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Specs
Year: 1952
Title: Royal Desserts
Size: 2 5/8″ by 3 1/4″
Number in Set: 8
Overview
The 1952 Royal Desserts “Royal Stars of Basketball” set is made up of 8 cards that were found on the back of Royal Puddings, Royal Tapioca Puddings, Royal Gelatin Desserts, and Royal Custard Flavor Dessert Mix.
There are two versions of the cards; the first has black and red lettering with a black and white image like the following complete set.
The blue and red lettering versions with a blue-tinted image are rarer, like the Mikan pictured above on the custard flavor box.
The cards are almost always found in poor condition from being cut out of a box.
Each card is divided in half, with the left side featuring a headshot of the player and their facsimile autograph, and the right side has a career summary. The right side has a note that collectors could send off for a plastic album; this required three package fronts and 15 cents.
Royal Desserts also printed cards for other sports and movie stars which you can see in the following magazine article.
Example
Key Cards
Catalogs value the George Mikan card at an equivalent price as the other seven combined.
Checklist
1 Fred Schaus
2 Dick McGuire
3 Jack Nichols
4 Frank Brian
5 Joe Fulks
6 George Mikan
7 Jim Pollard
8 Buddy Jeannette