BY TROY KIRK
The baseball card discs issued with King B Jerky Stuff for the past four years have a special flavor of their own, just like the product they help to promote. Issued every year since 1988, they are among the more obscure issues, but they are colorful and interesting to collect.
King B, Inc. is located in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and manufactures more than 80 products. In recent years, both baseball and football card discs have been issued with their Jerky Stuff product, a shredded beef jerky. Jerky Stuff is sold in a small round cannister resembling a chewing tobacco container. It is eaten a pinch at a time.
According to Norman Schenk, King B’s CEO, the company was founded 20 years ago and now employs about 260 people. It markets over 80 different items, mostly meat products, and distributes them nationwide, with an emphasis on the western United States.
• 1988•
(Discs are 2 3/4-inches in diameter)
When King B was considering using a baseball card promotion to help sell its products, Schenk flew to the offices of Mike Schechter & Associates (MSA) and talked to Schechter about the idea. MSA has a license from the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and has produced baseball card sets to be used as inserts for many products over the past 15 years.
Schenk had to sell Schechter on the idea of producing cards for King B, as King B is smaller than many of the companies that have worked with MSA, and the number of cards they needed was small in comparison. Still, Schechter agreed to supply the cards.
When King B issued its first baseball card set in 1988, the cards were placed exclusively in cannisters of Jerky Stuff, one card per container. In 1989 and 1990, cards were issued with both Jerky Stuff and Beef Jerky. For 1991, King B went back to packaging the card exclusively with Jerky Stuff. King B also issued football card sets in 1989 and 1990, with the cards inserted only in cans of Jerky Stuff. A new football card set is also scheduled for 1991.
According to Schenk, the cards did not work as well with Beef Jerky because they were visible to the consumer and tended to date the product. King B Beef Jerky has a shelf life of about a year, but people were hesitant to buy a Beef Jerky package showing a baseball card when it was football season.
• 1989 •
Schenk has been very happy with the baseball card promotions and plans to continue them in the future. In the first two years of the promotions, sales of Jerky Stuff increased quite a bit, though they have levelled off during the past two years.
In addition to sales increases, Schenk sees other benefits to inserting cards with King B products. Because of the national health consciousness of the past few years, there has been some resistance to eating beef products, especially among younger people. The baseball card promotion introduces new and younger customers to the King B products.
The cards themselves are also useful as a filler in the cans of Jerky Stuff. The cards are placed in the bottom of the cans, and help the shredded beef jerky retain its fluff, according to Schenk. This aspect has proven so important that there is now always some type of card in Jerky Stuff cans. After a baseball card promotion ends, football cards are inserted. If there is a period when baseball and football cards are not added, another type of card is included, such as one for some type of mail-in offer.
Though he sees the baseball card promotions continuing indefinitely, Schenk is a bit concerned with the football card promotions. The recent wave of football card products has apparently led to a big increase in the football fees that King B must pay. Though there is a football card set scheduled for release in 1991, football cards might prove to be too expensive to continue for much longer. Schenk mentioned that King B had considered issuing basketball cards, but that rights problems had forced them to abandon that idea.
• 1990 •
Though Schenk wanted to keep the total number of cards used in the King B promotions confidential, he did indicate that the total was probably small in comparison to most other baseball card promotions. In each year, the number given out has grown. MSA works together with King B to establish the number of cards given out in each promotion, and tries to produce only as many cards as needed.
There are only 24 cards in a typical King B card set, and the company has a large say in which players appear. Schenk says that King B submits a list of players it wants in a set, then must wait for several approvals.
Schenk mentioned that Bo Jackson is a favorite of King B and even hunts with some company officials, but Jackson can no longer be pictured on King B cards because of other contractual obligations. Occasionally a player objects to being pictured on a King B card for personal reasons. For example, a player who is a vegetarian may not want to be associated with a meat product. After all approvals are secured, the cards are created.
There were some problems in 1988, the first year of the King B cards. It was discovered that the coating on the cards was inadequate, as the grease from the jerky tended to bleed into the cards, leaving them heavily stained. A different coating was quickly added to subsequent batches of cards, and this problem was greatly reduced, although the problem still exists to some extent.
• 1991 •
Another problem that surfaced in 1988 was that some of the cards leaked out to baseball card dealers without being purchased with King B products. Although King B company officials aren’t certain, they suspected employee theft. Schenk thinks only a small number of cards were taken.
King B takes security measures to protect its card supplies from theft. In the early days of the card promotions, the cards were kept in a sealed room. They are now stored in a sealed warehouse, with a weekly inventory taken.
Schenk mentioned that King B receives a very small supply of uncut sheets containing a complete set of cards with each card promotion. These sheets are generally used as a sales promotion tool and are not available to the general public. There are only about 1,500 of these sheets printed for each of the King B card sets.
Collectors should be aware of some of the fine points of collecting King B cards. First, it is best to buy King B Jerky Stuff as soon as possible after it appears on the store shelf. This is because the card is placed at the bottom of the can, without any protective wrapper. The longer the can sits on the shelf, the more grease from the jerky is absorbed into the card. It is a good idea to check the date on the can to see how old it is.
When first placed on the shelf, the expiration date is usually about a year in advance. If the expiration date on the can is only a month or two away, the cards are more likely to contain grease stains.
1989 Cannister and Package
One of the best things about collecting these cards is the Jerky Stuff cannisters. They are perfect for storing the cards, and are attractive collectibles in their own right. Each year King B has changed the design of the cans, with two different designs for the 1990 baseball cans.
If you store the cards in the cans, you should thoroughly clean out the inside to remove any grease before placing the cards in them. Also, there is a small round bubble on the bottom of the cans that prevents the cards from sitting flat. You might want to place some tissue in the bottom of the can to prevent the bubble from causing damage.
A message on the early cannisters of Jerky Stuff (1988-90) adds a folksy and somewhat humorous touch to the cards. It states that Jerky Stuff is “Dipped in a solution of potassium sorbate to retard mold growth.”
This is a funny statement because most food manufacturers would use a more euphemistic choice of wording than to imply their food had a tendency to attract mold growth. King B must have agreed with this, for they changed their packaging in mid-1990 to display a new message. The packaging now says, “Dipped in potassium sorbate solution to help protect quality.”
Collectors will be happy to know that King B is willing to work with them to help complete their sets. They have received many requests from collectors for that last card or two, and try to accommodate these requests through their mail-order division. They offer no guarantees, but will try to help out if they can. In addition, the mail-order division will send out a catalogue of King B products on request.
• • • • • •
• Originally Published in Nov. 1991 “Baseball Hobby News” •
THIS ARTICLE FROM “BASEBALL HOBBY NEWS” MAGAZINE IS REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF BOTH THE EDITOR/PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR. IT HAS BEEN RETYPED, BUT NO CONTENT HAS BEEN CHANGED (EXCEPT FOR VERY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS, CORRECTIONS TO TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND CHANGES TO GRAPHICS). COMMENTS OR INFORMATION IN THE ARTICLE MAY BE OUT-OF-DATE.
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