One of the only Star Wars things that was available in the small town I grew up in in Northern MN was the Topps Trading cards.
The Star Wars series began with the blue series in 1978, followed by the second series or red cards, then the yellow 3rd series, the 4th Green series, and finally the 5th Orange series. The 4th green series of cards saw the unique C3PO card- the 207x as it has become to be referred as has A very excited C3PO. It is sought after, by collectors, although both the 207 cards are one of the hardest to find in the series.
Each set has 66 cards, there are 11 stickers in each series. A total of 330 cards and 55 stickers. The stickers are hard to find in good shape. There are 1st edition and 2nd edition cards notated by the number of stars on the front bottom- at the beginning © line
Collectors want cards in Excellent condition, cards with bends, creases and wear have little value today, as lots of hundreds can be found online for wale for penny’s per card.
Also produced was a sugar free set of stickers. They are very rare due to limited distribution. The card set consisted of a foil package with 56 “wrappers” around the gum. Not exactly thick as a trading card. The wrappers are very rare.
Around the world, other sets of Star Wars cards made by other manufacturers: many unique in size and design, more on International Star Wars cards later.
Three other sets of cars or stickers, were released at the beginning of the Star Wars saga.
Wonder Bread released, what I believe, the first collectible Star Wars item to hit the stores.
A series of trading cards inserted into a pack of bread. A very nice looking series of 16 cards. It is difficult to find the cards without stains form the bread. This was long before “safe” packaging.
General Mills, the Big G , and owner of Kenner at the time, created two series of cards/stickers , inserted into cereal boxes, and as a mail in premium.
Released in Cereal boxes were the Sticker series of cards. shown above. They were in Franken-Berry, Boo Berry, Count Chocula and Lucky Charms cereals. There are 16 sticker cards in the set. 4 cards could be found per cereal brand.
The other set was a mail in premium set with a vinyl card holder. The set is highly sought after and had 18 cards. They were thin paper and came with the vinyl card sleeve booklet. The premium was A Big G premium box top mail in offer.
Happy collecting