History of Post Cereal Football Scarcity
In 1979, Dr. James Beckett and Dennis W. Eckes compiled the first football card price guide, titled "The Sport Americana Football & Basketball Card Price Guide." In the acknowledgments, Gavin Riley was credited with having "provided extensive input on Post Cereal football cards." Compiling a price guide of any kind in that time was no small feat as marketing of personal computers was just beginning and the internet was about 14 years in the future. No e-mail, no eBay, no databases—this was all accomplished with hand and typewritten notes. Collectors somehow found each other via hobby publications, US mail and phone calls. Imagine the time networking would have taken! Yet through diligence, the first Post cereal football card price list was compiled.
From the beginning, collectors knew that some cards were in shorter supply than others. The Post cereal introduction states that "Certain cards printed only on unpopular types of cereal are relatively difficult to obtain. Twenty such cards are known..." Here is the original list of what we now call short prints with their "mint" price:
| Number | Player | Mint price |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Tom Moore | 3.00 |
| 24 | Joe Morrison | 2.50 |
| 29 | Y. A. Tittle | 3.00 |
| 46 | Howard Cassady | 2.50 |
| 54 | Darris McCord | 2.50 |
| 74 | Sam Baker | 2.50 |
| 82 | Lenny Moore | 3.00 |
| 92 | John Brodie | 3.00 |
| 97 | Jim Johnson | 2.50 |
| 117 | Larry Morris | 2.50 |
| 126 | Bobby Layne | 3.00 |
| 135 | Frank Clarke | 2.50 |
| 139 | Allen Green | 2.50 |
| 145 | Jerry Tubbs | 2.50 |
| 150 | Frank Fuller | 2.50 |
| 153 | Bill Koman | 2.50 |
| 158 | Ralph Guglielmi | 2.50 |
| 176 | Don Joyce | 2.50 |
| 186 | Frank Youso | 2.50 |
| 193 | Joe Krakoski | 2.50 |
Long-time Post cereal football collector Kirk Robinson conducted a mail survey of 40 known Post cereal football collectors of the set in 1984. One of the questions addressed the toughest cards for collectors to find. The top ten short prints from that survey are:
| Rank | Card Number | Player |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 93 | Dave Baker |
| 2 | 74 | Sam Baker |
| 3 | 110 | Angelo Coia |
| 4 | 193 | Joe Krakoski |
| 5 | 117 | Larry Morris |
| 6 | 28 | Del Shofner |
| 7 | 10 | Tom Moore |
| 8 | 29 | Y. A. Tittle |
| 9 | 139 | Allen Green |
| 10 | 24 | Joe Morrison |
Sports Collector's Digest ran a story by Don Niemi in 1990 and included a price list that denoted 32 short prints:
| Card Number | Player | Price (NM) |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Jerry Kramer | 30.00 |
| 10 | Tom Moore | 175.00 |
| 24 | Joe Morrison | 75.00 |
| 25 | Dick Nolan | 50.00 |
| 28 | Del Shofner | 100.00 |
| 29 | Y. A. Tittle | 125.00 |
| 36 | Ted Dean | 7.50 |
| 41 | Jess Richardson | 90.00 |
| 43 | Bobby Walston | 30.00 |
| 48 | Jim Gibbons | 50.00 |
| 54 | Darris McCord | 90.00 |
| 59 | Joe Schmidt | 125.00 |
| 62 | Galen Fiss | 30.00 |
| 74 | Sam Baker | 375.00 (red), 250.00 (black) |
| 93 | Dave Baker | 90.00 |
| 97 | Jim Johnson | 30.00 |
| 103 | Bob St. Clair | 100.00 |
| 110 | Angelo Coia | 250.00 |
| 111 | Mike Ditka | 40.00 |
| 117 | Larry Morris | 40.00 |
| 133 | Tom Tracy | 90.00 |
| 135 | Frank Clarke | 75.00 |
| 136 | Mike Connelly | 50.00 |
| 139 | Allen Green | 125.00 |
| 145 | Jerry Tubbs | 100.00 |
| 153 | Bill Koman | 50.00 |
| 158 | Ralph Guglielmi | 50.00 |
| 169 | Jack Pardee | 100.00 |
| 176 | Don Joyce | 125.00 |
| 186 | Frank Youso | 90.00 |
| 188 | Bill Anderson | 90.00 |
| 193 | Joe Krakoski | 175.00 |
Fast forward to
recent times and the Standard Catalog of Vintage Football Cards handles the issue of short print cards in this manner: "Players who were pictured on boxes of the less-popular cereals are scarcer and more valuable, explaining the higher prices on about two dozen of the cards listed below." From the SCD guide in 1990, Jerry Kramer has dropped to $12 and Jim Gibbons to $3.50, rendering them no longer "short print." The rest of the cards on the list have fluctuated in price but are still listed at enough that it is evident they are still considered short prints.
The short print list has evolved as more information has become available over the years. If you use eBay, you are probably wondering why some players are not included on the list. In the pages that follow, there will be a closer look at the scarcity of Post cereal football cards and data presented in an effort to identify the rarest cards in the set.
