Baseball Card Grocery Promotions

The 2026 MLB season opens this week and I do like to post about baseball during this time each year. Usually I post about baseball video games or a baseball toy, but I'm running out of material, so here is something about baseball cards, which aren't toys, but they were a fun part of my childhood. While I wasn't entirely sure what to title this post, it's about going to the grocery store as a kid and buying a product (or asking a parent to buy it) to get the free baseball card(s). Many foods ran promotions in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, especially Kellogg's and Post cereals, though other products had them too, like drinks, Ziploc bags, and even dog treats. I stopped collecting cards in the late '90s and although I have shopped for groceries many times since then, I don't recall when including trading cards with foods became rare, but my best guess is the early 2000s. 

   

Here are a couple Hostess ads from the '70s featuring baseball cards I don't own.

Of course, other sports and non-sports cards have appeared as freebies too. The last one I remember seeing is Jimmy Neutron cards being packaged with Ore-Ida fries back in 2002, the same year my most recent Post cereal card is from. I rarely even see anything included with cereal these days either. What happened to all the cool (and cheaply made) toys to find inside cereal boxes? It's too bad today's kids don't get to experience digging through a box of cereal to find that little plastic toy buried at the bottom of the bag. In any case, below you'll find photos of a sampling of the cards from my collection, though certainly not all of them. Most of the cards are of star players or a popular player on each team. The pictures are taken with a wide angle lens and the lighting is coming from a window to the right, so you'll notice shadows toward the left of most images and maybe some distortion on images taken at a slight angle.

Kellogg's

Kellogg's had some unique narrow cards in its early promotions and regular-sized lenticular cards later, and they all tend to curl on their own. In 1992 I took advantage of the mail-in offer to get a cardboard display stand.

Post

Kellogg's and Post likely ran the biggest promotions and across many years. You'll notice in some of these and many others, that the team logos have been airbrushed out because the companies did not always have the MLB license. Sometimes a company would allow consumers to order the full set, which I did for the 1993 Post set. It has Dave Fleming as the first card and mine is still sealed in the plastic wrap. The 2002 cards are from Topps and I still have a pack sealed.

Cracker Jack

This one makes perfect sense, as Cracker Jack is a common snack at baseball stadiums, or at least it used to be. Is it still today? I couldn't say since I haven't been to a MLB stadium in at least a decade. Like standard Crack Jack prizes, the cards are sealed within the red, white, and blue paper, so they are quite small. They measure about 1.75 inches by 1.25 inches, and sometimes the cards were yellowed by the food seeping into the paper wrapper. One year features miniature Topps 1991 40th anniversary cards and another the 1992 Donruss design. I noticed the Don Mattingly Donruss card does not match his full-sized card, so I checked Ken Griffey Jr.'s card and found that his image matches his Donruss All-Star card. I don't think Don Mattingly has a 1992 Donruss All-Star card; maybe the photo was an extra Donruss already had and this could be the only place it appears, though I can't be certain. Below is a photo comparing the size of a regular card to the Crack Jack cards, a couple still in wrappers, and some ad scans.

Drake's

Sometimes Drake's had nice cards and sometimes it put the cards on the bottom of its boxes. That meant consumers would have to cut the cards out of the box, so there are plenty of miscut Drake's cards with jagged edges out there.

Hostess

Although I don't have the Hostess cards from the ads posted at the top, I do have plenty from the 1993 Hostess Baseballs cupcakes.

Bazooka Bubble Gum

This is the only product that I still have the packaging for, and the 1991 Topps card design appears once again.

French's

The famous mustard company included three cards per purchase, and the cards feature both an AL and a NL all-star player on the same card for the same position.

Coca-Cola

I don't know where this one came from, perhaps it was in a case of soda. It's strip of four cards (three players and one checklist) that I didn't separate. One photo has a stapler in it that I used to weight it down because the cards didn't want to lay flat.

Pepsi-Cola

These cards are circles that can be popped out of a glove attached to a checklist. I already had photos of this one, so they don't have the same white background as the other photos.

Wonder Bread

I could only find a few of my Wonder Bread cards, but I know I have an uncut sheet that was a mail-in offer. Whenever I find it, if I do, I'll add a photo of it here.

Kraft

In 1993 Kraft Singles, the individually wrapped pieces of cheese, were packaged with pop-up cards. However, I didn't pop the cards up, which is done by pulling on a tab, as can be seen in the instructions.

Topps Cereal Series

I'm combing two cards here that look rather similar to one another, and I only have one of each. One card says "Topps Cereal Series" on it and the other "Ralston Purina Company," but it does have a Topps logo on it. As you can see, they otherwise have the same design on the front and the backs aren't too different either, with the only noticeable difference being the Topps and Ralston Puiina logos. Ralston Purina owned a lot of products, though the back of that card indicates the cards were found in Cookie-Crisp, Donkey Kong, and other cereals. My research did not come up with a lot, however, it would appear that these were used interchangeably, so the "Topps Cereal Series" cards were also included only with Ralston Purina cereals.

Ziploc

Ziploc bags came with cards of legends and I've got an ad for this one too. Although the ad is for the cards I own, if you zoom in on it, it looks like the kids are holding 1991 Topps cards.

Advil

Advil? Yes, Advil! Nolan Ryan was a spokesperson for the pain relief medication and while I don't believe cards were packaged with the product, consumers could order a boxed set of 27 cards spanning Ryan's career. I'm including an Advil ad I still have from the '90s, but it doesn't feature the card promotion. Also, I never opened the set, so I only have a photo of the box.

Everything Else!

While I gave Wonder Bread its own spot in the event that I find the uncut sheet, the rest are for the cards I only took one photo of. Below you'll see cards from Tombstone Pizza, Jimmy Dean the sausage company, Hamburger Helper, Homers Cookies, Milk Bone dog biscuits, and uniquely shaped cards from Tetley, the tea maker. Hamburger Helper cards had to be cut from the box, and there were eight boxes, each of a different flavor, to collect for the whole set. Homers Cookies weren't very kind to me as far as variety. Of the eight cards I pulled out of the cookie boxes, seven are Dizzy Dean!

Super Mar10

For the third year in a row, I've got a small post for March 10th, aka Mar10 Day. There are scans from two issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly's (EGM) coverage of the Super NES' Super Mario World, but I couldn't find a review, which likely appeared in an issue I'm missing. Super Mario World released in Japan in November 1990 and the U.S. in August 1991. Below is a 4-page preview from EGM #19 (February 1991) and the "Game Over" column from EGM #23 (June 1991). Previous Mar10 Day blog posts include Its-A-Mario Day! and an article from Video Games & Computer Entertainment titled Mario in Four-Color Land. If you're a Mario fan, you might also enjoy GamePro's Super Mario Kart review post and some magazine interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto. Happy Mar10 Day!

Year 10: February Update

The blog reached its 10th year! I don't update often, but I'll try to keep it going for as long as I can. Since my last update I built a new computer, as my video card was more than seven years old and I think the rest of my PC was at least 12 years old. Unfortunately, RAM prices took off just as I was beginning my parts research, so it wasn't a great time to build a new one, but necessary. Although I'm not doing too many videos here of late, the upgrades will definitely help with the speed of video and photo editing. Now I have this great computer for games and instead of putting it to the test, the first gaming I did was stream Indiana Jones and the Great Circle through Amazon Prime. I don't normally subscribe to anything, but I had an offer for a year of Amazon Prime and signed up primarily for TV streaming without even realizing it included games. The only graphics option when streaming Indiana Jones was 720p or 1080p, and I expect the game would look better if played locally. Still, it was more or less free, and it ran well, only freezing one time. Most of the levels are open areas to explore, and I enjoyed the story, as well as playing as Indiana Jones. Surprisingly, the puzzles are all rather simple, especially compared to the Uncharted and Tomb Raider games. It's not as action-oriented as those games either; Indy can whip, shoot, and use his fists, but he can also wear disguises to avoid conflict and most of the game plays like a first-person adventure.

One game I was hoping to play on this new PC eventually was Ghost of Yōtei. Now I'm uncertain that will ever happen, as recent news reports have stated that Sony is moving away from porting its PlayStation exclusives to PC and I don't want to purchase a PlayStation 5. Maybe Sony will change its mind when console sales slow due to the higher hardware costs, a result of the data centers buying up electronics parts and driving up prices, like the aforementioned RAM. In other gaming news, Sonic the Hedgehog turns 35 this year, a new C64 system is on the way, new Star Wars games were unveiled in December, and a new Masters of the Universe game is coming soon. The $349.99 (more for Starlight and Founders editions) Commodore 64 Ultimate is like an original C64 rebuilt and can connect to old C64 hardware, while running games from a USB drive. 

At The Game Awards back in December we got a look at Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Fate of the Old Republic. From developer Fuse Games, Galactic Racer features pod racing and speeder bikes. Fate of the Old Republic is a spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic in development at Arcanaut Studios. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction is a side-scrolling combat game coming April 28, 2026 from Bitmap Bureau and Limited Run Games.

Of course, I cannot write a blog update without LEGO news. In January, LEGO unveiled its SMART Play System, which adds technology to bricks and minifigures to create sound effects when users move objects. Star Wars sets featuring SMART Play actually release tomorrow and because you are paying for the tech, you get less pieces than traditional LEGO sets at a higher price. Thus far seven sets have been announced, ranging from $39.99 for Luke's Landspeeder to $159.99 for Throne Room Duel & A-wing.

Thanks for visiting,

Jonathan

Space Age Games (Starlog - February 1983)

Last year I acquired an assortment of Starlog issues from the early 1980s, and they often include video game articles, among other interesting features. This four-page story from 1983 was written to help Starlog readers choose the video game console that is right for them. It compares the price, microprocessor, controllers, and game library of the Atari VCS (2600), Odyssey 2, Intellivision, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Colecovision, and Atari 5200. Near the end of the article, there is a mention of possibly renting Atari 5200 games by downloading them through a phone line to a module made by a third-party. I don't believe this ever materialized, though I wonder if there are any prototypes of the module out there. It's not far-fetched, as Intellivision did have game streaming through its PlayCable service in 1981, but I've never heard of renting 5200 games before.

Gaming Ads: Backfilling #22

Here are some more video game ads from Taito America, Titus, and Tradewest, The Taito ad features a Wrath of the Black Manta sweepstakes and the only ad from Titus is of Superman for the Game Boy. There are three Tradewest ads, two for John Elway's Quarterback and one of Double Dragon's NES release.

A Day in the Life of a Video Game: A Visit to Sega (Sega Visions - May/June 1992)

What better way to kick off Vault 1541's 10th year than a post about Sega. Unfortunately, the main reason I thought to add more Sega to the blog today was due to the recent news that Sega co-founder David Rosen passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 95. Being a businessman, I don't believe he was involved in game production and is likely the reason that he doesn't appear in my magazine collection, as most of my issues do predate his retirement in 1996. Sega was a big part of my childhood and I still enjoy its games today, so I wanted to post something about Sega in his honor. Some related posts you might also enjoy include the Sega of America ads post, Sega Visions' History of Sega article, and Letters From Sega. This article from the May/June 1992 issue of Sega Visions could actually apply to any company; it's a general overview of how each department contributes to a game's development. However, while it isn't the most interesting piece, it does have a good variety of photos to check out.

UPDATE 2/28/26: Without writing yet another Sega post, I wanted to add that we unfortunately lost another key figure in Sega's history. Two weeks ago, on February 13th, Hideki Sato passed away. Mr. Sato was an engineer and a former company president who joined Sega in 1971, and he helped lead the development of the Master System, Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast.