O.W. Meyer’s “The Burglars” is a precursor to Roy Walton's now classic multiple-sandwich plot, “The Collectors”. The Meyer trick, an elaboration of the ancient Burglars effect, appeared in Jean Hugard's More Card Manipulations Series 1, 1938, p. 17. Four Kings trap three Jacks that have been distributed in the deck. The Kings and Jacks are all face down in the deck.
The multiple-sandwich effect was brought closer to its modern form with “A Club Sandwich” by Milton G. Miller in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Vol. 7 No. 1, Jun. 1949, p. 550. Two cards are freely selected and lost in the deck. Another three free selections are one by one cut face up into the deck. When the deck is spread, the three face-up cards are seen to have caught the two face-down selections between them.
Jay Ose developed an effect even closer to Walton's “Collectors”: “Ose's Addition” in Close-up Card Magic by Harry Lorayne, 1962, p. 91. Ose, building on Frank Garcia's “The Apex Ace”, ibid., p. 88, vanished the three face-up Aces one by one on top of the deck, cut the fourth Ace face up into the deck, and revealed all four Aces, face up, with three previous selections alternated and face down with the Aces.
Seven years later, Walton published his first approach to an instant multiple-sandwich effect, now known by his title, “The Collectors”. Two face-down cards, a Joker and a selection, appear instantly between three face-up Kings as the Kings are dropped onto the deck. “The Collectors” appeared in Abracadabra, Vol. 47 No. 1203, Feb. 1969, p. 99. Ed Marlo, later that year, in The Hierophant, No. 2 (Winter), 1969, p. 155 of the combined collection, expanded the effect from three Kings catching two cards to four Aces catching three selections. In Pabular, Vol. 1 No. 3, Nov. 1974, p. 28, Alex Elmsley contributed his “One at a Time Collectors” variant.