Filling in Some Kellogg's Needs

My favorite online card emporium CardBarrel announced the other day that they'd restocked a bunch of Kellogg's cards, circa 1978-83, which of course made me more than ready to jump at the chance to load up on some favorite players at a good price. I'd imagine you can do the same, if you haven't already. 

Some of mine have cracks in them; some don't. I'm pretty indifferent either way. These are nice to haves, and they're well-done cards with stats and info on the back. I already have any & all Jack Clark cards done in these series, but I was definitely missing my McCoveys, my Vida Blues, a bunch of George Fosters, a Willie Wilson and some Bob Kneppers. I didn't totally mean to grab Knepper in a Houston uniform, but now that he's here, he's welcome to stick around. 

By the time these cards were coming out, my mom had stopped buying us Kellogg's cereals like she used to, and we were pretty much only eating Cheerios and "Kix". General Mills had obviously done a superior job of marketing the quote-unquote health benefits of their cereals to choosy 1970s moms, and thus, I missed out on all these cards in real time.

A Few '72s - Because We Love '72s

Not sure if I'm ultimately going to go all-in on 1972 Topps and get the full set, but I really enjoy the look of these things. It was retro the day it was released, though I'm not sure that was the intention. I've already collected the entire 1972 Topps San Francisco Giants team, but there's a part of me that wants to pour it on with this set and go all the way.

It may be that I'm into this era because I was barely sentient when it was occuring. I turned 4 as the 1971 season was coming to a close. I missed Vida Blue's historic year, and Mickey Lolich's 25-14 record. I missed the Pirates beating the Orioles in the World Series. That said, when I did get really into baseball in 1977, I bought some used "preview magazines" from this era, and read them cover to cover. Guys who were totally out of baseball by the time I learned about them - Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard, 1971 NL MVP Joe Torre - were absolutely still raking in '71. I was fascinated with these relics from another era then, and I'm still moderately fascinated now.

So here are a small handful of the 1972 Topps cards I have purchased or acquired, with many more to go. All picked up at Lefty's Sports Cards in Burlingame, CA - my local card shop. May it please open again soon.

The 1981 Kellogg's 3D Super Stars Set

The sets I'm currently working on, I'm working on the proverbial "old-fashioned" way: with individual pick-ups and card-by-card building. I have almost zero interest in buying a straight-up completed set of anything, and yet this 1981 Kellogg's 3D set totally caught my attention recently, and I went all-in in one fell swoop.

I don't know about your mom, but by 1981 my Mom had unfortunately stopped buying us Count Chocula and Franken Berry cereals, and the only cereal allowed in the house was either Team, Total or Cheerios. None of these moderately healthy breakfasts were made by Kellogg's, and thus I never got any of these 3D cards. Here's the deal with them: it was the first year in 12 years of making these that Kellogg's made them in the quote-unquote regular size of 2-1/2 by 3-1/2. They'd been minis or "skinny" up to this point. I may go back on this at some point, but I'm just not interested in accumulating an entire set of minis/skinnies. I'll just grab the Giants out of them, thanks.

Speaking of Giants, Vida Blue was San Francisco's sole representative in this 66-card 1981 set. Every team got at least one representative - even Seattle! There are a few guys in here whom I'd mostly forgotten about - Ken Landreaux and Larry Gura among them. Super stars! I do remember Cleveland's Joe Charboneau quite well; he was a real breath of fresh air for that city and that team during a pretty grim time. Poor guy was out of baseball by the following year.

Each of these cards has a waxy-feeling plastic coating on them that actually gives a pretty weird tactile sensation that I kinda like, definitely different than the usual cardboard. I grabbed the whole set for not much money at all on eBay, and I'm happy I did. Here's an article about the set, and here are some of the other Super Stars from this set whom you may have heard of.

Willie Wilson, one of my favorite players of all time: