1978 Kellogg's (?) Baseball Stickers

Recently a group of baseball stickers came up for auction on ebay that caught my eye:

I believe these were put out by Kellogg's in the late 1970s as they are very similar to the 1978 Kellogg's Football Stickers that were available in packages of Pop-Tarts:

Unfortunately however, whereas the Football stickers have information on the back with the Kellogg's logo

the baseball stickers have blank backs.

In looking around to see if I could find any other examples of these stickers, I did find a few examples of stickers still in the packaging that they would have originally come in

as well as a few examples of some that had been opened

The seller identifies these individual stickers as 1978 Kellogg's stickers based on the similarity to the football stickers, but indicates Kellogg's is not mentioned on the packaging or on the sticker.

The stickers were packaged individually, so the stickers that were recently up for auction look like parts of a strip that was cut into sections of two stickers.

I remember getting some of these stickers as a kid, and still have the A's sticker stuck on the trunk that is the "Original" Fleer Sticker Project:

That is why I was so glad to come across this group of stickers - I have always thought that the A's sticker had come from a breakfast item, and now I think I have the proof:

1983 Kellogg's NFL Football Team Rings

Kellogg's had one other NFL promotion in 1983 besides the team stickers we previously reviewed - a mail in offer for an NFL team ring:

The NFL ring offer was available on boxes of Kellogg's Sugar Corn Pops:

According to the order form, the rings were available for $1.25 plus two proof of purchase seals from boxes of Sugar Pops.

Since the rings were not premiums in the box, but had to be ordered, they are not that easy to come by. I've only seen the Eagles and Steelers rings offered for sale:




The back of the box also mentions an opportunity to join the NFL SuperPro Fan Club, which apparently was advertised on the side of the box.

From this 1985 poster, it looks like the SuperPro Fan Club had a lot of goodies:


By joining the club, you got NFL newsletters, an NFL Standings Board, a team calendar, a decal of your favorite team, a copy of the NFL Fun Book, an official membership card, and an Official Membership Certificate "signed by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle"!

From this brochure from 1982, it also looked like there were sweepstakes to win tickets to the Super Bowl:


I'm afraid I don't remember seeing anything about the SuperPro Club when I was a kid. If I had, I surely would have wanted to become a member.

1983 Kellogg's NFL Football Stickers

Kellogg's followed up the 1982 NFL Team Poster promotion with a 1983 contest called "Touchdown Game" which featured NFL helmet stickers:


As you can see from this picture of the sticker in a top loader, the stickers are small. The backs are game pieces for the Kellogg's "Touchdown Game" and contain a 1983 copyright:


I'm afraid I have no information about the game or how it was to be played.

There was also apparently a poster for displaying the sticker collection, which was called a Team Standings Sticker Chart (recognize some of the artwork that was used in the previous year's NFL Posters?):


I hope the stickers could be reapplied as you would be out of luck if you started applying stickers during the season and would have to change the standings as the season went on.

The picture of the poster and the following pictures of helmet stickers come from an ebay auction from a year or so ago. Since these are sheets of stickers, its possible that perhaps the stickers could be ordered as a set:



I'm trying to figure out if this was available as a mail in offer why each team would have duplicate stickers. Perhaps that was to allow the collector to place the stickers on the standings poster for each division, and still have a full set of teams to then fill in the playoff and Super Bowl spaces on the poster as well.

This seems to be a rather obscure set as I rarely see individual stickers come up for auction, and have only once seen the collector poster and sheet of stickers.

Unlike the 1982 Kellogg's Football Cards / Panels which are very easy to find:


the 1982 Kellogg's NFL Team Posters and 1983 Kellogg's Helmet Stickers which were released around the same time frame are much less common.

1982 Kellogg's Raisin Bran NFL Team Posters

In 1982 Kellogg's ran a promotion that featured NFL team posters that were part of a Super Bowl sweepstakes:


The posters were part of a contest to win a trip to the 1984 Super Bowl, and were found in boxes of Kellogg's Raisin Bran during the 1982 NFL season.

If you had a poster of the team that won the Super Bowl played on January 30, 1983 (which was the Redskins), you were to fill in the entry form on the back of the winning team's poster and mail the poster in by March 19, 1983 for a random drawing. Four of the entries would be drawn for 1st prize trips for 2 to Tampa, FL for the 1984 Super Bowl. There were also 500 2nd prizes which were Spalding footballs.

Here is a picture of the back of the poster with the information on the sweepstakes:


The posters feature nice artwork that showcases both the home and road uniforms of each team.

Since this was not licensed through the Players Association, the posters try to get away with featuring some of the top stars without actually identifying them by changing their uniform number:


The Bears poster sure looks like it features Walter Payton, but Walter's #34 has been changed to #31.


If you look at this picture and the poster, you can see the poster captures Walter all the way down to his wrist bands.

Here is a not so subtle attempt to make Joe Montana an anonymous 49er by changing his uniform to #10:



Changing a 16 to a 10 doesn't really hide the fact that the poster captures Joe Montana's throwing motion and his appearance all the way down to his wrist bands and hand towel.

These posters don't turn up for sale all that often which is a shame as I think they are a very nice looking set. Here is a look at the other posters I've come across:










I'm not sure if the Redskins poster is any more difficult to find than the other teams since those would have been sent in by anyone participating in the sweepstakes. Unfortunately for those who entered the contest by sending in their posters, the rules state that entries would not be returned, so I'm guessing the Redskins posters that were sent in were ultimately destroyed.

1978 Kellogg's Pop-Tarts NFL Football Helmet Stickers

In addition to the promotions featuring Baseball logos that we've just covered, Kellogg's also partnered with the NFL in 1978 for a promotion featuring helmet stickers of the 28 teams that were in the league at the time.


The backs of the stickers feature a brief team history as well as a quiz featuring referee signals:


The stickers came in boxes of Kellogg's Pop-Tarts


Taking a closer look at the back of the box, it appears there was a poster that could be ordered for $1.00 that could be used to display your stickers:


Here is a look at the entire set (except for the Falcons and Rams which I am still trying to track down):





With the amount of Pop-Tarts my kids go through these days, I really wish Kellogg's would revisit a promotion like this as we'd probably have no problem completing a set!

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.