Looking for fellow 1962 Jell-O collectors

[swarmee]

Welcome to our boards. Are you collecting cards with full borders, or just whatever you can get? I used to post over at collectors universe as mjohnatgt.

[Promethius88]

Thank you! I'm always looking for full borders but those are few and far between. I know there are some that I'm going to be lucky to find in any condition much less with any border. At this point I'm looking for pretty much anything that looks decent. I'm sure I'll upgrade from time to time but as long as there is no writing on the front or back and no horrendous creases or really nasty jagged cuts, I'm ok with them.
I don't recognize your user name.....I went zero dark for about 6-7 years only going on from time to time.

[Kenmarks]

Good to hear of another 62 Jell-O collector. My favorite set! Fairly serious Post Cereal Jell-O collector and most of my hobby efforts are in this area. For a number of years been working on trying to figure out the intricacies of the 62 Jell-Os as there is very little historical documentation that exists from back then. And been somewhat successful, at least in some areas of this set. If you would like to talk about the set, get a hold of me at bwnrot@aol.com or 916 508-7872. Always good to chat with a fellow collector. Have a good night. Ken

[Promethius88]

Ken, I will for sure get in touch with you when things are settled down around my house soon. You and Brian are the main reasons I joined Net54. It was the posts about the Jell-O from you both that I had been reading. The amount of knowledge I have about the set pales in comparison to you both. Heck, a lot of what I know has come from you guys. It wasn't that I didn't know about the cards for years, as I've been collecting since 1978, but it wasn't until about 10 months ago when I ran across a very small stash of them that I became intrigued by them and then about 4 months ago that I became obsessed by them, lol. The scarcity, the mysteries surrounding them then the feeling you get when you run across a copy with a full, strong boarder and rich color. It had me hook, line and sinker. My obvious goal is to complete a set but I have to keep in mind that I may never reach that goal. I'm hoping to run into other collectors that can help me in that goal and share information with me as well. Thanks for posting and I will stay in touch!!
Tim

[brian1961]

Wishing you the very, very best, Tim, in your pursuit of a genuine post-war beast of a set.

Take your time, and while it's good to be choosy, please know that it will be very troublesome to find full border all around the card. That was a major point I focused on in my chapter on those gorgeous 1962 JELL-Os. I've really grown fond of them over the years, without actually collecting them. It was a major confirmation to me in 2015-16 when the late Bob Lemke dug out an article from a spring 1962 issue of THE SPORTING NEWS on what was going on with General Foods' baseball card promotions. He posted the article in his blog. One little sentence was the large gold nugget to me----that recently General Foods had begun test-marketing their 1962 baseball card set on the backs of their JELL-O boxes in the Chicagoland area.

Previously, the Beckett 3 BB card guide (1981) said most collectors considered the '62 issue a test issue. When I interviewed the late Larry Fritsch for my book on September 18, 2003, he confirmed to me the 1962 JELL-Os were a test issue. Then, finally, dear Bob Lemke also nailed it with his find from that SPORTING NEWS article! The 1963 release was indeed nationwide; not so 1962!

Lest I forget, welcome to the Net54baseball family!

Have a swell weekend, my fellow collecting warrior! ---Brian Powell

[swarmee]

Too many posts without an image. I lucked into getting these two Jell-O Mantles for $70 shipped since the seller listed them all as Post. They're rough, but they'll make nice placeholders in my PSA Mantle Master Set Registry.

[1963Topps Set]

What about the Jell - O issue of 1961?

[Promethius88]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Wishing you the very, very best, Tim, in your pursuit of a genuine post-war beast of a set.

Take your time, and while it's good to be choosy, please know that it will be very troublesome to find full border all around the card. That was a major point I focused on in my chapter on those gorgeous 1962 JELL-Os. I've really grown fond of them over the years, without actually collecting them. It was a major confirmation to me in 2015-16 when the late Bob Lemke dug out an article from a spring 1962 issue of THE SPORTING NEWS on what was going on with General Foods' baseball card promotions. He posted the article in his blog. One little sentence was the large gold nugget to me----that recently General Foods had begun test-marketing their 1962 baseball card set on the backs of their JELL-O boxes in the Chicagoland area.

Previously, the Beckett 3 BB card guide (1981) said most collectors considered the '62 issue a test issue. When I interviewed the late Larry Fritsch for my book on September 18, 2003, he confirmed to me the 1962 JELL-Os were a test issue. Then, finally, dear Bob Lemke also nailed it with his find from that SPORTING NEWS article! The 1963 release was indeed nationwide; not so 1962!

Lest I forget, welcome to the Net54baseball family!

Have a swell weekend, my fellow collecting warrior! ---Brian Powell

I've read Bob Lemke's article and I had read you were coming out with a book. I need to get that! Lol, I have no grand idea that I will EVER find a complete set with full borders but I have been lucky to run across several. I have decided that I'm having all of them slabbed by PSA, even if they only come back as Authentic. I think in my first submission of 30+ cards I got back 12 with numerical grades which shocked me. I have about 30 there now waiting to be graded and will be happy with any that come back with numerical grades and about 45 that I'm getting ready to send with my next bulk sub. I'm hoping to have about 10-15 in that one.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by Promethius88

I've read Bob Lemke's article and I had read you were coming out with a book. I need to get that! Lol, I have no grand idea that I will EVER find a complete set with full borders but I have been lucky to run across several. I have decided that I'm having all of them slabbed by PSA, even if they only come back as Authentic. I think in my first submission of 30+ cards I got back 12 with numerical grades which shocked me. I have about 30 there now waiting to be graded and will be happy with any that come back with numerical grades and about 45 that I'm getting ready to send with my next bulk sub. I'm hoping to have about 10-15 in that one.

Sounds as if you're off to a terrific start, Tim. Nice going, bro. May I kindly stress to key on striving for a good player photo, even if a border or two was removed "in the distant past."

If you are serious about my book, bro, I'll direct you to the press release:

Google search the title, Never Cheaper By the Dozen. As you will see, the 480-page book is an E-book on a CD. You read it on your computer by inserting the disk into the disk drive of your computer and finding it on your "My computer" icon. I sell it from my home for $30 postpaid. The purchasing details, along with my mailing address, are at the end of the press release.

Or, you can choose a cheaper route. Amazon now offers a digital download for only $9.99.

Personally, I love the disk, but I recognize many here use their devices to read their Kindle books, so I'm now with "cutting edge technology".

I think you will enjoy the book, bro. One thing our hobby never did was produce many books about specific genres of cards, et al. Baseball / sports history of all kinds and biographies---oh yeah. Price guides have been around every year since 1979. But books about specific sets---forget it. My guess is that it was too much work to be worthwhile. I sure haven't sold as many copies as I thought collectors would have wanted, but sometimes guys just want all their info handed to them for free, or spoon fed, or something sarcastic along that line. Look, with as much interest as you have, wouldn't you want to devour anything you could get your hands on about this difficult set you wish to collect? I know I sure as anything would.

One of the problems I encountered in researching my book was finding veteran and current collectors willing to divulge what they knew. Many just wanted to keep that precious information to themselves. It might "hurt them" if others found out the juicy secrets and uncommon info they knew about a given set I was covering. That's human nature, and to be honest, that is precisely how I was when I voraciously collected the regional / food. I did not wish to create more competition for these beautiful, tough-to-get items. Since I've retired from collecting these expensive scarcities, I've willing to sing as a bird about them and why they are special. By the grace of God, I was able to find some significant people in the hobby, as well as some serious collectors of individual sets who knew them extremely well, that were willing to grant me lengthy interviews. Wow, did I ever uncover some fascinating information and enthralling sea stories.

As for the '62 JELL-O, the cat's now out of the bag, so to speak. In your case, a bunch of collectors are working on the '62 JELL-O, for they also know how tough they are, particularly a complete box.

Well, 'nuf said. Take care. Got to go.

One final thing. My editor and I declined the paper print on demand route for my book production---way too expensive!

----Brian Powell