Lot # 1575: 1963 Jell-O Original Unopened Box with #169 Ernie Banks

In 1963, if you were walking down the supermarket aisle, you would have seen unopened boxes of Jell-O stacked along the shelves, with the bold company logo on the front along with the promise of a baseball trading card on the reverse. Eager children would have undoubtedly scoured the available boxes for their favorite player and implored their parents to buy that very box so they could cut out the card and add it to their collection. One of the more popular players at that time would have been Ernie Banks who, in 1958 and 1959, won back-to-back National League MVP awards. One dedicated collector had the foresight to realize what a remarkable collectible an intact full box would someday be and kept his prized Banks box carefully guarded for all these years! Presented here is an exceptional complete 3 oz. unopened box of Lemon Lime Jell-O featuring an example of #169 Ernie Banks, also known as "Mr. Cub", on the reverse. The preservation of this box is most improbable. We have seen only a handful of complete boxes offered for sale at public auction in the last decade, many of which have been flattened or suffer from severe condition issues. (Amazingly, we have eight examples in this current auction.) The box (3.5 x 2.875 x 1 inches) is in overall Very Good condition with light shelf wear, including a small tear on the actual card area (lower-right corner). Jell-O boxes are rarely seen in their original form, let alone with one of the key Hall of Famer cards to the series prominently displayed on the back. This is an extremely impressive collectible that would be at home in any world-class Ernie Banks or food-issue collection.