The Pez Outlaw Movie is on Netflix & Amazon Prime.
My Appologies, I have not updated this Price Guide in Quite a while. You could easily Double all my values on Cereal Boxes.
Dear General Mills, Kellogg's, Quaker and Post.
The Pez Outlaw Movie is Finnished, as a character, Pez Outlaw will soon recieve a lot of Eyeballs. Now would be a very strategic moment for you to join forces with me on The Cereal Box Project.
I'm tired of buying Cereal Box Factory Flats and shaped flats from people who essentially stole them from you. Yeah I get the Irony, Pez Outlaw n all. FYI Cereal is feature Quite a Bit in the Pez Outlaw Movie, Just saying. For once in my Life I'd prefer we work together instead of the hard way. I need these boxes to continue the Cereal Box Project.
There seems to be a bump of interest in collecting cereal boxes lately. General Mills, Kellogg's, Quaker and Post now would be a good time if you were thinking of helping. I need Cereal Box Factory Flats and shaped flats from 2000-2015. Older or Newer also.
Send cereal boxes to.
sj. glew
5611 lehman rd.
dewitt mi.
48820
The Best Cereal Box Price Guide Ever.
4,200 Collectible Cereal Boxes pictured
Please use the Cereal Box Price guide to answer any questions you have.
Where, When n Why.
The most Cereal Boxes pictured anywhere in print or on line. More Cereal Boxes in a single chapter than most other sites have in total.
The Dickens you say, people actually collect empty cereal boxes? I've been involved with collectibles for over 40 years and from that I can tell you this. Cereal boxes are the most natural, organic if you will allow, thing that people might actually collect.
The Cereal Box Price Guide has had over 323,000 views in the short time it has been around.
Every one of us stared at cereal boxes as children at morning breakfast. Most of us saw the commercials on Saturday morning then harassed mom till she bought us that cereal so we could have the prize, then heard from mom, you begged me for that so now you damn well better eat it.
I don't know about you but my 4 brothers n I actually fought over those little prizes in cereal boxes. Winners got to shove there hand into the box n collect there victory in the form of a paper or cello wrapped toy. My brothers n I also built forts at the breakfast table with every cereal box in the cupboard so we would not have to look at each other so early in the morning.
We all grew up with Cereal Boxes, they were a very important part of our childhood. As children we also collected gum cards. Well cereal boxes are big kid gum cards, bigger because we are bigger. We collected gum cards as kid cause others said they were good. We collect cereal boxes because we say they are good and because they bring back such great memories of our childhood.
I'm writing this because cereal boxes have been a personal passion of mine for 40 years. I have to admit though, there is a second reason. There is nothing currently available to collectors like what the Cereal Box Price Guide will be. I've looked. The best I found were portion aspects. A list but no pictures, dates or prices or pictures but zero true info about actually collecting cereal boxes. The actual how n why to collecting cereal boxes.
Some places have pictures but you've gotta keep changing pages to see another, again no years & no values. Very tedious n time consuming. Here you just scroll down n voila there she be.
I've also noticed what seems to be the norm for printed guides to cereal boxes. That norm seems to be a conglomerate of radio premiums, cereal premiums n finally cereal boxes. As I approach this project one thing is very clear. A guide to only US release cereal boxes is massive enough. How could a guide that includes radio premiums n cereal premiums leave enough room to do cereal boxes properly.
As it stands I'm not going to include boring boxes like Bran this n Bran that or Whole grain healthy crap. My colon be damned, give me sugar sweetened n unhealthy by today's goofy standards. I'm old n could not give a crap anymore, I eat what I like, life is to short to trade quality for boring. Anyway the point being, even eliminating the the boring crap healthy cereal this thing is gonna be very big/long. So how in God's name could you possibly have room for premiums.
The exception on boring cereal will be boxes that have good or interesting offers on them. Examples; Post Toasties, Grape Nuts n Grape Nuts Flakes will be included because the offers on the boxes were to good to ignore them.
All listing are pictured. Every image is dated n valued.
Easy access by brand, type n year.
No click then wait for images, simply scroll down to next, then next, then next.
The most Cereal Boxes pictured anywhere in print or on line. More Cereal Boxes in a single chapter than most other sites have in total.
Wheaties, the Monster Cereals (Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Franken Berry, Yummy Mummy n Fruite Brute), Cap'n Crunch n Pebbles will be covered in there own chapters. The reason is there are 4 groups of boxes that deserve a higher focus for collectors; Wheaties, Monster Cereals, Cap'n Crunch n Pebbles.
I deal with cereal boxes every day as a seller, buyer, collector n cataloger. From these activities I can tell you with a degree of certainty Wheaties, the Monster Cereals, Cap'n Crunch n Pebbles are the most popular n active cereal boxes.
NEW. Where possible I've added the year a particular brand of cereal first made its appearance on store shelves. Ongoing.
I just realized today that this project could be considered the third attempt to launch cereal boxes as a more mainstream collectible. Cereal box collecting has been a small group of about 50 people, 100 at most for over 2 decades. Two notable attempts for a bigger hobby have been the publications of Freakie Magnet and Flake (Flake by Scott Bruce). Both attempts fizzled, even though Scott Bruce is a very talented and skilled promoter.
Scott Bruce (Flake) was just way to early and after his unprecedented success with Lunch Boxes he tried to do it to fast, not allowing time for his efforts to build. Scott Bruce wrote the book on building a collectible hobby to it's peak, but his attempt with Flake was hurried and impatient.
Freakie Magnet was more a fanzine than any real attempt to grow the hobby. Another group of note is Cerealbits.com, again more of a club and a place to meet.
I could tell you this time it's different because it's me, but why on earth should you believe that. I will tell you this though. I maintain over 1,200 cereal box listings on ebay. Each ebay listing promotes the hobby of collecting cereal boxes. Each listing also has a tie in to the Cereal Box Price Guide. Finally, you can not have a hobby without a good price guide. Why? Because if interested people can't see what it's all about and get an idea of what the known universe for a hobby is, how do they start? The Cereal Box Price Guide also gives people with piles of cereal boxes a heads up that they are valuable there by motivating them to offer the boxes on ebay. Each of there listings also become little entrepreneurs for a hobby of collecting cereal boxes.
I strongly believe this time will be different and the one that works, because of the process I will be using. I'm writing this in public view so the process itself will be a momentum builder. As the Cereal Box Price Guide grows, I believe interest in Cereal Boxes as a collectible will also grow. Increased awareness should build the interest. As the universe of Cereal Boxes as a collectible becomes more defined, what is possible will become clearer to new collectors.
This book should help potential collectors understand how Cereal Boxes are possibly the most natural of things that a person who likes or has a predisposition to collect would collect. I believe anyone who collects anything actually has a stronger affinity to there childhood memory at the breakfast table eating and staring at there cereal box than any other collectible. To me Cereal Boxes are the most natural collectible there is. Your connection to Cereal Boxes is organic, everyone grew up with them. No other collectible has the saturation of exposure on our lives at exactly our most impressionable age. I believe all that's needed is the reawakening of those moments. This public process of writing the Cereal Box Price Guide should be that spark.
I want to thank everyone for the response to The Cereal Box Price Guide so far. The enthusiasm for this new project has been very gratifying. Over 90,000 views of The Cereal box Price Guide so far in the brief amount of time it has existed.
As of today we have over 4,100 Collectible Cereal Boxes pictured in this price guide and more on the way.
When I started listing Cereal Boxes on Ebay there were approx 3,800 cereal box listings in total. After a lot of work, there are now over 11,000+ cereal box listings on Ebay.
No book on cereal boxes could possibly not include Marky from Maypo.
How do you forget Maky's finger in Uncle Ralphie's ear, Uncle Ralphie, Uncle Ralphie.
NEW
When you click one of the advert on this page, that is how I earn money for writing this.
10 Cereal Boxes I like at the end of This Chapter
If there is a better resource on Cereal Boxes than The Cereal Box Price Guide, I've never seen it. Nothing comes even close.
The Cereal Box Price Guide, is there anything on the Web or in print that has more Cereal Boxes featured, dated, n valued? Is there anywhere in the Universe where you will see more Cereal Boxes? That settled the Cereal Box Price Guide is the number one destination/resource for Cereal Box Collecting.
It would also appear I need to address something. Sports card guys want you all to believe sports cards on backs of boxes are as valuable as real topps or Fleer sports cards. They are not. To be honest it's exactly the opposite. Generally sports boxes are collected less by cereal box collectors than any other type. The exception and it's a big one is Wheaties. Wheaties are a class of collectible cereal boxes unto itself. With Wheaties quite often they collect Wheaties and that's it.
Here's the simple way to explain it. You all know how nuts sports card people can be about grading real sports cards, edges feathered, bends wrinkles etc. Cereal box sports cards are cut out with shears, nuf said. Also try turning the tables, try selling a sports card back to a sports card guy, what he will say and his response will be opposite of what he'd say if selling it to you.
Sports card backs or Wheaties sports figure boxes are nice but value equalization crossover with sports cards is ludicrous. These boxes need to be valued within the cereal box world not the I saw you comin stupid sports card crossover world. There is no crossover. They are apples n oranges.
Let's get one Thing Straight, In My Book Graham Crackers Are Breakfast Cereal. It's Been My Favorite Thing To Eat In The Morning Since I Was A Child. One Whole Pack Added 3 At A time To A Bowl Of Milk. Graham Crackers First Thing In The Morning & I Can Take On The World.
I will be spending a lot of time on Wheaties n Kellogg's in general. Reason, more people view Wheaties day to day n over the year than all other brands combined. The Kellogg's part 1 chapter comes in a solid second. In an ongoing effort to flesh out what people want, I will always add Wheaties n Kellogg's info as soon as I have it ready.
The values I place on cereal boxes are my opinion of what is reasonable to think you might get for a particular box. Big time dealers place much higher values on some boxes, it is an arbitrary number waiting for some idiot who has to much money. It works, but that's not how we are going to value cereal boxes here. You are not going to find an idiot with to much money for your box, idiots are a developed clientele nurtured by Big Time Dealers, there is a very limited supply of them. No, you my friends are in all likelihood going to have to sell your box or buy it in the real world n that is how I will place values.
I was limiting top value to $250.00. I'm probably going to increase that. A lot of cereal boxes are really valued at $250.00 to approx $900.00. Even still , I will probably not value any cereal box over $500.00. I've been reluctant because I do not want to encourage replicas. Two points here. I've been noticing a definite increase in the number of replicas on ebay. Second I've also notice a lot of replicas in existing collections.
This increase in replicas in the hobby troubles me only as to sales of these items down the road by people who don't realize that they are replicas to people who can't spot a replica. Newbies.
People tend to collect what was a part of there child hood or in this case what they ate. Example; Cocoa Krispies verses Cocoa Pebbles. Cocoa Pebles are & always have been more popular. End result most Cereal Box Collectors collect Cocoa Pebbles, Cocoa Krispies not so much. Sugar Crisp yes, Smacks to a lesser degree. Within cereal types produced by the various Companies one emerged as most popular with us as children, as adults we kept our bias as we collect.
Cereal Boxes are like adult Gum Cards. Bigger & more fun. A cereal box is like a TV show featuring a special guest appearance / Who's on the box. The first of something new & cool or a really great character featured on the box.
Classification of value n desirability for a cereal box starts this way. You have a maker then the brand n it's mascot in some cases, then it is about what is happening on the face of the box. Offers can add value, celebrity guest appearance can add value or if the mascot is in a costume, that can add vale. To me a great example of costuming mascots is the 1995 series of Pebbles cereals where Barney is in different crazy costumes. I love these.
The crazier the front of a box is, the better it is.
Some boxes have names. Example below is the Pebbles Chocolate Dragon box. A really good name alone can make a box iconic. Put that with crazy & costumed. Ding, Ding you have a winner. Mark my words 20 to 30 years from now this box will be known as the Chocolate Dragon Box.
Mascots for cereal boxes seem to evolve about every decade. So obviously earlier incarnations of Tony, Lucky or Cap'n Crunch by themselves adds value. Another example is say Franken Berry pouring milk into the bowl from a pitcher, better box.
The company that first took Licensed by Character or Movie boxes with no brand affiliation ( like still General Mills but not Cherios) within the corporate header to its furthest point was Ralston. The license was the brand of Ralston, Kellogg's etc. Now that Ralston is out of the picture General Mills, Kellogg's n Post have picked up where they left off. I call this category of product the Ralston effect.
Most of the chapters are going to have a category called the Ralston effect. The Ralston effect category is for example Star Wars Cereal by General Mills or Polar Express Cereal by Post.
One more thing about Ralston. Early on & now again Ralston was n could be nothing more than all the rest of the generic brands of cereal. Cereal boxes that nobody really collect. Ralston got behind there brands Grins n Giggles, Freakies, Fruit Islands etc, with characters n promotions. I've seen some pretty cool generic boxes, but they don't follow up or promote themselves. Ralston was an iconic company of unique innovative brands n characters.
Ralston got lazy by going with movie licensed brands, making there future fortunes boom or bust. Don't get me wrong I love some of these boxes, Urkelos, WWF, Ghost Busters etc, but a few licenses like Robin Hood Prince of Thieves & Addams family can sink a company. Heck I bought a lot of even WWF at Dollar stores. I just feel Ralston Cereal might have had a brighter future if they'd stuck with Freakies, Fruit Islands & about half the licenses they did. God bless them though, Ralston cereal as we knew it died but we got all those great cereal boxes.
I personally own over 10,000 cereal boxes. I also buy cereal boxes, but I pay prices that take a longer view of things. Translation, I'm cheap. Any idiot can pay big money for something.
My all time favorite cereal boxes are Baron Von Redberry & Sir Grape Fellow. Next probably the Monster cereal boxes. These are my personal favorite, ones I would cherish above all others. That said I would feel crappy unless I got an extremely good buy in acquiring them. I can live without them at the wrong price.
My favorite group of cereal boxes is the Monster Cereal group, Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, Yummy Mummy & Fruit Brute. Hands down no competition Big G Monster Cereals are the best.
My favorite cereal Company is Ralston, again no competition. More unique licensed product during the right time period to be affordable. Cabbage Patch, Ghost Busters, WWF, Early Cookie Crisp/dark brown boxes, Dinersaurs, Dinky Donuts, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Dunkin Donuts, Freakies, Fruit Islands, G I Joe, Gremlins, Grins & Smiles & Giggles & Laughs, Moonstones, Nerds, Nintendo, Rainbow Brite, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Urkelos & Waffelos. Now that is a group of cereal boxes you want to collect & I didn't even name everything.
If Ralston had also done the Monster Cereals, Baron Von Redberry, Sir Grape Fellow, Quisp, Quake & Quangaroos, you would only need to collect Ralston.
My least favorite Cereal Company is Nabisco. There are some pretty good boxes from Nabisco, but generally the worst group of cereal boxes for collecting.
Recently I had to come to grips with my feelings towards Wheaties Cereal Boxes. I've been very critical & wrong. My position was there are tons of them out there & everybody collects them. Hence my thought was they are worthless. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. The truth is actually in the critique. Everybody Collects them. With typical stupidity I was fighting the current. Recoiling against what is truly popular. My problem, I'm gonna work on it.
On that very point. the Cereal Box Price Guide has been up long enough that consistent data that bares this out is now available. The Wheaties chapter is viewed day in day out n overall 3 to 1 over any other chapter. In other words you name the brand of cereal, Wheaties are viewed 3 times as much on a daily basis or overall.
I know to big collectors Wheaties are not as sexy as Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Yummy Mummy, Fruit Brute, Quisp, Quake, Quangaroos, Cap'n Crunch, Ghost Busters, Freakies, Fruit Islands, Grins & Smiles & Giggles & Laughs, Moonstones, Nerds, & Waffelos etc. Problem for me in writing this book is solved very simple. Give the reader what they overwhelmingly want, WHEATIES. This data also shows me I made the correct decision by giving Wheaties there own chapter.
Wheaties are the most popular Cereal Boxes collected. I now embrace this fact.
To back the above statement up. This week an 8 cereal box series of Wheaties boxes from the 1970s, all unused factory flats sold as one lot for $1,754.00. This auction started out at .99 cents. To say the least I was dumfounded by the winning bid. If this does not bare out the above statement, nothing will. Over $200.00 per box on average. I've seen "great" boxes in the opinion of Cereal Box collectors "in the know" like Grins n Giggles or Moonstones go for say $100.00 or less each. Or other "great" boxes up for sale for a year at a time at $200.00 plus, that do not sell. So you tell me, What is the most popular cereal brand to general cereal box collectors en mass. WHEATIES, hands down Wheaties. There really is no dispute.
I noticed something while working on Wheaties this week. 1942 to 1945 are very lean on cereal boxes, here is why in my opinion. On December 7, 1941 World War II began. The USA was ill prepared for the war, so as a nation we had to scramble, very fast. This war effort included rationing for consumers and manufacturers. Massive amounts of raw materials were required for the war effort. We not only had to produce war materials for US efforts, we also had to carry a big part of the load for Europe and Russia.
So rationing of raw materials change packaging and quantities produced. Add to that, that during the war years what we call recycling was instituted in a big way to provide further for the needs of raw materials. Families and children were in perpetual paper and metal drives, collecting used materials needed for the war effort. So what little may have been produced in large part ended up in paper drives/recycled. Resulting in not many cereal boxes survived from the years 1942 to 1945.
Hard fact / Harsh reality. I buy cereal boxes in quantity, preferably 50 to a thousand or 2 at a time. I pay roughly $1.00 per box for flats. I pay .50 cents to $1.00 each for flattened boxes in quantity. This is for boxes I want in Quantity. I have payed $2.00 each for Ralston Flats, quantity over 750. I as a dealer can not pay more & hope to make any kind of reasonable profit to me.
As with the whole Pez thingy, see Pez Outlaw Diary. I have a lot of added costs in advertising, promotion & support material. Time expenditure alone creating the Cereal Box Price Guide.
I sometimes note in caption, boxes I like. This just means I personally like it, that for whatever personal reason. I like it. Sometimes it will be colors combined with overall box presentation, like the 1997 McDonald's Kellogg's Honey Crunch Corn Flakes cereal box. Others it might be as in the case of the Corn Flakes Memphis Box, I'd never seen one like it before. As with anything you collect, it should be about what you like. Not what others tell you is great.
Remember I'm trying to avoid crazy values in the Cereal Box Price Guide. I want to value at a good buy for the item. On values my bottom value will be $5 to $10.00. Here's why. Either you want a box or you don't. If you don't it is worth nothing to you. If you want it, how do you not value it at $5 to $10.00? A box of cereal costs about $4.00 at the store, so for a box to exist it starts at a $4.00 value in life. $5 to $10.00 is just easier as a bottom line. If you won't pay $5 to $10.00 for a cereal box, why are you even bothering to collect.
One final point on the values I place on boxes. There are boxes I value lower than a big time dealer would try selling it for. Reality check here. A big time collectibles dealer might occasionally get that kind of money for it. You and I are not going to get that kind of money for it. Reason is the big time dealer has developed the client base & reputation that brings big money buyers to them. We are going to get approx half.
For someone who finds a pile of boxes somewhere 1st sale money is fare. We are who big time dealers buy from quite often. That is our share, we don't have the contacts or years of work building a client base & reputation. Hoping for all the money is stupid greedy. You & I play our part & take our share. Plus my guess is you don't want to wait years to get top dollar.
As sure as God made little green apples the Cereal Box Price Guide will come under attack for it's low valuing structure. The cereal box "collector " elites will take great um-bridge at the values I place on really good boxes.
When I first started putting cereal boxes on ebay there were roughly 3,000 total listings for the search "cereal box". Now 2 years later that same search on ebay yields 7,000 to 8,000 listings. Draw your own conclusions.
I'd also like to mention to current cereal box dealers. Do you really think you are helping the hobby by asking $500.00 to $1200.00 for older cereal boxes. Those prices serve only two purposes, to enrich you and promote laser copies as viable/acceptable alternatives at $25.00 each.
On Laser copies of rare very expensive cereal boxes. They are acceptable alternatives and relatively easy to distinguish from the real thing. Problem is proliferation of them into collections and what happens with them further down the road to newbie collectors who don't have a good eye. I'm not condemning laser copies, just that this is the down side to them.
I love cereal boxes, as I have for 4 decades. I'm interested in the true fanatic collectors out there like kb8. I'm not interested in top money, just enough so I can keep buying everything I like that goes by.
Last time even though I tried to say all the right things to fit in & not rock the boat. Look where that got me, broke.This time I'm gonna do it on my terms. Begin as you plan to continue, it is just easier.
I promise to pay attention to the nature of Google searches that bring you here.
example; "cost of a box of cereal 1970"
Go to the chapter that covers the brand of cereal that your box is. Scroll down to the year of your box. Years are in order in captions under pictures. If it's not your particular box what is there should give you an idea. Exception is if your box has an extraordinary offer on the back or character on the front, it will be worth more.
My Personal Top 10 Cereal Boxes
no specific order. not best 11, but my personal favorites. List will change as I get charged up on new ones.
Reader Alert.
I had to break up Kellogg's into 2 chapters. The first chapter is Apple Cinnamon Squares thru Frosted Flakes. The second chapter is everything after Frosted Flakes. Problem is Corn Flakes, Froot Loops n Frosted Flakes are very large n pictures were slowing the chapter upload with the rest included. I don't know about you but if a page takes to long to upload I loose interest n leave. We can't have that so I divied Kellogg's up into 2 Chapters.
Kellogg's Chapter 2 will include Pops, Rice Krispies n Smacks. Again kinda large groups of boxes. We will see if I'm forced to do this with Post. General Mills is already divided by taking Wheaties n the Monster Cereals Out. Hopefully that was enough with GM.
Worth mentioning n totally off topic. I just sold the item below for $15.00. This is only interesting in that it shows value of packaging as a collectible.
I want to give a friendly hello to a very old friend David Gutterman, in my decades with collectibles one of the nicest people I met. QUAKE COLLECTIBLES - Quake Collectibles
I haven't seen or talked to David G. in roughly 15 years, well I haven't talked to anybody in the outside world in 15 years. No matter.
For some of my other adventures.
Please check out.
Pez Outlaw Diary
Send cereal boxes to.
sj. glew
5611 lehman rd.
dewitt mi.
48820
The Best Cereal Box Price Guide Ever.
4,200 Collectible Cereal Boxes pictured
Please use the Cereal Box Price guide to answer any questions you have.
 |
| My all Time Favorite Cereal Box |
 |
| late 1951 Frosted Flakes Cereal Box = $350 to $500.00 There was a battle at Kellogg's n the Burnet Adv. Agency for mascot of Frosted Flakes. 4 contenders were in the running. Two mascots made it to a cereal box, this one with Katy the Kangaroo n Joey. The other was Tony n Tony Jr. Tony won. Coincidentally my birth year. I grew up during the heyday of cereal advertising and cereal characters. Which I guess explains my fascination with cereal boxes. |
The most Cereal Boxes pictured anywhere in print or on line. More Cereal Boxes in a single chapter than most other sites have in total.
The Dickens you say, people actually collect empty cereal boxes? I've been involved with collectibles for over 40 years and from that I can tell you this. Cereal boxes are the most natural, organic if you will allow, thing that people might actually collect.
The Cereal Box Price Guide has had over 323,000 views in the short time it has been around.
Every one of us stared at cereal boxes as children at morning breakfast. Most of us saw the commercials on Saturday morning then harassed mom till she bought us that cereal so we could have the prize, then heard from mom, you begged me for that so now you damn well better eat it.
I don't know about you but my 4 brothers n I actually fought over those little prizes in cereal boxes. Winners got to shove there hand into the box n collect there victory in the form of a paper or cello wrapped toy. My brothers n I also built forts at the breakfast table with every cereal box in the cupboard so we would not have to look at each other so early in the morning.
We all grew up with Cereal Boxes, they were a very important part of our childhood. As children we also collected gum cards. Well cereal boxes are big kid gum cards, bigger because we are bigger. We collected gum cards as kid cause others said they were good. We collect cereal boxes because we say they are good and because they bring back such great memories of our childhood.
I'm writing this because cereal boxes have been a personal passion of mine for 40 years. I have to admit though, there is a second reason. There is nothing currently available to collectors like what the Cereal Box Price Guide will be. I've looked. The best I found were portion aspects. A list but no pictures, dates or prices or pictures but zero true info about actually collecting cereal boxes. The actual how n why to collecting cereal boxes.
Some places have pictures but you've gotta keep changing pages to see another, again no years & no values. Very tedious n time consuming. Here you just scroll down n voila there she be.
I've also noticed what seems to be the norm for printed guides to cereal boxes. That norm seems to be a conglomerate of radio premiums, cereal premiums n finally cereal boxes. As I approach this project one thing is very clear. A guide to only US release cereal boxes is massive enough. How could a guide that includes radio premiums n cereal premiums leave enough room to do cereal boxes properly.
As it stands I'm not going to include boring boxes like Bran this n Bran that or Whole grain healthy crap. My colon be damned, give me sugar sweetened n unhealthy by today's goofy standards. I'm old n could not give a crap anymore, I eat what I like, life is to short to trade quality for boring. Anyway the point being, even eliminating the the boring crap healthy cereal this thing is gonna be very big/long. So how in God's name could you possibly have room for premiums.
The exception on boring cereal will be boxes that have good or interesting offers on them. Examples; Post Toasties, Grape Nuts n Grape Nuts Flakes will be included because the offers on the boxes were to good to ignore them.
All listing are pictured. Every image is dated n valued.
Easy access by brand, type n year.
No click then wait for images, simply scroll down to next, then next, then next.
The most Cereal Boxes pictured anywhere in print or on line. More Cereal Boxes in a single chapter than most other sites have in total.
Wheaties, the Monster Cereals (Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Franken Berry, Yummy Mummy n Fruite Brute), Cap'n Crunch n Pebbles will be covered in there own chapters. The reason is there are 4 groups of boxes that deserve a higher focus for collectors; Wheaties, Monster Cereals, Cap'n Crunch n Pebbles.
I deal with cereal boxes every day as a seller, buyer, collector n cataloger. From these activities I can tell you with a degree of certainty Wheaties, the Monster Cereals, Cap'n Crunch n Pebbles are the most popular n active cereal boxes.
NEW. Where possible I've added the year a particular brand of cereal first made its appearance on store shelves. Ongoing.
I just realized today that this project could be considered the third attempt to launch cereal boxes as a more mainstream collectible. Cereal box collecting has been a small group of about 50 people, 100 at most for over 2 decades. Two notable attempts for a bigger hobby have been the publications of Freakie Magnet and Flake (Flake by Scott Bruce). Both attempts fizzled, even though Scott Bruce is a very talented and skilled promoter.
Scott Bruce (Flake) was just way to early and after his unprecedented success with Lunch Boxes he tried to do it to fast, not allowing time for his efforts to build. Scott Bruce wrote the book on building a collectible hobby to it's peak, but his attempt with Flake was hurried and impatient.
Freakie Magnet was more a fanzine than any real attempt to grow the hobby. Another group of note is Cerealbits.com, again more of a club and a place to meet.
I could tell you this time it's different because it's me, but why on earth should you believe that. I will tell you this though. I maintain over 1,200 cereal box listings on ebay. Each ebay listing promotes the hobby of collecting cereal boxes. Each listing also has a tie in to the Cereal Box Price Guide. Finally, you can not have a hobby without a good price guide. Why? Because if interested people can't see what it's all about and get an idea of what the known universe for a hobby is, how do they start? The Cereal Box Price Guide also gives people with piles of cereal boxes a heads up that they are valuable there by motivating them to offer the boxes on ebay. Each of there listings also become little entrepreneurs for a hobby of collecting cereal boxes.
I strongly believe this time will be different and the one that works, because of the process I will be using. I'm writing this in public view so the process itself will be a momentum builder. As the Cereal Box Price Guide grows, I believe interest in Cereal Boxes as a collectible will also grow. Increased awareness should build the interest. As the universe of Cereal Boxes as a collectible becomes more defined, what is possible will become clearer to new collectors.
This book should help potential collectors understand how Cereal Boxes are possibly the most natural of things that a person who likes or has a predisposition to collect would collect. I believe anyone who collects anything actually has a stronger affinity to there childhood memory at the breakfast table eating and staring at there cereal box than any other collectible. To me Cereal Boxes are the most natural collectible there is. Your connection to Cereal Boxes is organic, everyone grew up with them. No other collectible has the saturation of exposure on our lives at exactly our most impressionable age. I believe all that's needed is the reawakening of those moments. This public process of writing the Cereal Box Price Guide should be that spark.
I want to thank everyone for the response to The Cereal Box Price Guide so far. The enthusiasm for this new project has been very gratifying. Over 90,000 views of The Cereal box Price Guide so far in the brief amount of time it has existed.
As of today we have over 4,100 Collectible Cereal Boxes pictured in this price guide and more on the way.
When I started listing Cereal Boxes on Ebay there were approx 3,800 cereal box listings in total. After a lot of work, there are now over 11,000+ cereal box listings on Ebay.
No book on cereal boxes could possibly not include Marky from Maypo.
How do you forget Maky's finger in Uncle Ralphie's ear, Uncle Ralphie, Uncle Ralphie.
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| Marky. |
NEW
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| 2014 Kellogg's Jif cereal. The Hands down BEST new cereal of the last decade. The Cereal is GREAT n so is the box. |
When you click one of the advert on this page, that is how I earn money for writing this.
10 Cereal Boxes I like at the end of This Chapter
If there is a better resource on Cereal Boxes than The Cereal Box Price Guide, I've never seen it. Nothing comes even close.
The Cereal Box Price Guide, is there anything on the Web or in print that has more Cereal Boxes featured, dated, n valued? Is there anywhere in the Universe where you will see more Cereal Boxes? That settled the Cereal Box Price Guide is the number one destination/resource for Cereal Box Collecting.
It would also appear I need to address something. Sports card guys want you all to believe sports cards on backs of boxes are as valuable as real topps or Fleer sports cards. They are not. To be honest it's exactly the opposite. Generally sports boxes are collected less by cereal box collectors than any other type. The exception and it's a big one is Wheaties. Wheaties are a class of collectible cereal boxes unto itself. With Wheaties quite often they collect Wheaties and that's it.
Here's the simple way to explain it. You all know how nuts sports card people can be about grading real sports cards, edges feathered, bends wrinkles etc. Cereal box sports cards are cut out with shears, nuf said. Also try turning the tables, try selling a sports card back to a sports card guy, what he will say and his response will be opposite of what he'd say if selling it to you.
Sports card backs or Wheaties sports figure boxes are nice but value equalization crossover with sports cards is ludicrous. These boxes need to be valued within the cereal box world not the I saw you comin stupid sports card crossover world. There is no crossover. They are apples n oranges.
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| Graham this n Graham that Cereals suck in comparison to to the real thing. Graham Crackers are n always have been the perfect Breakfast Cereal. |
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| This box represents to me the period in my life when I mailed away for 10s of thousands of cereal premiums from the Cereal Companies. That forced the Cereal Companies to change there redemption policies by how many premiums per household. My Cereal premium project predated My Pez Outlaw days n provided a lot of the seed money for the Pez Outlaw Project. I've still got a few of these watches. They don't work n there is no way to change the batteries. I wore one for a year. |
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| 1986 Ghost Busters Hologram Cereal Box = $25.00 I'd love to tell you this box is worth $50.00, because it is. Problem with that is, people currently will not Pay more than $25.00. That's the problem with valuing boxes, myself n say 12 others might feel a box is worth $500.00 to $1,000.00, but if only 10 people would ever pay that, if they didn't already have it. Is it truly worth that kind of money, no. A box is worth what it will actually sell for in say a 6 to 12 month time period. |
The values I place on cereal boxes are my opinion of what is reasonable to think you might get for a particular box. Big time dealers place much higher values on some boxes, it is an arbitrary number waiting for some idiot who has to much money. It works, but that's not how we are going to value cereal boxes here. You are not going to find an idiot with to much money for your box, idiots are a developed clientele nurtured by Big Time Dealers, there is a very limited supply of them. No, you my friends are in all likelihood going to have to sell your box or buy it in the real world n that is how I will place values.
I was limiting top value to $250.00. I'm probably going to increase that. A lot of cereal boxes are really valued at $250.00 to approx $900.00. Even still , I will probably not value any cereal box over $500.00. I've been reluctant because I do not want to encourage replicas. Two points here. I've been noticing a definite increase in the number of replicas on ebay. Second I've also notice a lot of replicas in existing collections.
This increase in replicas in the hobby troubles me only as to sales of these items down the road by people who don't realize that they are replicas to people who can't spot a replica. Newbies.
People tend to collect what was a part of there child hood or in this case what they ate. Example; Cocoa Krispies verses Cocoa Pebbles. Cocoa Pebles are & always have been more popular. End result most Cereal Box Collectors collect Cocoa Pebbles, Cocoa Krispies not so much. Sugar Crisp yes, Smacks to a lesser degree. Within cereal types produced by the various Companies one emerged as most popular with us as children, as adults we kept our bias as we collect.
Cereal Boxes are like adult Gum Cards. Bigger & more fun. A cereal box is like a TV show featuring a special guest appearance / Who's on the box. The first of something new & cool or a really great character featured on the box.
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| This box is a perfect example of a really good cereal box. It's a 2005 box that hits the nail on the head of what makes a cereal box collectible. The crazy factor is really high on this one. A cereal box does not have to be old to be good. Firsts n old are good but even a brand that's been around forever can knock one out of the park now and then. |
Classification of value n desirability for a cereal box starts this way. You have a maker then the brand n it's mascot in some cases, then it is about what is happening on the face of the box. Offers can add value, celebrity guest appearance can add value or if the mascot is in a costume, that can add vale. To me a great example of costuming mascots is the 1995 series of Pebbles cereals where Barney is in different crazy costumes. I love these.
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| example of costuming mascots is the 1995 series of Pebbles cereals where Barney is in different crazy costumes. I love these. Again a cereal box does not have to be really old to be really good. |
Some boxes have names. Example below is the Pebbles Chocolate Dragon box. A really good name alone can make a box iconic. Put that with crazy & costumed. Ding, Ding you have a winner. Mark my words 20 to 30 years from now this box will be known as the Chocolate Dragon Box.
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| This box is a good example of all 3. Costumes check. Crazy check. Box that actually has a name check. Pebbles Chocolate Dragon Box. |
Mascots for cereal boxes seem to evolve about every decade. So obviously earlier incarnations of Tony, Lucky or Cap'n Crunch by themselves adds value. Another example is say Franken Berry pouring milk into the bowl from a pitcher, better box.
The company that first took Licensed by Character or Movie boxes with no brand affiliation ( like still General Mills but not Cherios) within the corporate header to its furthest point was Ralston. The license was the brand of Ralston, Kellogg's etc. Now that Ralston is out of the picture General Mills, Kellogg's n Post have picked up where they left off. I call this category of product the Ralston effect.
Most of the chapters are going to have a category called the Ralston effect. The Ralston effect category is for example Star Wars Cereal by General Mills or Polar Express Cereal by Post.
One more thing about Ralston. Early on & now again Ralston was n could be nothing more than all the rest of the generic brands of cereal. Cereal boxes that nobody really collect. Ralston got behind there brands Grins n Giggles, Freakies, Fruit Islands etc, with characters n promotions. I've seen some pretty cool generic boxes, but they don't follow up or promote themselves. Ralston was an iconic company of unique innovative brands n characters.
Ralston got lazy by going with movie licensed brands, making there future fortunes boom or bust. Don't get me wrong I love some of these boxes, Urkelos, WWF, Ghost Busters etc, but a few licenses like Robin Hood Prince of Thieves & Addams family can sink a company. Heck I bought a lot of even WWF at Dollar stores. I just feel Ralston Cereal might have had a brighter future if they'd stuck with Freakies, Fruit Islands & about half the licenses they did. God bless them though, Ralston cereal as we knew it died but we got all those great cereal boxes.
I personally own over 10,000 cereal boxes. I also buy cereal boxes, but I pay prices that take a longer view of things. Translation, I'm cheap. Any idiot can pay big money for something.
My all time favorite cereal boxes are Baron Von Redberry & Sir Grape Fellow. Next probably the Monster cereal boxes. These are my personal favorite, ones I would cherish above all others. That said I would feel crappy unless I got an extremely good buy in acquiring them. I can live without them at the wrong price.
My favorite group of cereal boxes is the Monster Cereal group, Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, Yummy Mummy & Fruit Brute. Hands down no competition Big G Monster Cereals are the best.
My favorite cereal Company is Ralston, again no competition. More unique licensed product during the right time period to be affordable. Cabbage Patch, Ghost Busters, WWF, Early Cookie Crisp/dark brown boxes, Dinersaurs, Dinky Donuts, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Dunkin Donuts, Freakies, Fruit Islands, G I Joe, Gremlins, Grins & Smiles & Giggles & Laughs, Moonstones, Nerds, Nintendo, Rainbow Brite, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Urkelos & Waffelos. Now that is a group of cereal boxes you want to collect & I didn't even name everything.
If Ralston had also done the Monster Cereals, Baron Von Redberry, Sir Grape Fellow, Quisp, Quake & Quangaroos, you would only need to collect Ralston.
My least favorite Cereal Company is Nabisco. There are some pretty good boxes from Nabisco, but generally the worst group of cereal boxes for collecting.
Recently I had to come to grips with my feelings towards Wheaties Cereal Boxes. I've been very critical & wrong. My position was there are tons of them out there & everybody collects them. Hence my thought was they are worthless. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. The truth is actually in the critique. Everybody Collects them. With typical stupidity I was fighting the current. Recoiling against what is truly popular. My problem, I'm gonna work on it.
On that very point. the Cereal Box Price Guide has been up long enough that consistent data that bares this out is now available. The Wheaties chapter is viewed day in day out n overall 3 to 1 over any other chapter. In other words you name the brand of cereal, Wheaties are viewed 3 times as much on a daily basis or overall.
I know to big collectors Wheaties are not as sexy as Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Yummy Mummy, Fruit Brute, Quisp, Quake, Quangaroos, Cap'n Crunch, Ghost Busters, Freakies, Fruit Islands, Grins & Smiles & Giggles & Laughs, Moonstones, Nerds, & Waffelos etc. Problem for me in writing this book is solved very simple. Give the reader what they overwhelmingly want, WHEATIES. This data also shows me I made the correct decision by giving Wheaties there own chapter.
Wheaties are the most popular Cereal Boxes collected. I now embrace this fact.
To back the above statement up. This week an 8 cereal box series of Wheaties boxes from the 1970s, all unused factory flats sold as one lot for $1,754.00. This auction started out at .99 cents. To say the least I was dumfounded by the winning bid. If this does not bare out the above statement, nothing will. Over $200.00 per box on average. I've seen "great" boxes in the opinion of Cereal Box collectors "in the know" like Grins n Giggles or Moonstones go for say $100.00 or less each. Or other "great" boxes up for sale for a year at a time at $200.00 plus, that do not sell. So you tell me, What is the most popular cereal brand to general cereal box collectors en mass. WHEATIES, hands down Wheaties. There really is no dispute.
I noticed something while working on Wheaties this week. 1942 to 1945 are very lean on cereal boxes, here is why in my opinion. On December 7, 1941 World War II began. The USA was ill prepared for the war, so as a nation we had to scramble, very fast. This war effort included rationing for consumers and manufacturers. Massive amounts of raw materials were required for the war effort. We not only had to produce war materials for US efforts, we also had to carry a big part of the load for Europe and Russia.
So rationing of raw materials change packaging and quantities produced. Add to that, that during the war years what we call recycling was instituted in a big way to provide further for the needs of raw materials. Families and children were in perpetual paper and metal drives, collecting used materials needed for the war effort. So what little may have been produced in large part ended up in paper drives/recycled. Resulting in not many cereal boxes survived from the years 1942 to 1945.
Hard fact / Harsh reality. I buy cereal boxes in quantity, preferably 50 to a thousand or 2 at a time. I pay roughly $1.00 per box for flats. I pay .50 cents to $1.00 each for flattened boxes in quantity. This is for boxes I want in Quantity. I have payed $2.00 each for Ralston Flats, quantity over 750. I as a dealer can not pay more & hope to make any kind of reasonable profit to me.
As with the whole Pez thingy, see Pez Outlaw Diary. I have a lot of added costs in advertising, promotion & support material. Time expenditure alone creating the Cereal Box Price Guide.
I sometimes note in caption, boxes I like. This just means I personally like it, that for whatever personal reason. I like it. Sometimes it will be colors combined with overall box presentation, like the 1997 McDonald's Kellogg's Honey Crunch Corn Flakes cereal box. Others it might be as in the case of the Corn Flakes Memphis Box, I'd never seen one like it before. As with anything you collect, it should be about what you like. Not what others tell you is great.
Remember I'm trying to avoid crazy values in the Cereal Box Price Guide. I want to value at a good buy for the item. On values my bottom value will be $5 to $10.00. Here's why. Either you want a box or you don't. If you don't it is worth nothing to you. If you want it, how do you not value it at $5 to $10.00? A box of cereal costs about $4.00 at the store, so for a box to exist it starts at a $4.00 value in life. $5 to $10.00 is just easier as a bottom line. If you won't pay $5 to $10.00 for a cereal box, why are you even bothering to collect.
One final point on the values I place on boxes. There are boxes I value lower than a big time dealer would try selling it for. Reality check here. A big time collectibles dealer might occasionally get that kind of money for it. You and I are not going to get that kind of money for it. Reason is the big time dealer has developed the client base & reputation that brings big money buyers to them. We are going to get approx half.
For someone who finds a pile of boxes somewhere 1st sale money is fare. We are who big time dealers buy from quite often. That is our share, we don't have the contacts or years of work building a client base & reputation. Hoping for all the money is stupid greedy. You & I play our part & take our share. Plus my guess is you don't want to wait years to get top dollar.
As sure as God made little green apples the Cereal Box Price Guide will come under attack for it's low valuing structure. The cereal box "collector " elites will take great um-bridge at the values I place on really good boxes.
When I first started putting cereal boxes on ebay there were roughly 3,000 total listings for the search "cereal box". Now 2 years later that same search on ebay yields 7,000 to 8,000 listings. Draw your own conclusions.
I'd also like to mention to current cereal box dealers. Do you really think you are helping the hobby by asking $500.00 to $1200.00 for older cereal boxes. Those prices serve only two purposes, to enrich you and promote laser copies as viable/acceptable alternatives at $25.00 each.
On Laser copies of rare very expensive cereal boxes. They are acceptable alternatives and relatively easy to distinguish from the real thing. Problem is proliferation of them into collections and what happens with them further down the road to newbie collectors who don't have a good eye. I'm not condemning laser copies, just that this is the down side to them.
I love cereal boxes, as I have for 4 decades. I'm interested in the true fanatic collectors out there like kb8. I'm not interested in top money, just enough so I can keep buying everything I like that goes by.
Last time even though I tried to say all the right things to fit in & not rock the boat. Look where that got me, broke.This time I'm gonna do it on my terms. Begin as you plan to continue, it is just easier.
I promise to pay attention to the nature of Google searches that bring you here.
example; "cost of a box of cereal 1970"
Go to the chapter that covers the brand of cereal that your box is. Scroll down to the year of your box. Years are in order in captions under pictures. If it's not your particular box what is there should give you an idea. Exception is if your box has an extraordinary offer on the back or character on the front, it will be worth more.
My Personal Top 10 Cereal Boxes
no specific order. not best 11, but my personal favorites. List will change as I get charged up on new ones.
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| 1972 Sir Grapefellow cereal box = $100 to $200.00 |
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| 1947 Iron Jaw Robot Wheaties Cereal Box = $125.00 |
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| 1980 Corn Flakes Cereal Box = $25 to $50.00 The Banana Man Box. How do you not like this box? |
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| 1982 Banana Frosted flakes Cereal Box = $350.00 gorgious, exceptional box. very very desirable. Tony in a straw hat carrying a bunch of Bananas. Can a box be any better. |
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| 1995 Cocoa Pebbles Dr Fudgerock Cereal Box = $5 to $10.00 actually this whole series of Barney costumed characters, 10ish in series, from 1995 |
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| 1995 Fruity Pebbles Free Stuff Cereal Box = $5 to $10.00 same as above just Fruity version w/dif character. this n 10 fruity + 10 Cocoa in 1995 series count as 1 in this list. |
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| 1982 Cap'n Crunch's Choco Crunch = $125.00 any box with Choco Beast |
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| 1973 Jean LaFoote's NEW Cinnamon Crunch Cereal Box = $250.00 any box with Jean LaFoote |
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| 1982 Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries Cereal Box = $25 to $50.00 any box with Crunch Beast |
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| 1980 Peanut Butter w Acrobat Cereal Box = $25 to $50.00 any box with Smedley |
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| 1983 Count Chocula Cereal Box = $50 to $125.00 Basically any n all 1970s or 1980s Count Chocula, Frankenberry or Boo Berry Box. |
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| 1970 Quake Cereal Box = $250.00 Basically any n all 1960s or 1970s Quisp, Quake or Quangaroos Box |
Reader Alert.
I had to break up Kellogg's into 2 chapters. The first chapter is Apple Cinnamon Squares thru Frosted Flakes. The second chapter is everything after Frosted Flakes. Problem is Corn Flakes, Froot Loops n Frosted Flakes are very large n pictures were slowing the chapter upload with the rest included. I don't know about you but if a page takes to long to upload I loose interest n leave. We can't have that so I divied Kellogg's up into 2 Chapters.
Kellogg's Chapter 2 will include Pops, Rice Krispies n Smacks. Again kinda large groups of boxes. We will see if I'm forced to do this with Post. General Mills is already divided by taking Wheaties n the Monster Cereals Out. Hopefully that was enough with GM.
Worth mentioning n totally off topic. I just sold the item below for $15.00. This is only interesting in that it shows value of packaging as a collectible.
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1991 Reba McEntire Frito Bag the one Reba talks about in radio interview |
I want to give a friendly hello to a very old friend David Gutterman, in my decades with collectibles one of the nicest people I met. QUAKE COLLECTIBLES - Quake Collectibles
I haven't seen or talked to David G. in roughly 15 years, well I haven't talked to anybody in the outside world in 15 years. No matter.
For some of my other adventures.
Please check out.
Pez Outlaw Diary