1976 Hostess Baseball Forum

It appears that there are some cards from this set that were issued with brown backs instead of the majority that have black printing on the backs. For example, I have copies of #119 (Dent) and #120 (Millan) that have the brown backs.

Should the brown back variations be listed in this set? Or maybe as a related subset? Not at all?

Here are a couple of external links on the subject:

https://shlabotnikreport.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/1976-hostess-buzz-capra-a-variation-i-learned-about-from-my-black-friday-purchases/

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=258408

Musclebeech, you got those two brown back cards from me.  They also come with black backs.

The 1976 Hostess set has some interesting variations (not including the Twinkies cards).  I only collect Orioles, so I'll address the 8 Orioles from the set.  Depending on which product the cards appeared, there were not only black and brown backs, but also cropping variations of the cards themselves. If you aren't confused yet..  Here we go.

This is what I have for 1976 Hostess Orioles cards

#13 Bob Grich   (Back printed in black only)

#36 Brooks Robinson  (Back printed in black only, 2 photo cropping variations on front)

#36 Brooks Robinson  (Hostess proof card - Back printed in brown)

#56 Jim Palmer   (Back printed in black only, 2 photo cropping variations on front)

#76 Ken Singleton (Back printed in both black and brown)

#98 Lee May (Back printed in both black and brown)

#118 Don Baylor (Back printed in both black and brown, 2 photo cropping variations on front)

#121 Mike Cuellar (Back printed in both black and brown, 2 photo cropping variations on front)

#139 Mike Torrez (Back printed in both black and brown, 2 photo cropping variations on front)

The cards with brown backs appear to have been distributed on less popular products, making them a little harder to find in my experience.

The same thing happened with Post Cereal cards from 1961-1963.  Almost all cards have cropping variations depending on the product they appeared.

Hope this helps a little.

This explains what you're calling cropping variations. When they create the card art layout for each package the photos are rarely lined up exactly the same in the frames.

http://www.postcerealfootball.com/cereal_producing_cards.html

Thank you both for your comments and input. I think there exists sufficient information to confirm that several variations of cards within this set exist.

At present, the site currently handles this as a singular set (irrespective of any possible variations) with the following insert/related sets:

1) Linear panels here (as an insert/related set);

2) L-shaped panels here (as an insert/related set);

3) Test proof here (as a related Test Proof set);

Additionally, there is a separate listing for the Hostess Twinkies checklist/set here. (As noted in the release notes, these are distinguishable from the main set by the black bar on the card back. Also notable about the Twinkies versions is that the checklist appears to be significantly smaller than the main set, but the overlapping cards appear to be consistent wiith both player inclusion and card numbering.)

With that info available, the questions I pose for this set are:

1) Are the brown back variations of significant enough importance and/or interest to warrant their inclusion in the database as a related subset or variant? If so, which would be most appropriate? (Based on what we know currently from external sources, there are confirmed "brown back" versions of some, but not all, of the cards in the set checklist.) In an argument for inclusion of the brown backs as a variation, analogy could potentially be made to the card back variations found in sets such as 1959 Topps, which contains both light and dark versions of the card backs on some of the cards.

2) Since there are differing card alignments as noted, should those also be listed as variant versions of the respective cards? (I would suggest that analogy could be made to some other sets where alignment variations are noted within the set checklist. (As one example, 1962 Topps #62 lists variations based on printing alignment of the copyright line.)

3) Should the checklist for the 1976 Hostess Twinkies set be consolidated into this set under the header of "Inserts and Related Sets"?

After some research, the Brown Backs have been added as a parallel here since only a little more than half were printed this way. IRs were also submitted to move all the Brown Back images from base to this new set. I did not create a set for Brown Back Panels (yet).

Anyone that has these in their Collections, please update as needed, and if any missing images can be uploaded, that would be appreciated!

Bring this one back up for a sec after seeing some updates to this set over the past few months:

1) The Proof Set #151-159 was never an actual set -- never printed, never produced -- as noted under Trivia. An IR is in to remove it.

2) #36 Brooks Robinson  (Hostess proof card - Back printed in brown)
If it was a proof card, it doesn't belong in the Brown Back parallel checklist. I'm not sure how many exist, but please provide pics of it and we may list it as a separate entry under Proof; otherwise we need to remove this too.

3) There were separate requests via IR to add #81 (but not #79 or #80) and #82 and #83 (but not #84), and we don't have entries on the Brown Back Panels checklist for #79-81 or #82-84. Besides the mention on the Net54 MB, do we have visual proof any of these cards (or panels) exist in a non-scrap/proof form?

#79 Ryan
#80 Monday
#81 Nettles
#82 Speier
#83 Winfield
#84 Schmidt

Ed,

I have the 1976 Brooks Robinson proof panel with brown printing on the back.  It's definitely a proof, because large asterisks are printed between the cards.  I've never seen a regular Brooks Robinson card with brown printing on back, just the proof.  I also have a Ken Singleton proof panel, but not sure if it's got a brown back. I'll have to check.

I'm out of town until next week and will post a picture when I get back.

Alan

Let's keep correct terminology. A proof would have printing on only one side. They may be a test print or prototype.

I found this post that I made on another site that shows the 1976 Hostess Brooks Robinson with a brown back.  Post #2003.  Notice the markings between the cards.

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=2004822&highlight=hostess#post2004822