My Favorite Kellogg's Card Sets - Why I Love the 1974 Set -- and Why It Tortures Me

The 1974 Kellogg's set has always been a favorite of mine.  It was the first one that I obtained by eating Frosted Flakes and/or trading with friends.  The cereal also starting my torturous trips to the dentist.  Or maybe it was the Kool-Aid that we drank daily.  The recipe called for two cups of sugar in the half-gallon container.

It didn't seem to be a problem when I collected the set, but now I regularly see cards #1 through #9 with horrible cracks.  Maybe 9-pocket pages became popular between 1972 and 1974 so more of these sets were housed in the pages?

What makes this problem even worse is the checklist of the 1974 set.  The first nine cards are:

#1 Bob Gibson

#2 Rick Monday

#3 Joe Coleman

#4 Bert Campaneris

#5 Carlton Fisk

#6 Jim Palmer

#7 Ron Santo

#8 Nolan Ryan

#9 Greg Luzinski

These nine cards include:

The best card in the set

Hall-of-Famers - 5

Cubs - 2

Future White Sox - 3