Where trimming is allowed

I grabbed a couple of 1975 Hostess panels recently. There's a guy on ebay selling them very reasonably, although I suspect none of them feature short-printed cards. Anyway, it's nice to see some rational sales on that site among all the yokels.

I thought I needed both of the panels, but I didn't worry about it too much because the great thing about those '70s Hostess sets is that there are endless possibilities with them.

You can collect the panels or the individual cards. You can cut the cards off the panels and improve on the individual cards that you have -- likely trimmed by someone with much inferior cutting skills. You can leave the panel intact and compare it with the other one you have and see which one is trimmed more nicely.

I know grading-type collectors turn their nose up on Hostess cards. They're too DIY and there's that whole staining issue. I'm happy that I have something that I can collect that few of them are going to hoard up, although there are definitely graded Hostess cards (maybe the best "these-two-things-don't-go-together-at-all" example besides eggplant and ice cream -- yes, that's a thing). 

But I never feel more at one with graders than when I'm eyeing a Hostess card or panel and thinking "how can I upgrade this?" It's one of the few times where you can improve a card without doing something nefarious, like using a marker. I mean trimming is something you can't do with most cards but you absolutely can do with Hostess cards!

 

So back to the new panels. It turns out I did have the Lopes-Wood-Renko panel already. And I've got two individual copies of the Lopes card.

But that's no reason to panic or pout. I can still work with this! It still has value.

For instance, I don't have individual copies of the '75 Wood or Renko. So this panel has value as individual cards. And as for Lopes?

These are my two individual Lopeses. One for the '75 Hostess set and one for the Dodgers binder. Both are perfectly acceptable to me -- and that's where me and the grader will disagree. The card on the left has a crease, plus the thing that anyone in search of perfection will scoff at -- you can never get any individual Hostess card to look exactly like another Hostess card. The scissors or razors simply won't have it.

(This is where someone will tell me that there's some sort of digitally programmed cutting tool in which you can feed Hostess cards and get a perfect cut every time -- and send it in for grading -- and I will say, get away from me with that devilry!!!!)

But I now get a chance to cut an even better Lopes card from the purchased panel.

I always like it when the dotted lines show on the Hostess cards. If you can get all four dotted sides to show, well then that's Bingo, such as this card I've shown before:

That's a beauty. It fits nicely into a nine-pocket page, just like a regular 2 1/2-by-3 1/2, without sliding around.

So I will achieve the same thing with the Lopes portion of the new panel. And I'll probably do that with the Wood and Renko, if my trimming hands remain steady.

As for the Torre-Sizemore-Grich panel (INFIELD-INFIELD-INFIELD), it will stay as is and be added to my completed panel portion. Even though I need some of these as individual cards.

My objective is to complete all the '70s Hostess sets as individual cards, not panels. But if I don't have the panel already, I won't cut it. As for just collecting all the panels and saying the set is complete that way -- I can't do it. I collect cards, not panels. What happens if the only individual cards I need for a set are in a panel that I own? That's something I'll brood over when and if.

Complicated, huh?

But that's just another great aspect of this great food issue. It's like collecting two sets in one. And you get to decide what form it will take ... down to the individual card.