Kellogg's Store Displays
Appraised Value:
$3,500
IMAGE: 1 of 5
Appraisal Video: (2:44)
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: My uncle was a Kellogg salesman for many many years in the '40s and the '50s, and he, uh, took these to the grocery stores and set them up for display and brought the extras to our farm. My father kept them in the hay mound in the barn, and he had wooden grain bins to keep the grain in and of course the varmints would eat little holes into the wood and he would tack them up over those little holes or across the split in the board or something to contain the grain.
APPRAISER: Just for cardboard.
GUEST: Exactly.
APPRAISER: These things were thrown away, used and thrown away, but very important to Kellogg's and to advertising in general. These are cardboard boxes that would fold up to be representative samples for display at stores to get you to want to buy their products.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Well, after a while, they kind of realized that these cardboard boxes for Corn Flakes, Kellogg's Pep or Corn Soya or Raisin Bran, you know, these weren't really going to sell, and they had to go into the modern age of promoting and marketing.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: And so they started putting color pictures on the boxes.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: This is for dog food. Kellogg's actually made dog food for a short period of time. These are dated 1939. Now, during the war, they had to go back to the generic and save money.
GUEST: Oh, interesting.
APPRAISER: But after the war, it blossomed and they started inventing characters like "Snap, Crackle, and Pop."
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: And they started creating a bond to children, saying, you know, "Hey, let's enjoy breakfast, right?"
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: At that point, they moved over to television stars. Somebody like Guy Madison, who was the star of Wild Bill Hickok show.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And so they would license his image to put on cereal boxes to sell even more boxes.
GUEST: Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER: And a store display like this is very rare. All of these are extremely rare, but what is most rare is this one, because the artist who did the cover art was a gentleman named Norman Rockwell, and it crosses over to not only cereal box collectors and advertising collectors, but Norman Rockwell collectors. So, value wise, your entire collection of cereal box store displays would sell in the retail marketplace or in an advertising auction for about $3,500.
GUEST: That's amazing.
APPRAISER: Mostly in this piece right here, which is probably worth $1,500 by itself.
GUEST: Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER: This one right here would probably sell for $500 to $700, and this one would sell for $300 to $400.
GUEST: Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER: That's amazing.
