Show...me...your print variations!

[Kenmarks]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

Wow, thanks for the comments, I had no idea. I figured the contrast was so stark this had to be noticed by people before. Are other players cards this obviously discernible? I guess because both are meant to be just as they are neither can be a variation. Hence why I've never heard of post cereal variations.

All players who made appearances on multiple panels have multiple card variations ... one unique variation for each of the appearances. Now some are easier to spot than others. But the differences are there. Color is not the best way to determine variations because during production, colors can change a bit. Amount of ink. Different print runs. Stuff like that. But it is an indicator. Picture cropping is the best and most certain determinate. As I said, whether a not a card has packaging adhesive marking on the back is a clue. Also differences in the narrative occur occasionally with one box having a word or two different from another for a player.

There are a handful of advanced Post Cereal collectors who go after a Master Set for each of the Post Cereal card promotions. A Master Set is a card for every cereal box panel a player made an appearance on. It is challenging but there are reference book out there written by Dan Mabey that help and let one know the universe of a master set in terms of how many variations each Baseball player has out there in each of the sets (I wrote a similiar book on the 1962 Post Cereal Football Promotion).

Collecting Post master sets is so much more challenging and fulfilling than going after other sets. Rather than a basic Post set of 200 cards, one is looking for many more cards. For example in the 1962 Post master set there is something like 550 cards. And all variations are not printed equally in terms of quantity. The popular cereal aimed at kids (Sugar Crisp, Alpha-Bits) have cards that are very common. Large boxes because families were cost conscious are also very common compared to smaller boxes of the same cereal. At the other end of the scale, adult focus cereal are less available. And if a player came on a small Grape-Nuts box ... good luck. So very tough.

Price guides have never recognized many variation. Mostly on narrative differences due to a player being on two different boxes.

Did I put you to sleep?

[whiteymet]

Originally Posted by Kenmarks

All players who made appearances on multiple panels have multiple card variations ... one unique variation for each of the appearances. Now some are easier to spot than others. But the differences are there. Color is not the best way to determine variations because during production, colors can change a bit. Amount of ink. Different print runs. Stuff like that. But it is an indicator. Picture cropping is the best and most certain determinate. As I said, whether a not a card has packaging adhesive marking on the back is a clue. Also differences in the narrative occur occasionally with one box having a word or two different from another for a player.

There are a handful of advanced Post Cereal collectors who go after a Master Set for each of the Post Cereal card promotions. A Master Set is a card for every cereal box panel a player made an appearance on. It is challenging but there are reference book out there written by Dan Mabey that help and let one know the universe of a master set in terms of how many variations each Baseball player has out there in each of the sets (I wrote a similiar book on the 1962 Post Cereal Football Promotion).

Collecting Post master sets is so much more challenging and fulfilling than going after other sets. Rather than a basic Post set of 200 cards, one is looking for many more cards. For example in the 1962 Post master set there is something like 550 cards. And all variations are not printed equally in terms of quantity. The popular cereal aimed at kids (Sugar Crisp, Alpha-Bits) have cards that are very common. Large boxes because families were cost conscious are also very common compared to smaller boxes of the same cereal. At the other end of the scale, adult focus cereal are less available. And if a player came on a small Grape-Nuts box ... good luck. So very tough.

Price guides have never recognized many variation. Mostly on narrative differences due to a player being on two different boxes.

Did I put you to sleep?

Ken is one of the most knowledgeable experts on all things Post cereal as well as 1962 and 1963 Jello cards. Anything he says you can take to the bank!