Advice on hostess boxes, 1970’s

[Belfast1933]

I am looking for some general advice on how to find pricing history or expectations on full box hostess boxes from the mid to late 70’s

I would like to add 2-3 full boxes with HOFers on them as complimentary items to my primary card collection. I just think they have a great look as full boxes - I mean, Twinkies and Carlton Fisk?? C’mon! How great is that

I have no idea what a reasonable price expectation should be and am hoping some seasoned collectors here might have some advice.

Maybe there are earlier threads with good info -

Thx for any tips -

Jeff

[darkhorse9]

I've been collecting Hostess cards since they came out. I absolutely love them. Both the box panels and the "Twinkies: singles. I'll throw some advise.

Complete boxes don't have the premium you might think they have. Since they came out in such a variety of sizes and products (unlike Jello or cereal), there isn't a great deal of demand for full boxes except for player collectors (which you sound like). That means less competition for you when they do come up. Most of the bidding you'll get is from people who plan to cut the panel out for grading.

Storage is impossible for them unless you are doing a full shelf top or cabinet display. Framing the flat ones is more expensive than most of them are worth.

Again, what a reasonable price to expect will depend on the competition at the time for that particular box. May be as little as 2x the panel price to 5x the panel price to less than panel price. I've seen them sell for $2 for a full box to a couple hundred. Most of them are around $30 or so.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

I've been collecting Hostess cards since they came out. I absolutely love them. Both the box panels and the "Twinkies: singles. I'll throw some advise.

Complete boxes don't have the premium you might think they have. Since they came out in such a variety of sizes and products (unlike Jello or cereal), there isn't a great deal of demand for full boxes except for player collectors (which you sound like). That means less competition for you when they do come up. Most of the bidding you'll get is from people who plan to cut the panel out for grading.

Storage is impossible for them unless you are doing a full shelf top or cabinet display. Framing the flat ones is more expensive than most of them are worth.

Again, what a reasonable price to expect will depend on the competition at the time for that particular box. May be as little as 2x the panel price to 5x the panel price to less than panel price. I've seen them sell for $2 for a full box to a couple hundred. Most of them are around $30 or so.

Good advice. I collect Hostess Twinkies, primarily the early issues. But this advice is consistent with what I have seen

[Chris Counts]

I just checked recently sold items on eBay, and there's lots examples of recent sales of Hostess boxes, including one lot of 5 that went for $2. As a Hostess collector, I can tell you that the 1975 cards are super common, and the 1976 cards are the toughest.

[Belfast1933]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

I just checked recently sold items on eBay, and there's lots examples of recent sales of Hostess boxes, including one lot of 5 that went for $2. As a Hostess collector, I can tell you that the 1975 cards are super common, and the 1976 cards are the toughest.

Crud… I guess I just massively overpaid for a 1975 full box with Schmidt and Garvey on it! 😂 Oh well -

(And if you have any 76 full boxes with HOFers on them you’d consider selling, PM me please!

Thx

Jeff

[UKCardGuy]

In my experience, it pays to be patient and wait. There are a lot of people asking crazy prices for hostess boxes and panels. There are a small number of short prints that are truly hard to find. But most Hostess boxes/panels can be picked up for reasonable prices if you're patient.

I prefer the boxes to panels. I usually store them flat, but I do put one or two on display. They're harder to store but I like to think that one day when I get the space, I'll have a whole display shelf with nothing but hostess boxes.

There was a good discussion about Hostess panels a while back here https://net54baseball.com/showthread...hlight=hostess

You might want to check out that thread too.