Authenticating Post Cereal Cards

[Bestdj777]

Brian, without hijacking, when are you getting that book out? I finished the Explosions book you recommended and am anxiously awaiting Never Cheaper by the Dozen.

[brian1961]

Hiya Chris. Glad you read EXPLOSION. Tell me, what did you honestly think of it? Isn't it a treasury of Mickey Mantle heroics and anecdotes? So many of those dear guys who shared their memories with the author have since passed away. Their superb re-telling of the events of Mick's home runs make them come alive again. The author took a subject, Mickey Mantle's home runs, and did such a good job without becoming boring or redundant. Of course, for us Mickey Mantle fans, his home runs are never redundant!!!!

Now to your question about my book. The father of one of my wife's guitar students happens to be a lawyer, a copyright attorney no less. He successfully got my book copyrighted, and so my next step will be finding a printing company to put it on a CD that can easily be slipped into a desk or laptop computer for viewing. While I wanted a printed version, of course, the second choice is very workable, and the pictures look fantastic!

Whilst I'm very embarrassed about how long this has taken and being ignored by the sought publisher, I am buoyed by the fact this is very do-able. I have not forgotten you, my friend; I will email you as soon as it's ready. At this point it looks like it will be $25-28 dollars, postpaid. For those that even hint the price might be high, it's the equivalent of a 480-page book. Though the pictures are relatively few, I've often said they're alone worth the price of the book. Then again, I've also maintained it is not a picture book but a treasury of stories and anecdotes and social history of how important baseball cards can be to a kid, and the lengths he will go to hunt down a card he feverishly desires. As adults, those feelings don't change; in fact, they intensify!!

By the way, what does hijacking a thread mean anyway?

Wishing you the very, very best Chris. --Brian Powell

[1963Topps Set]

I just wanted to know how Post was able to produce full sets of cards while Fleer was not able too?

[brian1961]

Tom, as I vaguely recall, General Foods got away with it for two important reasons:

A. The baseball cards were from a breakfast cereal promotion, not sold with bubble gum as Topps.

B. Post Cereal was part of the huge family of General Foods, ranked about 20th at the time among all US companies in regard to sales. Compared to them, Topps was a little scrimp. I seriously doubt Topps wanted to go up against the powerful team of lawyers that GF would pitch back at them.

You other guys know? Please correct me if I'm mistaken. ---Brian Powell

[1963Topps Set]

Fleer got around that too with a cookie, however, your second point certainly hits home big time and most likely the valid reason. Excellent point.

[Bestdj777]

Hi Brian,

I thought it was an exceptional read. I am not a big reader--I do far too much reading as part of my job to devote much of my free time to it--but I thought it was excellent. Having never watch some of the players, it felt as if you were almost at a game. Plus, I got to learn a lot about some of the other Yankees I own cards of but have not studied in any great detail.

Hijacking a thread means to derail it by taking it off course and discussing something else.

Look forward to reading your book!

Chris

[1963Topps Set]

Come to think about it, how was Leaf able to put out such a nice set in 1960? I think Topps just hated Fleer!

[darkhorse9]

The reason Post didn't have the troubles Fleer did was that the "cards" that Post issued weren't cards, but rather part of the packaging of the product. Clearly Post was selling cereal and not baseball cards. It would have been hard for Topps to claim otherwise. That's why many food issues thrived during those years (i.e. Kahn's, )

[Exhibitman]

Brian: try lulu.com for print on demand publishing. I issue my boxing book that way.