1 Card per jumbo pack of Wrigley gum?

gecko109

In rekindling the popularity of the T206 style cards, what if Wrigley gum added 1 baseball card to each of its jumbo gum packs? Size would be the same as original T206 cards. The fronts would have lithograph style printing with "drawings" of today's most popular players rather than photos. Simple fonts, and nothing on the backs but an advertisement. Green ad for spearmint, dark yellow ad for cards in the juicy fruit packs, blue backs for the peppermint packs, red backs for the cinnamon, etc, etc.

Lets assume the project/promotion ran for 2 years only. Would this boost sales of gum for Wrigley? Would you personally be buying more gum? Would this set ever catch on as a hot collectible?

gecko109

Oh, and absolutely ZERO "chase" cards. Thats what has ruined card collecting IMO. Remember when you used to open packs of cards for the cards themselves? Now you rip for the inserts.....nothing has done more to ruin the hobby.

hotmush

I love this idea. I would totally buy wrigley (or any other brand of gum that did this). I was in the grocery store today and browsed the cereal aisle hoping for a food-issue baseball release. Nada. Kinda depressed me. When I was a kid (85) almost every snack or cereal had some sort of baseball issue at one time or another.

leathtech

<< <i>Oh, and absolutely ZERO "chase" cards. Thats what has ruined card collecting IMO. Remember when you used to open packs of cards for the cards themselves? Now you rip for the inserts.....nothing has done more to ruin the hobby. >>



We've crossed that line and there is no going back... not sure just the regular set will every be worth anything again. Today base cards are just fillers in packs - no one really wants them, everyone wants the gold 1/1 or the autograph version.

gecko109

Thats true Leathtech. But if the production numbers were low enough, I think a modern day "base only" set could work. Especially when it has to be built 1 card at a time. To get 10-12 base cards in a typical pack of cards doesnt make any of those cards "seem" special. But if you got just 1 card at a time in each pack of gum....well, then maybe you have something perceived as being rare. Even more so if there were 350 subjects in the set!

SportsCardCollector

I think this is a terrific idea and I would be one of the first to run out and buy it. I loved the bazooka cards on the box when I was a kid and I think at least a few of the kids today would think it was cool too.

My guess as to why it wouldn't happen has more to do with cost than demand. Seeing the way MLB is raping card companies with their licensing fees, putting cards in with gum would probably raise the price of a pack of gum so high that it would start making Exquisite look cheap.

Bigjohn69

great idea, ide buy some,,big

stevek

yes it would definitively boost their sales, as well as dentists revenue. LOL

gecko109

"Seeing the way MLB is raping card companies with their licensing fees, putting cards in with gum would probably raise the price of a pack of gum so high that it would start making Exquisite look cheap. "

A very valid point that I had not considered. Here I am only thinking about physical production costs (a penny or 2 per card?) , while you are actually thinking about the big picture! I wonder exactly what it would cost to get this type of license?

Bunker

I like the idea, I also think it would be neat to have different gum companies do it, that way there would be different backs to 'chase'

Nascar360

It's harder than you think. I am trying to get my company to do a card set in our product. You have to think about the manufacturing process. The production line is already automated so where does the card get added. Do you get Topps to make the cards so you can just use their license or do you try to get a license from MLB? Upper Deck proved that the player association is no good for cards. Our 100 anniversary is coming up in 2013 so I am shooting for that. I'm in IT so I am trying to get Marketing to take a chance on this.

I have a question for everyone.
Would you care if the card was visible like on the back of the box (Kraft) or hidden in the packaging?

Karb

I like the idea of the different backs. Orbit backs, Wrigley backs, 5 backs, etc. It'd be cool if it could be done.

Reljac

<< <i>

<< <i>Oh, and absolutely ZERO "chase" cards. Thats what has ruined card collecting IMO. Remember when you used to open packs of cards for the cards themselves? Now you rip for the inserts.....nothing has done more to ruin the hobby. >>



We've crossed that line and there is no going back... not sure just the regular set will every be worth anything again. Today base cards are just fillers in packs - no one really wants them, everyone wants the gold 1/1 or the autograph version. >>



I agree. I think the problem is that people don't buy a $3 pack and get excited about a $1 Pujols. Or a $60 box and get excited about building 1/2 of a $50 set.

UlyssesExtravaganza

I think it could work to a certain degree but I think people are too aware of potential value in collectibles for there to be tremendous appeal. Nobody was putting the original T206s in semi-rigids, hence the appeal for attractive copies. I like the idea of a modern day set similar to Wilson Franks where all the cards are unlikely to be close to mint condition because they are next to a pack of slimy wet hotdogs. I think Desert Shield and box bottoms work in that way because the handling makes for very few nice copies.

stevek

<< <i>It's harder than you think. I am trying to get my company to do a card set in our product. You have to think about the manufacturing process. The production line is already automated so where does the card get added. Do you get Topps to make the cards so you can just use their license or do you try to get a license from MLB? Upper Deck proved that the player association is no good for cards. Our 100 anniversary is coming up in 2013 so I am shooting for that. I'm in IT so I am trying to get Marketing to take a chance on this.

I have a question for everyone.
Would you care if the card was visible like on the back of the box (Kraft) or hidden in the packaging? >>



oh yea great...make the card visible so there would then be gum pack searchers in the stores.

Sportsamerica

<< <i>Oh, and absolutely ZERO "chase" cards. Thats what has ruined card collecting IMO. Remember when you used to open packs of cards for the cards themselves? Now you rip for the inserts.....nothing has done more to ruin the hobby. >>



I disagree... The chase cards have made my collecting costs drop big time... I just sell the junk that is only hot for the year... I end up not paying much per box this way, sometimes I put my sets together for free because of this..

JHS5120

I like the idea but the only problem would be that the target consumer for Wrigley's isn't sports fans or athletes I think that this would be a fantastic idea for something like bazooka to re introduce or big league chew. Actually a set from Big League Chew would be a very interesting idea. It would be a much harder set to accomplish in high grade because of the packets instead of the support from Wrigley's packs. Also it has the proper audience and Big League chew is harder to come by unlike Wrigley's which is in every super market, convience store and gas station in the country; not to mention vending machines. A card set from Wrigley's might become too common of a set and people would lose interest. Just an opinion.
Jason