Please Watch My Emmy Winning Movie, The Pez Outlaw on Amazon Prime & Peacock. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Best actor at SXSW.
Please Watch The Pez Outlaw Movie on Netflix.
It's My Story.
This price guide is still a bit modest on values & here is why.
Values based on what a particular box gets at a fancy auction house, to me are irrelevant.
Auction House prices in New York or California are not what you & I could ever get selling to each other.
And the odds of a Fancy Auction House selling a box for you or I are rather slim.
So I try to base my values on what is actually possible.
The number of people who will bid on fancy Auction house offers for cereal boxes is in my opinion, Maybe on a good day 12 potential buyers.
We are an obscure hobby, so I try to be realistic with values.
Here are the rules.
1. Collect cereal boxes n cereal boxes only.
2. Do not collect cereal related advertising crap.
3. Do not collect box tops or half boxes.
Save your money for near complete boxes. One or 2 missing flaps is acceptable.
4. Do not buy cereal boxes in really poor condition.
Buying crap to have an example is not a good idea. A crappy
condition box will just eat at you over the years. Even stored away, in
your mind you know it is there.
Fancy Dealers will happily sell you shit. Take your time, not
having it is better than having crap. If you don't have it, it's always
out there just waiting for you to find it. The Quest.
I'd rather own the newer boxes I talk about below than a cool old box in poor condition.
5. Do not collect cereal premiums.
Don't fall into the premium trap. I spent 20 years
collecting premiums, when I actually should have ignored them n
collected the Cereal Boxes they came in. I could honestly kick myself
for that. Collecting premiums is only collecting half the picture.
Collecting both is a diffusion of efforts. Every premium you buy to go
with a box is an additional cereal box you could have acquire with that
money. The Cereal box alone is enough, the illustration of the premium
on the box covers the premium. Buying the premium also is a waste of
time n money.
The number of Cereal Boxes you can collect is huge enough without
wasting needed funds on extraneous items. I'll tell you a secret, the
biggest mistake I made with Pez was buying all that crap that was not
actually a pez dispenser. I wasted massive amounts of time n money on
stupid.
Terms n Definitions
Full = box with original contents.
A box full of cereal, like on the shelf at the store or in your cupboard.
Flattened = a box that was once full of cereal, then emptied &
carefully flattened, using existing side seams. The box will show you
how as you attempt it.
Will have glue marks from opening on flaps.
 |
| flattened cereal box |
Shaped Flat = a flat that has been folded at side seems & glued.
Top & bottom flaps have not been folded on a shaped flat. Shaped
flats are the printers product ready for use at the factory.
 |
| Shaped flats |
A
Flat = unused, never assembled. These can come two ways, an uncut sheet
or a cut sheet ready to be shaped & glued. Most commonly these are
found as cut sheets. I fold these once at the seam for shipping. I find
it just plain stupid to attempt to ship a flat unfolded, every
additional square inch of shipping surface increases the chance of
damage when shipping. All file copies at manufacturers are folded once
at a seam. Get over it people, it does no damage realistically to the
flat & extends the overall life condition of the flat.
 |
| flats |
Uncut Sheet = A Flat that has not been cut out of the printer sheet.
Similar to proof sheets below but without color bar n excess white cardboard.
Proof
Sheet = Once all the design n conversation is done, a sheet of the
agreed upon box is printed. Then it is approved or disapproved. A dated
signature with OK will often be on one.
Proof
Sheet examples
 |
| Proof
Sheet examples |
 |
| Proof
Sheet examples |
 |
| Proof
Sheet examples |
How do you Figure out the year a cereal box was actually made?
* Never go by the copyrights on the side panel. Copyright year can be wildly off.
*
Best is if the box has a sell by date stamped into a top or bottom
panel. Usually box was manufacture in previous year of sell by date.
Though these are not always there.
* Another way is if the
box has an offer form with an expiration date. Example = Offer expires
December 31, 1993. Box is from 1992 in all likelihood.
* Sometimes you may find a date on a bottom side panel flap. Example = 5-92. On that one that is the date of manufacture.
* One final way. On some boxes there is a circle of numbers with say 95 in the center. That is that boxes year of manufacture.
* Though sometimes there are none of the above. In that case scour all panels for any date that seems reasonable.
Now for a very controversial subject.
How
to collect, do you leave the cereal in the boxes or empty the box &
carefully flatten them? Please remember this is my opinion.
I would not give you 2 cents more for a cereal box with contents
still in it. I'm actually a little ticked off when I buy boxes that have
contents instead of being flattened. Full boxes cost a ton to ship
& are prone to damage in shipping. Flattened boxes ship & store
better. Getting a box from here to there in time is accomplished with
less damage to the box if they are flattened.
To me nobody in there right mind would collect full boxes. You say
you like to display them, ok. I've been collecting cereal boxes for over
30 years. Full boxes damage themselves just sitting on the shelf. They
belly & bag. Dust can & does damage the box. Light damages the
box. The contents themselves damage the box. All this is going on year
after year even when in adding a box to a shelf, dusting etc, you don't
knock one off & damage a corner. Flattened boxes is the only sure
way to collect cereal boxes & minimize damage to your collection
over the years.
Shipping
I ship cereal boxes between 2 sheets of cardboard.
Double corrugated is best. Also best if the cardboard you use to ship is
big enough that you can fold it once to create the shipper. Use a piece
that after folded once creates an envelope 1/2 inch bigger on all sides
than the cereal box you are shipping. I find a cereal box has one ship
in it without damage. If a person returns the box in original packaging
it will most likely have damage.
The crease
there is one flaw almost every cereal box that ever
served time on a store shelf will have. It is the top crease in the
middle from where people commonly pick it up. More or less people pick
up a box of cereal from the top using the thumb on one side index finger
same hand on the back side. We all do it. Check yourself out next time
at the store, grab a box off the shelf, pause & note the indentation
you made in the box. To me this is the common flaw in almost all
flattened cereal boxes. You can prize for it not being there, but it
would be nuts to discount for it.
Again why I only collect flattened boxes. Say miracle of miracles you
have a full box on a shelve at home. Are you gonna put an armed guard
on it to keep some idiot from picking it up the most common way everyone
in the world would. If a cereal box is full it will get this crease
sooner or later.
Cut up
boxes & torn boxes.
If damage to a box exceeds 10% of the overall
box appearance. Why Bother. You might buy it cause you can't afford
better or even find another, but good luck ever getting your money back.
Torn or cutup boxes are difficult to resell. A coupon like Betty
Crocker or a proof of purchase cut from a top or bottom flap I can live
with as long as it does not affect front, back or side panels.
I've got to be honest with you. Boxes I buy from the 1990s or later
with tears or are cut up, I just tear them in half & throw them
away. There just not worth the space they take up.
Autographs.
I
don't cover or do autographs in the Cereal Box Price Guide. To be
honest, once a cereal box is autographed to me it leaves cereal boxes n
goes to the sports or autograph world. Autographs are not what The
Cereal Box Price Guide is about, it's about cereal boxes only. For
autographed cereal boxes you need to talk to sports card or celebrity
autograph guys. That most assuredly is not me.
I
don't want little Joey or Jo Anns signature on my cereal boxes n I
don't want Tiger wood's either. I like cereal boxes no ink please.
