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1961 Peters Meats Minnesota Twins Specs
Year: 1961
Title: Peters Meats Minnesota Twins
Size: 3-1/2″ x 4-5/8″
Number in Set: 26
1961 Peters Meats Minnesota Twins Overview
Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Peters Meats supplied hot dogs for Twins games and released this 26-card Midwest regional set in 1961 to celebrate the Twin’s first years in the city (after moving from Washington, where they were the Senators). The cards are pretty thick and heavily waxed since they were supposed to be used as packaging for meat products.
Peters advertised the “Free Twins Baseball Player Picture cards” in the 1961 Minnesota Twins Yearbook.
The front of the cards feature full-color player (and coach) photos, the team and Peteres logos, and player biographies. The backs are blank. In some catalogs, you will see the set designated F173.
The cards were issued as part of the packaging and meant to be cut out by collectors. Because of that hand-cutting, you will see a lot of poorer conditioned cards. It’s also why cards with complete packaging are more expensive than hand-cut cards. However, Sports collectors daily wrote, “With such a limited distribution area, the cards are fairly rare today, but a decent number of them were left over at the end of the promotion, escaping the plant without ever being applied to the packaging. According to collector Brian Powell, the Wholesale Card Company based on the east coast eventually purchased their leftover unfolded panels.” So you will find some very clean examples for sale.
In November 2022, Robert Edward Auctions sold the following complete SGC-graded set for $2340.
A few years earlier, in the spring of 2018, Robert Edward Auctions also sold a complete set of 26 1961 Peters Meats Minnesota Twins Unassembled Boxes for $2400. Here are all the photos from that lot:
The complete unassembled box set REA sold above came on packs of “Skinless Wieners” (hot dogs). However, “The Original Porkettes” horizontal packaging is much harder to track down. REA sold 18 unassembled Porkettes boxes for $8400 in that same 2018 spring auction.
The set was reprinted in 2020, but they shouldn’t confuse you if you’re looking for originals. The reprints are standard 3.5” x 2.5 cards with “reproduction” printed on their backs with Peters Meats and Twins logos.
1961 Peters Meats Minnesota Twins Example
1961 Peters Meats Minnesota Twins Key Cards
The set’s key card belongs to Harmon “Killer” Killebrew. However, Jim Kaat, Zoilo Versalles, Pedro Ramos, and Camilo Pascual aren’t going to be cheap buys either.
1961 Peters Meats Minnesota Twins Checklist
1 Zoilo Versalles
2 Ed Lopat CO
3 Pedro Ramos
4 Charles “Chuck” Stob
5 Don Mincher
6 Jack Kralick
7 Jim Kaat
8 Hal Naragon
9 Don Lee
10 Harry “Cookie” Lavag
11 Tom “Pete” Whisenant
12 Elmer Valo
13 Ray Moore
14 Billy Gardner
15 Lenny Green
16 Sam Mele
17 Jim Lemon
18 Harmon Killebrew
19 Paul Giel
20 Reno Bertoia
21 Clyde McCullough
22 Earl Battey
23 Camilo Pascual
24 Dan Dobbek
25 Joe “Valvy” Valdivie
26 Billy Consolo