In the spring of 2019, I loaded up a USPS medium flat rate box full of Cubs cards and sent it up to Madison, Wisconsin. A trade was in the works with Beau Thompson, the man behind the One Million Cubs project. I sent him the box of Cubs, and in return, he would be sending me a package of various “odd ball” issues from the 70’s-90’s!
This is part two of a multi-post series covering the odd ball sets I received in the trade. The first post covered the 1983 Topps Gardners set, and the 1975 Hostess set is the topic of today’s post.
Hostess created baseball cards as a promotional item for their snacks during a five year run in the 70s stretching from 1975-1979. The ‘75 set started things off and generated some excitement among kids who jumped at the opportunity to get dessert and cards at the same time(yeah I know Topps had gum, but it’s not quite the same).
The cards came in either a 3 card panel on the back of snack packages, or as an individual card that served as the backing for single Twinkie packages. Since the latter were in constant contact with the food, they are often found with some “character” that only 40 year old Twinkie grease can deliver.
Twinkie back on top with the black bar in the center of the card.
The Twinkie singles set contains 60 cards, 1-36 and then a variety of numbers up to #150. I’m sure this created some confusion for collectors who seemed to never be able to find some of the cards when it first released. The “base” set which came from the three card panels consisted of 150 cards, which provided a pretty good challenge to build a complete set. That’s a minimum of 50 packages that would have been purchased to obtain 150 cards!
The cards were outlined with a dotted line, and as any elementary school child knows, dotted lines mean you get out the scissors. Although you can still find some panels intact, many of the cards you will find today are singles that were cut out of the panel. This can create some confusion between the “base” set and the “Twinkie” set. Apart from the telltale grease stain, the single Twinkie cards also had a black line which can be seen on the back of the card. Check out the picture to see what I mean. The Zisk is the regular card and the Brock is the Twinkie.
One more little known fact about these cards was pointed out on Twitter by my friend Mark Hoyle. Check it out!
Great Hostess podcast. Little known variation on the Twinkie cards. There is a difference in card backs on the Tinkie cards depending on how they were purchased. Over the counter/ Store display or from a vending machine. Card backs have smaller text on vending machine cards.
— Mark Hoyle (@Markhoyle4) May 13, 2020
A bunch of stars such as Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, and Mike Schmidt have cards in the set, and they even managed to sneak in one of the two biggest rookies from that season. Robin Yount is card number 80 and gives fans a second rookie card from 1975 to add to their collection. Unfortunately, Brett would not make an appearance on a Hostess card until the following year in 1976.
The Twinkie Lou Brock shows the Twinkie Grease Character!
When it comes to vintage odd balls, this set....wait for it.....takes the cake! Ba da boom!
Complete 150 card sets which have been cut out of the panel run around $150-175 on EBay, but full panels in good condition can run quite a bit more. One auction in Feb, 2019 completed at $350.
They are hard to find in good condition either way, but in my mind the combination of grease and self cut edges give these oddballs some character. I will be keeping my eye out for these as I’m digging in show boxes, and who knows, maybe I’ll end up with my own complete set someday.
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Thanks for reading!
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