1971 Kelloggs Football Cards

There are 60 cards in the full set of 1971 Kellogg's 3-D football cards. The cards came inside boxes of Kellogg's cereal. (You can see a picture of an empty box at mrbreakfast.com.) Whereas 1970 Kellogg's football cards could also be purchased via mail order, 1971 cards could not, so the 1971 cards are scarcer.

Inside the cereal boxes, the cards were wrapped in plain, semi-transparent paper. You can usually find a few unwrapped 1971 Kellogg's cards on eBay. Because you can see which player is inside each wrapper, it is possible to collect a full unopened set of cards.

The Kellogg's cards are plastic (with a paper backing), and their corners are not dinged as easily as cardboard. The plastic is susceptible to cracking, however. Apparently, it is even possible for a card to crack while inside a hard plastic holder.

There is not much overlap between the 1970 and 1971 Kellogg's sets. I presume this was intentional. I count just five players--Dick Butkus, Bob Griese, Mel Renfro, Floyd Little, and John Unitas--who appeared on both 1970 and 1971 Kellogg's cards. Two players in the 1971 set, Tom Barrington and Bob Grant, never appeared on a football card in a major issue.