Toda'ys post is about the
1991 TOPPS CRACKER JACK promotion.
In 1980, David Stolz, a former Borden employee who was a partner for an ad company, began working as Cracker Jack’s prize supplier. The guy was hooked on baseball and had tried for years to get Borden to use cards in Cracker Jacks promotions. He was not too successful.
Borden didn't exactly like the idea as the 1982 Promotion using sports cards didn't exactly take off. The guy didn't give up == so he continues bugging people for almost 10 years. In 1991 he goes to New York with Cracker Jack brand manager Geoff Campbell to meet Sy Berger of Topps . Yes folks- THE Sy Berger of almost 6 decades at Topps !! The guy takes his idea and pitches it to Sy Berger. Berger comes up with mock ups and they show them to Borden.
The guy at Borden finally caves in after the meeting and being bugged forever and lo and behold Mr Stoltz finally gets his wish for the card promotion.
So the 3 of them come up with a two card series of 36 mini-cards featuring players. Each mini-card was an exact, one-quarter size duplicate of Topp’s 1991 regular issue ( same card just pint size ). Topps is already producing mini cards that year so Cracker Jacks are just another line they can use to promote and get $$ on.
They send sales reps out with uncut proof sheets for dealer premiums and even decided to do a mail in for an album holder. The normal uncut proof sheet produced was 20 cards wide by 22 cards tall. Individual cards were packaged in the Cracker Jack boxes as a prize of course. Each card was 1-1/4'' x 1-3/4'. Again the normal sheets were 20 cards wide by 22 cards tall. Anything otherwise is a cut down.
Once the cards hit the market they sold like Cracker Jacks sell - tons & tons and tons !! Series I sold over 75 million boxes of Cracker Jacks , with Series II selling almost 60 million more boxes . Dealers went crazy over the uncut proof sets. Everybody is into it and a total of 25,000+ people decide to send in a mail in offer for the albums.
One year wonder sadly- the next year Borden went cheap and decided to use Fleer- sales drop into less than half and bam a great idea goes down the tubes. Donruss follows the following year . Sadly that 1st year can't be duplicated and its a case of don't keep tapping a well that should have been tapped just once in a 'while".
Now- here is the part that gets complicated when it comes to proving stuff you'd love to have the major industry players acknowledge. I have all the backup to the normal stuff- pics,redemption letters,etc etc. I'd like to see if ANYONE can prove to me how the 1991 Cracker Jack 4 in 1 cards were distributed. As in distributed to the general public and not cut off a sheet. I have seen plenty of unopened 4in1 panels sold. Show me an order form, or an original mailer with proof, or anything that has the exact proof these came as seen in the hobby. Until I can get the proof that the panels were not cut off sheets I'll never be able to get them approved for Beckett or elsewhere. You'd think a promotion 27 years old wouldn't present such an issue in the age of the internet. Well-- there is a lot of 1990's stuff that is now presenting us with that issue. I know tons of people who own a 4in1 panel. Not a single one can say anything other than "bought it at a show, bought it off
eBay" etc, etc. Proof is what I need I say. Until I can get proof they got distributed that way they'll never get formally acknowledged by anyone except collectors who like oddballs.
Below is my Roger Clemens Cards from this set both in single and 4 in 1 form
This is what the Album Mail in offer they sent out looks like
This is what the Album outside looks like- inside just has a bunch of slots for the mini cards just like 1991 Topps Minis album does
And here's what the Cracker Jack box looked like with the card offer (
special thanks to the Cardboard Connection on this one! )
And if you happened to send Borden a direct request this is what you would get back
And lastly a pic of what unopened prizes looked like ( I'd like to crucify the Etsy seller who never shipped me my product)
And a Series 2 smorgasborg that I wish I had seen for sale when they went up would have snatched them up in a heartbeat. This pic though is causing me untold amounts of grief- its like great lots of uncut 4 in1 - where did the lot of them get generated from ? Did someone gets sheets cut professionally or did they get them in a mail in? Hence my need for backup !!
