We pulled lots of toys, stickers and cards from cereal boxes throughout our childhood. I've even gotten a few things recently, but not too often any longer. Eating cereal as a kid involved reading everything on the cereal box including the mail-in offers.
Someone from my neighborhood ordered a 1974 Kellogg's factory set, but that was never going to happen at my house. After asking in the early 1970s, I think I gave up after a few years.
Why did I stop pestering my mother? I worked really hard at that point on getting her to let me order a popular Hot Wheels pair of cars. I really wanted the Snake and Mongoose cars that maybe were only available through a mail-in offer. Maybe a Hot Wheels collector can tell us more about this since I didn't see anything online. None of my efforts got me those cars even though the price was maybe a dollar.
Once I had some money thanks to a paper route and my job as a caddie, I was able to get Sportscaster cards from a mail-in offer. (https://runforesportscastercards.blogspot.com/). I am still working on that set since I stopped subscribing long before the Bird, Magic and Gretzky cards appeared.
From Wheaties boxes I pulled two instant wins for Michael Jordan basketballs around 1990. I still have both of those, although one is a bit used.
Did you get the Snake and Mongoose cars from a mail-in offer? Did you get anything else that took some bargaining with your parents?
UPDATE from my mother - The younger kids did order Frosted Flakes cereal bowls and spoons from a mail-in offer. She still has some of those. Just more proof that my younger siblings got all the good stuff. (No, I dared not say that to my mother so I can only vent here about it).
In regards to cereal, I was lucky if I got to pick out which cereal I wanted. So I doubt I got to do any cereal box related mail-in offers. If I did, I don't remember them. But I did bargain with my parents on a bunch of things outside of cereal. They usually involved good grades and nice Christmas presents.
ReplyDeleteI got the 1970 Kellogg's Football complete set from the mail-in offer and if I remember correctly, the cost was $2.00. I still have that set (with major curling). I copied an image of the 1970 Raisin Bran box featuring the football cards onto my computer. I'd love to see an image of the mail-in order form.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was difficult to store cards in those days. When did you ever get nine-pocket pages or individual card holders? I will need to think about when I moved my old cards to nine-pocket pages. It was certainly after 1976.
DeleteI'm afraid the cards would crack if I ever put them in pages or top loaders. I don't even dare to scan them. It's too bad too because it's a beautiful 60-card set.
DeleteI put a bunch of curled cards in pages and they are still a bunch of curled cards. They do look nicer in the pages.
DeleteI remember ordering the 77 set for $2 plus boxtops.
ReplyDeletegood to hear that someone was doing that.
ReplyDeleteI ordered the '83 from the box for I think $6. Wish I had ordered each year.
ReplyDeleteWhen we started going to cards shows in 1976, if anyone was selling newer cards we didn't notice. It seemed like the dealers only had old cards, which is what we wanted. I don't remember seeing Kellogg's cards either and if I did I would have ignored them.
ReplyDeleteI got a set of NASL tumblers from Kix cereal; still have them somewhere.
ReplyDeleteNice to remember the type of cereal too.
ReplyDelete