1970 Kellogg's Baseball Iron Ons - Trying to Pull a Fast One on Topps!

Getting back to the review of cereal related releases featuring team logos, one of the more obscure sets is 1970 Kellogg's Baseball Iron Ons:


These iron ons were apparently never actually offered in boxes of Kellogg's cereal


but rather were used as a way to get around the Topps monopoly that forbid any competitors from selling baseball cards.

While Kellogg's could include cards in their boxes of cereal (and apparently offer a full set for sale as a promotion with their product), they couldn't sell the cards directly in stores....or could they?

As a way to sneak around Topps, the 1970 Kellogg's cards were included "FREE" with the purchase of 2 Major League Iron-On Patches in packs like this:


Of course, its very easy to see through this ploy, especially when you don't even see the patches in the packs - all you see are the cards! Lets see, I get 6 cards and 2 iron ons, but I'm actually getting the cards free. Yeah, right!

Here is a picture of the box they came in:


which also highlights that the cards are "FREE". The drawing of Harmon Killebrew on the box looks to be based on his 1970 Kellogg's card:


There are apparently only 10 team iron-ons in the set. In addition to the Orioles patch shown above, the following teams were also included:


Whenever I've seen these listed for sale, it is always these same 10 teams, so I'm assuming that these were the only teams produced.

Here are pictures from some previous auctions to show that it is always the same teams that are offered for sale:



The fact that they couldn't even bother to produce iron ons for half the teams makes it very clear that the iron ons were just a gimmick to sell the cards and to try to get around Topps.

What isn't clear is whether Kellogg's was even involved, since their name doesn't show on the iron-ons, the pack, or the box. Also not clear is whether the intention all along was to sell these at retail when the cereal promotion was created, or whether this was done after the cereal promotion was over to move unused cards by the card manufacturer (the Xograph Company). I'm guessing it may have been the latter given there is no mention of Kellogg's.

The backs have instructions for applying the iron-on:


Its probably not accurate to call this a Kellogg's set as it appears Kelloggs may not have been involved, but since they were sold along with "FREE" 1970 Kellogg's cards, they have come to be known in the hobby as the 1970 Kellogg's iron-ons.

1976: Fleer Pioneers of Baseball 2nd Printing and Baseball Iron Ons

I recently acquired an issue of Collectors Quarterly from 1976 which was an early hobby publication. In the magazine, I found some interesting information regarding the Pioneers of Baseball Set issued along with the 1975 Cloth Patches:


according to Bob Laughlin (who did the artwork for the Fleer World Series sets and other Fleer sets like Famous Feats) in the article "'Pioneers' Near Wipeout" below, Fleer did a second printing the Pioneers of Baseball set:


Apparently there were 2 short prints in the 2nd printing (#7 & # 21).

The other interesting item from Bob Laughlin is the discussion of an all new Fleer World Series set for 1977 that unfortunately never came to pass.

The above article appeared in the Fall 1976 issue of Collectors Quarterly (edited by none other than MSNBC Countdown anchor and former ESPN Sports Center anchor Keith Olbermann!)

Keith is a well known card collector, and is currently writing a series of articles that are appearing in Sports Collectors Digest (SCD) regarding Topps Proof Cards, (like the famous Reggie Jackson 1977 proof card showing him as an Oriole):

Turning back to Fleer, they released a new set of Iron Ons in 1976. Unlike the 1969 & 1970 Iron Ons which had 3 teams per sheet, the 1976 version contained 1 iron on, and was much larger in size.

The back of the wrapper includes instructions on how to apply the iron on:


There is a very unique Cardinals logo on the back that I have never seen anyplace else.


The Red Sox Iron On allows us to confirm that this was a 1976 issue as it shows them as American League Champs (from the 1975 season):

To give you an idea of how big the iron ons are, here is a comparison between an iron on and a Fleer logo sticker:

I haven't seen too many of these for sale, but here are the other teams that I have come across:



1976 was the final year that Fleer issued Iron Ons. I'm pretty sure these were never big sellers. I don't think too many kids wanted to spend money on a pack of iron ons when there was a 1 in 24 chance of getting their favorite team since there was only 1 iron on per pack. I don't think a kid who liked the Red Sox would be looking to iron on a Padres logo onto their shirt.

UPDATE April 2010:

Thanks to Randy, we've got a picture of the unusual St. Louis Cardinals logo that was apparently only used for a very short time back in the mid 1970s:

1970 Fleer Baseball Iron Ons

As promised, its on to the second series of Iron Ons that Fleer produced in 1970.

Since the Seattle Pilots again make an appearance, I would think these would have to have been released early in the year, perhaps around the time of Opening Day. Then again, given that Topps made no effort to try to correct the fact that the Pilots had moved just days before the 1970 season started, maybe these came out later in the summer and Fleer just pretended the team was still the Pilots since thats what Topps did with the 1970 set.

There is no mention of the Brewers in the 1970 set even though the team moved before at least the last few series would have been issued. One of the last cards in the final series is the Pilots team card (#713):


I'm pretty sure the 7th Series didn't get released before Opening Day. Way to be on TOPPS of things.

Maybe Topps got a lot of grief for not bothering to change the name to Pilots after the team had already moved so they did this a few years later:

Whoops, our bad! The team didn't move after all.

Getting back to the Iron Ons, once again, the series consisted of 16 strips with 3 iron ons each, a card with the instructions for applying the iron on, and a stick of gum.

The Wrapper has the Orioles, Mets and Cubs logos on the front, and has a 1968 (C) on the back. That is why these Iron Ons (as with the 1969 set as well) are often thought to be from 1968. The 1968 (C) is when the logos were copyrighted, not when the iron ons were issued. The fact that the 2 teams from the previous year's World Series are on the front is another indication that this is most likely a set from 1970.


Boxes contained 24 packs for a nickel a piece:



Many of the logos changed from the earlier series. You can check the post on the 1969 Iron Ons to check out the differences.

To better see the iron ons, I've reversed the images below (since these are iron ons, the iron on itself has the image backwards so it will look correct when applied to a surface).

Major differences include:

An orange circle around the Orioles logo instead of black, blue star & orange lines for Astros (revered from previous year):


Black stitching on the baseball in the Twins logo instead of red, white diamond around Angels logo instead of green, orange baseball in Giants logo instead of white, new Phillies lettering, white brim under Yankees hat instead of blue:

Blue square background for Braves logo instead of white circle, Indian's feather now on the left instead of the right:


The A's have a white baseball instead of green, the Pirates now have a yellow background, the Phillies have a new logo (which they didn't wear until 1970), the Cubs get a team name (missing from 1969), and the Expos finally show up (absent from the 1969 set):


The Tigers logo is different:

The White Sox team name is now vertical instead of horizontal, and the Cardinal logo does not have a baseball background:


There are a number of other more subtle differences as well. For those of you who are following along, keep these variations in mind as you may recognize many of them later as they will pop up again soon in other sets I'll be covering.

This series seems to be more easily found than the 1969 series. You can almost always find a pack of these being auctioned on ebay, and its not unusual to see unopened boxes as well.

If anyone has a memory of buying these as a kid and having them ironed on to something, I'd like to hear your story.

1969 Fleer Baseball Iron Ons

As I mentioned in a previous post, the late 1960's to mid 1970's was a very productive period for Fleer in terms of a number of various Baseball releases. Today we turn our attention to another oddball item - Iron Ons.

Fleer issued 2 different series of Iron Ons during this time period. From what I can tell, the 2 series would likely have been released in 1969 and 1970 - based on the fact that there is a Seattle Pilots logo in both sets (with the 1970 set presumably having been printed shortly before the Pilots moved to Milwaukee at the end of Spring Traning that year).

Often you will see these referred to as 1968 Iron Ons, which I do not think is correct. The packs have a 1968 copyright (which says "1968 (c) Major League Baseball Promotion Corp."), but I believe this refers to when the logos were copyrighted, not when the product was actually released.

Today's post spotlights the first series of Iron Ons which I'm pretty sure was released in 1969.

Packs had a number of logos on the front:

Boxes contained 24 packs:


The front of the box also leads me to believe that these were a 1969 release given the box displays the 2 teams that met in the World Series the previous year:


More logos gracing the side of the box:


Ahhh, unopened bliss:


Each pack contained 1 strip of 3 iron ons, a card with directions on how to apply the iron ons, and a stick of gum. Here are 3 examples:


Since these were designed to be ironed on to items like shirts, the images had to be reversed.

There were a total of 16 different strips. Through the wonders of modern technology, The Fleer Sticker Project is proud to present how the iron ons would look once you ironed them on:






Finally, note the 100th Anniversary designation on the MLB logo. 1969 was the 100th Anniversary of MLB as seen here:


For some reason, there are no Iron Ons for the Expos, and there is only 1 Iron On for the Cubs (presumably because the team's logo is also what they wore on their uniform instead of the team name), while all the other teams have 2 (a logo and the name that was worn on their uniform).

The 1969 series of Iron Ons is less common and a bit more difficult to find than the 1970 series which I will cover tomorrow.

Given that the images are reversed, and given the size of the strips makes them somewhat difficult to display, this isn't one of the more popular Fleer collectibles you'll come across, but it does make for a nice collection of team logos.