Hostess variations

Over the past few months I've come across a couple Hostess oddballs I wasn't familiar with and figure I'd share what I found and what I learned for histories sake.

First up is this 1978 Hostess L shaped panel.  I think most of us are pretty familiar with the three card strip panels found on most hostess boxes from 1975 to 1979.  It's interesting to point out that there's not a ton of information about these.  It's also interesting that for as popular as Hostess cards were and are there really isn't a good source of information about the sets.  I figured one avid collector would have put together a website or blog, but alas most of my information was gathered from forum threads and poking around the internet for images. So if there is a Hostess expert out there and you read this feel free to chime in and correct anything and everything I'm about to say.

So what is an L shaped panel?  It's like the example below where two of the cards are vertical and the third is below oriented horizontally.

From what I pieced together Hostess issued some L shaped panels like the one below from 1976 to 1979.  One message board stated that the L shaped panels, at least in 1976, were only put on cupcake boxes on the east coast.  From some digging I was able to find an image of an intact specimen of a 1978 cupcake box also with an L shape card bottom.  So were all the L shapes only produced on the East Coast and only on cupcake boxes?  Maybe.  1978 is the only year I could find that Robin is featured on one of the L shaped boxes.  All the auctions I've seen fail to state the source of the panels. But these panels are much rarer than the normal strip panels, but the standard catalog doesn't mention this variation in configuration.  This panel is currently (at least at the time of writing) up for sale on eBay with a $50 price tag.

1978 Hostess Cupcake L shaped panel

Here's another interesting oddball I didn't know about. This is a 1977 Hostess cupcake single card.  According to the Standard Catalog the complete 1977 set was printing on these single card cake holders.  But they say cards 1-30 and 111-150 are Twinkies panels and 31-110 are cupcake panels. Robin's card number in the set is 34 so he should be in the cupcake set according to the Catalog.  The uncut cupcake cards are longer and skinner than their Twinkies counterparts. But I know for a fact that he's also has a single Twinkie card.  I've include a scan of my 1977 Twinkie card below.  The explanation in the Standard Catalog is either wrong or I'm reading it wrong. Either way I found a great post on a Net54Baseball forum.  It's also interesting to point out that the post also describes multiple other single card sizes, although I don't think Robin has an example in those variations.

1978 Hostess Cupcake Single front

1978 Hostess Cupcake Single Back

1977 Hostess Twinkie Single front

Well there you go a few more Younts to chase in the Hostess sets.  Oh and the cupcake single recently sold on eBay for $26.

1976 Hostess Twinkies Single Card

Card Manufacturer: Hostess

Card Set: Hostess Baseball

Year: 1976

Card Number: 11

Card Type: Twinkie Single

There is nothing I like better than the food issue oddballs from the 70's and 80's.  Most collectors know about the 3 card panels on the bottoms of Hostess bottoms from the 70's, but there are also the single card varieties to look for.  I'm not sure if these were done with any other product other than Twinkies, but Robin has a card in at least 3 years, 1975, 1976, and 1977.  I've already featured the 1975 card here.

Ah the good old grease stains.  These card can be found unused.  They're rare and go for a premium price, but for me I don't mind the grease stains and this card has held up well for being almost 40 years old. These cards are identical to the 3 panel box version.

1976 Hostess Twinkies full box

Card Manufacturer: Hostess

Card Set:  Hostess Baseball

Year:1976

Card Number: 11

Card Type: Full Box

Unlike my 1975 Hostess King Dons box that was never used, this 1976 Twinkies boxes definitely was.  Who knows if this whole box was purchased and taken home or if it sat up by the counter at some convenience store to entice shoppers with an impulse buy. Since there is a box price on the box it was probably sold whole.  Luckily someone had the foresight to save the whole box.

Yount shares this box with Tony Olivia, who retired after the 1976 season, and Rick Manning, who would later join the Brewers team in 1983. Rick also happens to be a great TTMer if you're into that like me. 

Here's a close up of the panel. Other than the box having been opened, it's really not in bad shape and the cards are as close to mint as you can probably get.