1984 Ralston Purina

Description

1984 Ralston Purina is a 33-card set produced by Topps for the breakfast cereal maker. The front of each card states that it is "The First Annual Collectors Edition of Baseball Cards;" however, Purina would not make another card set until 1987.

There are two different versions of this set, each with the same design and checklist. The "Ralston Purina" set has the familiar "checkerboard" logo on both sides of the card; while the "Cereal Series" does not, and has "CEREAL SERIES" printed on top of the card.

It is believed that Ralston Purina cards were inserted into MARKED boxes of various Purina cereals, while the Cereal Series cards were in UNMARKED cereal boxes. In both cases, each cereal box had a cello-wrapped pack of three cards plus a checklist -- the back of which had a form where collectors could buy an additional 12 cards for $1.50.

Checklist

• 1 Eddie Murray
• 2 Ozzie Smith
• 3 Ted Simmons
• 4 Pete Rose
• 5 Greg Luzinski
• 6 Andre Dawson
• 7 Dave Winfield
• 8 Tom Seaver
• 9 Jim Rice
• 10 Fernando Valenzuela
• 11 Wade Boggs
• 12 Dale Murphy
• 13 George Brett
• 14 Nolan Ryan
• 15 Rickey Henderson
• 16 Steve Carlton
• 17 Rod Carew
• 18 Steve Garvey
• 19 Reggie Jackson
• 20 Dave Concepcion
• 21 Robin Yount
• 22 Mike Schmidt
• 23 Jim Palmer
• 24 Bruce Sutter
• 25 Dan Quisenberry
• 26 Bill Madlock
• 27 Cecil Cooper
• 28 Gary Carter
• 29 Fred Lynn
• 30 Pedro Guerrero
• 31 Ron Guidry
• 32 Keith Hernandez
• 33 Carlton Fisk