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# Top 5 Oddball Card Sets — And Why "Free With Purchase" Built the Whole Hobby
- URL: https://www.grumpybuck.com/top-5-oddball-card-sets-and-why-free-with-purchase-built-the-whole-hobby/
- Published: 2026-08-28T14:37:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T14:37:13.000Z
- Description: Before cards were the product, they were the bribe — the thing that made you buy the cereal, the bread, the frozen drink, the cigarettes. These five oddball sets tell that story, and the last one IS the story.
- Author: Brad Riddell
- Tags: Sports History, Baseball Cards, Top 10

*Before cards were the product, they were the bribe — the thing that made you buy the cereal, the bread, the frozen drink, the cigarettes. These five oddball sets tell that story, and the last one IS the story.*

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## 5\. 1982 Topps Kmart 20th Anniversary — The $1.97 Time Capsule

A 44-card boxed set sold at Kmart for **$1.97**: every AL and NL MVP from 1962–1981 as reprints of their Topps cards. Two delightful problems: Topps never made a 1962 Maury Wills card, so they had to **invent one**, and Fred Lynn's had to be reconstructed from his multi-player 1975 rookie. Printed in such comical quantities that sealed sets still sell for a few bucks — but historically sneaky-important: it marks the moment Topps cards became *the product itself* rather than the thing riding along with one.

![Kmart kept the tradition going — the 1987 25th Anniversary sequel set (Mattingly).](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-kmart-mattingly.jpg)

Kmart kept the tradition going — the 1987 25th Anniversary sequel set (Mattingly).

![Mays in the 1987 Kmart set — sequel to the $1.97 original.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-kmart-mays.jpg)

Mays in the 1987 Kmart set — sequel to the $1.97 original.

## 4\. 1972-73 Icee Bear Basketball — Free With Your Frozen Drink

Buy an Icee, get one of 20 oversized (3"×5") cards featuring a preposterous checklist: **Kareem, Maravich, Wilt, West, Oscar, Havlicek, Frazier** — with a cartoon polar bear holding a basketball on the back. Maravich is one of four short prints, because even a giveaway set needs a chase. NBA cards were an afterthought in 1972; some of the era's best star imagery came free with crushed ice and syrup.

![Wilt Chamberlain, free with a frozen drink.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-icee-wilt.jpg)

Wilt Chamberlain, free with a frozen drink.

![The Icee Bear himself, delivering 'Icee Bear Facts.'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-icee-back.jpg)

The Icee Bear himself, delivering 'Icee Bear Facts.'

![The Maravich — one of the set's four short prints.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-icee-maravich.jpg)

The Maravich — one of the set's four short prints.

## 3\. 1974–76 Wonder Bread Football — The Playbook in the Bread Bag

Topps-produced cards packed into loaves of Wonder Bread, and the 1976 set has the greatest card backs of the decade: each one diagrams **one of Hank Stram's favorite plays**, with every offensive player's assignment — a Hall of Fame coach's playbook, 24 cards at a time, free with sandwich bread. Offense in blue frames, defense in red. Complete sets still cost less than a fast-food lunch, which makes this the best pound-for-pound fun purchase in the hobby.

![Chuck Foreman, fresh from the bread aisle, 1976.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-wonderbread-foreman.jpg)

Chuck Foreman, fresh from the bread aisle, 1976.

![The back: 'Hank Stram's Favorite Plays,' diagrammed. In a bread loaf.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-wonderbread-stram-back.jpg)

The back: 'Hank Stram's Favorite Plays,' diagrammed. In a bread loaf.

## 2\. 1961–63 Post Cereal Baseball — Cut Carefully, Kid

Two hundred cards a year, printed **on the backs of cereal boxes**, to be cut out by children wielding safety scissors — which is why nice ones barely exist. Every surviving card carries a 60-year-old kid's cutting job; slice into the border and it grades "Authentic" at best. The famous shortcut: the 1962 Mantle and Maris also ran as a perforated panel in the **April 13, 1962 issue of Life magazine**, and that version remains one of the cheapest real Mantles in the hobby — a PSA 8 for around $700.

![A hand-cut Frank Robinson — every surviving Post card carries a kid's scissors work.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-post-robinson.jpg)

A hand-cut Frank Robinson — every surviving Post card carries a kid's scissors work.

![The Post Mantle — one of the cheapest real Mantles in the hobby.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-post-mantle.jpg)

The Post Mantle — one of the cheapest real Mantles in the hobby.

![And the back of the box card: plain gray cardboard. That's the whole trick.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/odd-post-blank.jpg)

And the back of the box card: plain gray cardboard. That's the whole trick.

## 1\. Tobacco Cards (1880s–1911) — The Reason Any of This Exists

![Old Judge, 1888 — the cigarette brand printed right on the card.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/tobacco-oldjudge-bushong-1888.jpg)

Old Judge, 1888 — the cigarette brand printed right on the card.

![Allen & Ginter's 1887 World's Champions — the first color set, and an ad for cigarettes.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/tobacco-ag-comiskey-1887.jpg)

Allen & Ginter's 1887 World's Champions — the first color set, and an ad for cigarettes.

![The T206 Honus Wagner — $7.25 million, 2022.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/tobacco-t206-wagner.jpg)

The T206 Honus Wagner — $7.25 million, 2022.

![The thesis, in Cobb's own card back: 'King of the Smoking Tobacco World.'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/tobacco-t206-cobb-back.jpg)

The thesis, in Cobb's own card back: 'King of the Smoking Tobacco World.'

![1933 Goudey Ruth — front and 'Big League Chewing Gum' back. The gum era begins.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/gum-goudey-ruth-1933.jpg)

1933 Goudey Ruth — front and 'Big League Chewing Gum' back. The gum era begins.

Here's the origin story: in 1875, Allen & Ginter started sliding **blank cardboard stiffeners** into cigarette packs to keep them from crushing. Somebody realized blank cardboard was free advertising space — and the trading card was born. Goodwin's **Old Judge** cards (1886–90) became the first great baseball set; Allen & Ginter's 1887 **World's Champions** the first in color; and the American Tobacco Company's **T206** set (1909–11) produced the hobby's Mona Lisa — the **Honus Wagner**, roughly 50–60 surviving copies, one of which sold privately for **$7.25 million** in 2022 (the most expensive tobacco card ever — the '52 Topps Mantle holds the overall record).

And the thesis holds all the way down: Goudey was a **gum company** (first gum-pack cards, 1933). Bowman: gum company. Topps itself was founded in 1938 as a **chewing gum company** — the cards were the premium. For 75 years, every card you ever loved came free with something else. The oddballs aren't the weird cousins of the hobby. **They're its ancestors.**

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## Honorable Mentions

**1976 Hostess** — 150 cards cut from the *bottoms* of snack cake boxes; some cards are rare purely because nobody bought that flavor. **Kellogg's 3-D (1970–83)** — 14 straight years of lenticular magic that curls and cracks with age (and 1973, mysteriously, wasn't 3-D). **1977–80 Topps Burger King** — team sets free with any sandwich; hyper-regional, gloriously weird.

*What's the best oddball in your collection? Cereal-box cutting scars welcome in the comments.*