{"id":13965,"date":"2013-07-29T06:20:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T11:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=13965"},"modified":"2020-05-22T21:12:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T01:12:55","slug":"id-like-to-sell-the-world-some-seeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/07\/29\/id-like-to-sell-the-world-some-seeds\/","title":{"rendered":"I’d Like to Sell the World Some Seeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"COMICS-HEAD\"<\/a>\"Brenda-Jackson\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Miss Jackson<\/strong> was one in a seemingly endless army of satisfied sales-children happily selling seeds to friends, family and neighbors and reaping the rewards of CASH-money<\/strong><\/em> or really BOSS<\/strong><\/em> prizes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The seed company must have done all right with these advertisements because they ran in comics for decades. I always wonder about the kids pictured in the ads. Were they for real? Were these kids actual sales dynamos selling neighbors and church groups seeds by the ton? I’d like to hear a modern day testimonial from one of these seed salesmen.<\/p>\n

These ads ran for as long as I read comics as a kid in the 1970s, but they must have dried up sometime after that. I wonder why. Was it that comics dropped out of sight at newsstands and convenience stores in favor of being sold directly to comic specialty shops?<\/a><\/p>\n

Did the kids get lazy favoring time wasters emerging in the 1980s such as video games and music videos over entrepreneurialism?<\/p>\n

Or did their parents get paranoid about letting their children go door-to-door trying to talk strangers into buying seeds. STRANGER DANGER!<\/strong> All the kid wanted to do was sell his way to a really nifty tape recorder or chemistry set, and now his most recent class picture is featured on a special missing persons episode of Dateline. <\/em>It was the worst thing a parent could imagine. NOPE! <\/strong>The kids are staying home!
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Come to think of it, when was the last time you saw a paper boy?<\/p>\n

The seed ad appeared in Navy Gobs ‘n’ Gals<\/strong><\/em> featuring Sad Sack<\/strong> published by Harvey Comics in 1973.<\/p>\n

\"sadsack\"<\/a>It was a terrible comic, and I don’t imagine that my brother John who I wrote about last week<\/a> would have purchased it. We knew it was bad even back then. It made Beetle Bailey<\/strong> <\/em>seem like high literature in comparison. I’m not sure how this wound up in my collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[335],"tags":[253,359,17,12,726,9,2731,43,1458,1301,2732,336],"class_list":["post-13965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-253","tag-ad","tag-cartoon","tag-co2-comics","tag-comic-book","tag-comics","tag-harvey-comics","tag-humor","tag-sad-sack","tag-seeds","tag-stranger-danger","tag-vintage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-3Df","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6518,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/02\/06\/spend-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":13965,"position":0},"title":"Don’t Spend It All In One Place!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"February 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas Welch's testimonial is from an ad offering untold riches or fabulous prizes to kids hawking packets of seeds for a seed company. These types of ads were fairly common when comics were sold in spinning racks\u00c2\u00a0 at drug stores for pocket change. When I was younger, I used to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Conan-72.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Conan-72.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Conan-72.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46142,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/10\/16\/selling-seeds-in-the-show-me-state\/","url_meta":{"origin":13965,"position":1},"title":"Selling Seeds in the SHOW ME State","author":"Joe","date":"October 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill was doing really well in the seed racket in Missouri back in 1965. From a seeds advertisement on the back cover of Bewitched published by Dell in 1965.","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bill-Hanlin.jpg?fit=640%2C999&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bill-Hanlin.jpg?fit=640%2C999&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bill-Hanlin.jpg?fit=640%2C999&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37312,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/03\/03\/confronting-destiny\/","url_meta":{"origin":13965,"position":2},"title":"Confronting Destiny","author":"Joe","date":"March 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not necessarily a ringing endorsement of the product that Chipper is selling, but it seems he has come to a greater understanding of human nature and of himself. I wonder what else he tried to peddle. Who knew enlightenment was to be attained by selling packets of seeds door\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Destiny-1.jpg?fit=640%2C1184&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Destiny-1.jpg?fit=640%2C1184&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Destiny-1.jpg?fit=640%2C1184&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35354,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2020\/11\/21\/peace-through-superior-firepower\/","url_meta":{"origin":13965,"position":3},"title":"Peace Through Superior Firepower","author":"Joe","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"So for a $1.98, am I protecting myself and my loved ones with steely fists or a board I can carry anywhere? I saw this tiny advertisement which I have enlarged in issue #186 of The Incredible Hulk published by Marvel Comics in 1975. Comics were printed quickly, and --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Peace_Power.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Peace_Power.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Peace_Power.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2583,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/04\/22\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/","url_meta":{"origin":13965,"position":4},"title":"What I Miss About Comics…","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"...the ads.","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wipe Out 2 or More Attackers AT ONCE\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5266\/5635984867_ee722b2d9b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5266\/5635984867_ee722b2d9b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5266\/5635984867_ee722b2d9b_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37973,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/22\/what-i-miss-about-comics-perfectly-legitimate-ads\/","url_meta":{"origin":13965,"position":5},"title":"What I Miss About Comics – Perfectly Legitimate Ads","author":"Joe","date":"June 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This along with a number of other classified style advertisements for perfectly legitimate products and services appeared in Marvel Spotlight No. 25 published by Marvel Comics in 1975. It was a comic adaptation of Ray Harryhausen's 1958 fantasy epic The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. My guess is that Marvel was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}