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Macaroni & Cheese ... or ... Cheese & Macaroni?

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mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
I'm not sure what your thoughts/feelings are on Mac & Cheese, but it has been in my life for 30 or more years. *The cheesy goodness. *The way you can stick a noodle on each prong of your fork. *Perfection....almost.

In 1987, Kraft DID make it perfect by printing*2 baseball cards to cut out from the backs of each box of Macaroni & Cheese (or as I like to call it ... Cheese & Macaroni ... anyone else with me? No? *I didn't think so.)

kraft3.jpg

I blame this commercial for ruining it for me subliminally. *Check it out though*- it has the*Home Plate Heroes promotion at the end of it ... all kinds of awesome nostalgia here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeCA-RyumM8

Gotta love the kid at the end:

kraft2.jpg

Here is what a box looks like:

kraftbox.jpg

According to Wikipedia, SEVEN*MILLION*boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese are sold globally ... A WEEK, making me feel a whole lot better about my consumption of this over the course my lifetime. *I'm not sure what the*sales were back 30 years ago, but I do know it was very popular. *Is it possible that the production of this junk food card can rival - and even surpass - the production of junk wax cards? *(See what I did there?) *There is no telling, but the odds are many of these were likely dumped.

A year or two ago, I was fortunate to pick up some pre-production boxes for both the regular & spiral versions. *The regular box pre-production version of this can still be found on eBay, however, the spiral version is more difficult. *Either way, I suggest picking one up of who you collect - super fun nostalgia to add to your collection!

kraftproof.jpg

A*little over a year ago, someone posted up an interesting variation. *The variations differed in both look and production. *With a clean, stark white back as opposed to gray, this variation was actually machine cut, bound and factory sealed in a set.

kraft%20sets.jpg

RUBBERBANDS!?!?!? AHHHH!!!! MY EYES!!!!!!

Here is a full sheet that surfaced, showing they were not printed for use on the backs of the boxes.

kraft%20sheet.jpg

A bit difference from the sheets produced for the boxed version:

sheet.jpg

Here is the story.

The Kraft Regional Representative who received all of the 1987 "white-back" sets for distribution forgot to distribute them during Kraft's 1987 "Home Plate Heroes" promotion. In 1987-88, he asked his manager what to do. *His manager told him it was too late for them to affect the "Home Plate Heroes" promotion and NOT to give them out.

The Rep kept 12 sets for himself and disposed of the rest. Shortly thereafter, his son sold all 12 of the sets to a dealer in California. *The dealer closed up shop a few years later and put all of his inventory into storage. *After nearly 30 years, these were unearthed and are now on eBay. *When they first popped up, I contacted the dealer, and he was unwilling to sell for how much I wanted to spend. *Throughout the year, I would check in with him, and he would still be fairly firm. *I had actually put on my calendar to check in with him a full year after he began listing. *I did, and he still wasn't where I wanted to be. *Until I provided him with pictures of the*box proofs I had. *He then bent a bit on price and we made a deal!

09181713.jpg

It remains a mystery as to what these sets were to be used for initially. *Was it to be used as a promotional set of some sort where kids collected the UPC codes from boxes to send in for a full set? *We will likely never know. *Like many cards of its time period, it isn't a visually compelling card, but it is a compelling piece of hobby history with a fun story and an interesting twist.

kraft3.jpg

What we do know for sure is this: *This article is far more cheesier than Kraft ever will be.

Hmmm...I wonder what I should have for lunch! *:)
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
Nice pickup Tanner, any oddball is a good one. It's a good thing you posted pics of the backs for comparison ;)

Ryan
Will Clark / Mike Brown Collector
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
Nice pickup Tanner, any oddball is a good one. It's a good thing you posted pics of the backs for comparison ;)

Ryan
Will Clark / Mike Brown Collector

Thanks Ryan! Here is a pic of the back of the gray back:










The white back is exactly the same, but white :D
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
I know, it's all good :)
 

K34PuckettAddict

Well-known member
May 28, 2009
667
276
Anyone seen this yet? I’ve been looking for the big color poster of these cards in order to cut the Puckett from. Anyhow, I found this while searching for that normal poster a couple months ago or so. It’s about 8”x10”, black and white with a blank, yet discolored back, most likely from age. It reminds me of photo proofs of Puckett that I’ve purchased of Topps cards in the early 90’s.

Please let me know if anyone has a regular poster available…

Image1648752205.934621.jpg

Image1648752298.415702.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Freedom Card Board mobile app
 

Mozzie22

Active member
Aug 7, 2008
1,648
24
Anyone seen this yet? I’ve been looking for the big color poster of these cards in order to cut the Puckett from. Anyhow, I found this while searching for that normal poster a couple months ago or so. It’s about 8”x10”, black and white with a blank, yet discolored back, most likely from age. It reminds me of photo proofs of Puckett that I’ve purchased of Topps cards in the early 90’s.

Please let me know if anyone has a regular poster available…

View attachment 331549

View attachment 331550


Sent from my iPhone using Freedom Card Board mobile app
Why do you want to cut the Puckett out of a poster?
 

mrmopar

Member
Jan 19, 2010
6,187
4,087
Hate to see those types of posters cut up, but i get it too when there is profit to be made and/or a player collector just wants their slice only. I don't recall, but may have it because Garvey was featured. Could that 8x10 item possibly be something someone made from an image, printed onto paper? It might explain the small size BETTER.

That ebay seller Mouschi was talking about is an extortionist, in my opinion. Demand is likely quite low for this particular variation based on the absurd pricing offered and how long I watched players sit unsold. Some people bit and paid top dollar and maybe that was enough to justify, but you can see how he is manipulating certain collectors with his odd pricing structure. Popular non-HOFers asking well about less popular HOFers. Guys like Canseco and Garvey, who are not typically large draws outside of a few hardcore collectors were jacked way up in hopes of hooking a sucker because he probably saw some bidding wars. It reminds me of the Vizquel and Galarraga period where people were asking stupid money for them because a couple guys were having epic bidding wars on certain things.

I picked up a few of the Garvey white backs over the years, always for considerably less than what that guy was asking. I think I got one for as low as $3, which would be very high for a regular issue copy. Then the kicker was I was doing some organizing and pulled out my sets and discovered that I had one of the white back sets, most likely purchased from ebay in the early days and almost guaranteed to have been reasonably priced, otherwise i doubt I would have bought one! One or two people control most of the supply now and will make you pay dearly for your player, but there are select singles and even more set(s) out there as i have proven.
 

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