge of the Hostess sets is the 1977 "Twinkies" set. I've been working on that for decades. That's the only year in which every one of the 150 cards is available on a single (black bar) panel. Some were on the standard Twinkie size (#1-60), some were on cupcake (much narrower #60 - 135) some were on SnoBalls (had flaps on the panels)

The last 15 cards in the set have been a real test for me. I've never seen the uncut versions of those cards come up.

[4reals]

I hear ya Mark, I've been looking for a '77 Twinkies Don Sutton being sold by itself for 5+ years now.

[glynparson]

absolutely should not have received a numerical grade. if the card did it was misgraded.

[Jayworld]

Here's an example (there are others) of a card on eBay that is labeled by PSA as "Hand Cut" and also Gem Mint with a numerical grade:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-HOSTESS...item540f341083

So, are we saying that there should not be a number grade on any card that has been hand cut, etc., or just Hostess?

[Exhibitman]

If anyone needs 1976 Twinkies Aaron cards, I have several available. All have the product stains in varying degrees.

[nolemmings]

o, are we saying that there should not be a number grade on any card that has been hand cut, etc., or just Hostess?

I think Glyn Parson was saying it should not receive a numeric grade if cut inside the dotted or dashed lines.

Edited to add that I think you'll find the Bazooka issues from the 60's (and 1959) to be treated the same.

[esquiresports]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

The true challenge of the Hostess sets is the 1977 "Twinkies" set. I've been working on that for decades. That's the only year in which every one of the 150 cards is available on a single (black bar) panel. Some were on the standard Twinkie size (#1-60), some were on cupcake (much narrower #60 - 135) some were on SnoBalls (had flaps on the panels)

The last 15 cards in the set have been a real test for me. I've never seen the uncut versions of those cards come up.

Here is an example of an uncut Twinkies sheet that I have (I believe I have two or three). Sure enough, the last card on the sheet is #135. Interesting...

[darkhorse9]

That looks to be the Cupcakes run. You'll notice there's very little border between the cards. Those also have much different printing on the back. The stats are printed a lot smaller than the Twinkies versions.

I'm not 100 percent sure what product the ones over #135 were issued in. 1-60 were Twinkies. The Snowballs seem to be skip numbered.

[steve B]

And for really tough ones there's these.



I traded for a small batch of them back around 1981. 74 McCovey Washinton And maybe a couple other cards for the whole bunch.

The stupidly traded half of them for another McCovey Washington.

So there's around 10 of them out there plus my 10. I've never seen any others and haven't seen them listed anywhere.

Pretty interesting, along with the different colors most are screened more coarsely, and there are a few reversed negatives. And numbers over 150 - which seem to match the list for proofs in the Standard catalog.

Steve B

[esquiresports]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

That looks to be the Cupcakes run. You'll notice there's very little border between the cards. Those also have much different printing on the back. The stats are printed a lot smaller than the Twinkies versions.

I'm not 100 percent sure what product the ones over #135 were issued in. 1-60 were Twinkies. The Snowballs seem to be skip numbered.

Ok. That makes sense. Found a photo of the backs:



Here is a 1977 Twinkie card I have that I believe has never been catalogued - Dave Parker.

[David W]

Here is an example of the differences in the Twinkies in 1975. There may be others in 75 as well as other years.

[LDFerg]

I picked up a nice 76 and 79 set a few weeks ago. I have cut a few to get a feel for the grading. My grades have resulted in. 8s, 9s, and 10s.

[Jayworld]

Originally Posted by LDFerg

I picked up a nice 76 and 79 set a few weeks ago. I have cut a few to get a feel for the grading. My grades have resulted in. 8s, 9s, and 10s.

That's very cool. So when you cut them, do you cut exactly on the dotted line (thus leaving a slight line residual), outside the line, or inside the line? I've seen all forms of cutting these cards, and when I used to trade with friends in the 1970s, I was pretty picky about how the cards were cut out, as I did not want ragged edge cards, etc.

[toppcat]

I've been researching old issues of The Trader Speaks for my next book project and found this interesting article form the July 1975 issue. It is a neat read and has some some insights on distribution/alternate products:

[brewing]

Uh, that's not Milt May.

[toppcat]

Here's more from the August issue that includes Sy Berger advising the photos came from Topps:

[toppcat]

deleted dupe post

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by brewing

Uh, that's not Milt May.

Looks like his 'brother,' Lee May.

[Cliff Bowman]

I don't know how to paste it here, but a 1975 Hostess panel with the corrected Burt Hooton card sold for $361.26 on eBay recently even with light creases and light scratches. The corrected 1975 Burt Hooton and Doug Rader cards are very difficult to find, there must have been a small print run of them.

[nolemmings]

[David W]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I don't know how to paste it here, but a 1975 Hostess panel with the corrected Burt Hooton card sold for $361.26 on eBay recently even with light creases and light scratches. The corrected 1975 Burt Hooton and Doug Rader cards are very difficult to find, there must have been a small print run of them.

One of the articles above said it was correct only on Ho Ho's, all other boxes spelled it wrong.

There are probably quite a few less of the correct spelling cards.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by David W

One of the articles above said it was correct only on Ho Ho's, all other boxes spelled it wrong.

There are probably quite a few less of the correct spelling cards.

Aha, that's why every correct Hooton that I have seen has the factory crease along the bottom, they are from the smaller box.

[bobc88]

A fairly large amount of unused/unfolded boxes seemed to have made their way into circulation; especially from 1975. Was this just extra stock? Were they poor quality rejects? 9 panels, mostly on King Dons boxes, seem to be more plentiful in this form. Anybody have any insight?

Bob C

[steve B]

King Dons were somewhat regional, going by another name in other areas. My guess is that one of the regional bakeries either changed names or backdoored a bunch of boxes. That sort of thing happened a lot back then.

I finished the Papa Ginos discs in 78 by luck. We got Pizza once a week, so I got pretty close to having the set. Towards the end we went to another restauraunt and I got nothing but extras. When I asked the staff if I could swap them they handed me the entire bucket they had at the counter and told me to take what I needed since the promotion ended in a couple days. Our local place wouldn't even swap an extra for another random card.

I also got one of the counter ads. They claimed they were all meant to be sent back to corporate, but a week after the promotion ended one was "lost" down behind the register and when I asked they let me have it.

To get it back on topic......I also picked up a few of the Hostess shelf ads later on. 77-78 I think.

Steve B

[steve B]

Anyone else notice that the Hooten/Hooton panels are cropped differently?

Steve B

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by steve B

Anyone else notice that the Hooten/Hooton panels are cropped differently?

Steve B

Good eye, you can barely see above the roof on the error card.

[steve B]

And, to totally bug the completists.............

Posted before, so long ago that I don't recall what products and panels they are. Here's the factory etc. indicators on the inside flaps.

Steve B

[JollyElm]

If you look at the Paul Blair, it, too, is cropped differently. It's most noticeable at the lower right corner. The one version has more dirt area to the right of the colored bands on his sleeve than the other. And at top, the metal stadium structures are different, the one having more of them in view than the other.

Some might attribute these differences to the misalignment of the one color plate (which is easy to see), but it definitely seems to be more substantial than that.

[Exhibitman]

I was looking over my 1976s this a.m. and noticed that one of them [McCovey] has a brown ink back. Never noticed that before.

[toppcat]

Here is a piece from the June 13 1975 issue of Sports Collectors News about the '75 Hostess "test" set.

[toppcat]

Here's an article on the regular set from the June 27 1975 issue of SCN:

[toppcat]

July 11 1975 issue of SCN reveals an album was issued for the main Hostess set:

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by glynparson

absolutely should not have received a numerical grade. if the card did it was misgraded.

I thought they now graded cards like this but put the designation as Hand Cut? Not just Hostess panels....

Z Wheat

[hoot-owl]

Anyone have specific data on the short prints across the different years?

I am still looking for John Mayberry from the 1975 set (card #92) and five or six 1979s (also in the 90-100 number range). Anybody have a spare Mayberry?

Just wondering if there are common ranges of numbers between the sets that might have been SPs?

[toppcat]

Here is an article from the July 19, 1976 Sports Collectors News entitled 1976 Hostess Cards Checklisted. It has information on some black and brown prints and the collectors album for the issue.

[4reals]

I may have missed it but does anyone have scans of both Hooton variations?

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by 4reals

I may have missed it but does anyone have scans of both Hooton variations?

The correct card is very difficult to find.

[4reals]

Thanks for sharing Cliff. You are a wealth of knowledge in the variations department!