April 3, 2025: Spring Auction
Here’s a rarely encountered partial set of the popular 1961 Post Cereal Baseball issue, found here in its coveted form of complete or partial panels, easing some of the concerns typically attributed to relying on the scissoring skills of an earlier generation of American youth. This was General Mills’ first of three important baseball card sets that would ultimately be a significant addition to the classic 1960s Topps mainstream issues. With such a lofty pedigree comes great cachet, with most of the larger or complete panels reasonably cut well outside the card image surfaces. Even with the smaller panels of five, four or three cards, the cutting is well done and rarely intrudes on card edges. Some of the panels have some extraneous pen or pencil notations, though much of this occurs on the adjacent advertising sections and typically doesn’t intrude on the card configurations. Some of these include the name of the Post Cereal or informal checklisting by the collector. Given the format of panels, there are a total of 195 cards included in the near set, with some obvious duplication, even among Hall of Famers. Overall, it comes out to 15 seven-card panels (complete panels with the advertising section), nine panels of six cards (complete but with some of the advertising section clipped), five with five cards (complete but with some of the advertising section clipped), a pair with four cards (complete) and one with three cards (complete). Breakdown of keys by panels: Seven-Card Panels: 1) Mays and Wilhelm, 2) Ford and Wilhelm, 3) Snider, 4) Herzog and Skowron, 5) Aparicio and Allison, 6) Bunning and Lynch, 7) Schoendienst and Podres, 8) Hodges and Martin, 9) Pinson, 10) Malzone and Pascual, 11) Conley and Martin, and 12) Stuart and Blanchard; Six-Card Panels: 1) Aaron and White, 2) Clemente and Tommy Davis, 3) Minoso and Pascual, 4) Santo and Mazeroski, 5) Snider, and 6) Kluszewski and Lynch; Five-Card Panels: 1) Kuenn and Allison, 2) Pascual and O’Dell, 3) Bauer and Sanford, 4) Lollar and Friend, and 5) McDougald and Bell, and Four-Card Panels: 1) Snider and Yost and 2) McMillan and Duren. There are a total of 66 cards missing from a complete set, including some of the key Hall of Famers like Mantle, Berra, Maris, Spahn, Kaline, Mathews, McCovey, Banks and others, but even with the AWOL dignitaries, finding so much of a complete set in such a unique, pristine condition because of the uncut panels presents a rare and compelling opportunity for serious collectors.
1961 Post Cereal Baseball Partial Set in Complete or Partial Panels (32 Panels – 195 Cards)
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