How were Caramel cards packaged/distributed?

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Posted By: dennis

ok, were they given to retailers to hand out with purchase? was there a package,containing card & candy?? does anyone know for sure or is there only speculation???

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Posted By: T206Collector

...but I would speculate that the use was the same for caramel as for cigarettes, i.e., to provide a cardboard backing to a foil/wax/paper wrapped piece of candy.

For certain the candy was often sold up against the card, which is why so many caramel cards have caramel staining on them.

But I'm sure the E crowd knows best on this score.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Cracker Jack cards were prizes in the boxes the first year; were mail in too the second year along with in the box. The west coast candy cards had the cards inside the wrappers on the candy. The others, I don't know. I speculate that the cards were placed on the candy owing to the number of stained cards.

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Posted By: Scott Gross

It kind of blows my mind that "we" don't know how a caramel card was packaged. I mean, it was ONLY 90-100 years ago. Generation-wise, that's not too long ago. My example is my maternal grandfather was born in 1896. So in 1909-11 he was of the age of probably buying both cigarettes and caramel's. He was from Philadelphia, were most of the caramels originated, and was a big sportsman. He died in 1975 when I was 15. I was old enough to collect e-cards, but didn't. I just can't believe someone, somewhere, at sometime didn't own a e-card in the 1970's, who didn't go up to a 70-80 year old guy (or gal), and say: "Hey, remember these cards ??" And get everything you would like to know about them. Maybe it's just me.

Also, I would almost argue that the was something (paper, wax-paper) between the caramel and the card. Sure there are cards with caramel stains, but most (in my experience) do NOT have caramel stains.

And, what about those #%@&* strip cards. They're cut or ripped to shreds, but hardly do you see a crease. I own a intact five card with no creases and have seen 10,12,20 card intact sheets with NO creases. Didn't they have to fold them to package them ???!!!!????

Oh, and another unanswerable:

"One, two, three, four ... Who are we for ?? .... Rutgers ... Rutgers .... Yeah" -- Mr. Magoo

Not everyone in America could speak his mind:



Robeson of Rutgers

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

If I were a betting man, my quess is that it is highly probable that as a youngster opened his candy and admired the baseball player card that there is a strong likelyhood that the caramel was transfered from their hand(s)to the card.

Patrick

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Posted By: Brian

I have wondered about this myself. The fact that many CJs lack egregious caramel stains suggests to me that there must have been a wrapper, and that a kid with sticky fingers just ruined the cards..... But if there were wrappers on CJ cards, why have they never surfaced on eBay (at least I have never seen one)?

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Posted By: Paul Kaufman

I have no proof of this, but I always have envisioned something like the modern day Sugar Daddy's, with a small slab of caramel, perhaps on a stick, with the card wrapped with the caramel inside a paper or wax paper wrapper.

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Posted By: Seth B.

Some cards, like Mello Mints, have distinctive creases that would suggest that they were included with some candy. I would still love to know if they shoved E92 Croft's into those cocoa bottles...

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Posted By: robert a

Many caramels exhibit staining that suggests the cards were packaged with direct contact to the candy.

I believe that some packages were messier than others. Perhaps they were exposed to a bit more heat.

Any any rate, you can see blotches on particular issues that look like individual smaller pieces of candy melted onto the cards.

I don't believe E90-1, E90-2, and E90-3 were packaged with direct contact to the candy.

E95, E96, E94, and E98 were packaged with candy.
E98's are often found with bright red/orange colored stains on them, rather than brown, caramel stains.

I believe that many issues that were packaged directly with candy were inserted so that the candy would mainly touch the back of the cards.