The 1960 Post Cereal cards were issued on the backs of Grape Nuts Flakes cereal boxes and measure 7″ x 8-3/4″. The full-color cut cards are already pretty rare, but complete boxes that include side panels with player bios are like unicorns. After some research, I think just a single complete set exists in full-box form. I first came across it in Mastro’s April 2003 Catalog.
They described the cards, within the boxes, as being in Near Mint to Mint condition and offered the lot with a minimum bid of $2500. At the end of the lot’s description, though, they mentioned it as an “Ex-Copeland collection” piece.
So I pulled out Sothetby’s March 1991 catalog that presented The Copeland Collection of Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia, and there it was as lot 573, but it only included a photo of the Mantle box.
Then, in the fall of 2018, REA re-sold the set for $11,400.
They included a more detailed condition description: Mickey Mantle (card area is Nr/Mt-Mt, light moisture stains very near edge of frame), Ed Mathews (card area is Ex due solely to tiny wrinkle extending from bottom edge), Harmon Killebrew (light mark on left side of frame, otherwise card area is Nr/Mt-Mt), Al Kaline (card area is Vg-Ex+ due to tiny wrinkles confined to the very perimeter of frame), Don Drysdale (card area is Vg+ due to creasing), Johnny Unitas (card area is Vg/Vg-Ex due to light wrinkles confined to the perimeter), Frank Gifford (card area is Ex due to tiny wrinkle extending from right edge and a bit of staining on the reverse), Bob Cousy (card area appears Nr/Mt-Mt from the front, with a bit of staining on the reverse), and Bob Pettit (card area is Nr/Mt). The grades listed above focus just on the card area and not the surrounding portions of the boxes. All the top flaps of the boxes are missing; all the bottom flaps were glued at one time then later opened causing paper loss and remnants of paper on those areas.
