Vintage non sports cards

[codycody]

what are the rarest, most collectable vintage non sports cards?????? Thanks!

[Peter_Spaeth]

The 1933 American Heroes/US Caramel William McKinley is considered very rare.

[ullmandds]

gilligans island cards are tough.

[philliesfan]

I wish Gilligan's Island were easier, I would love a set from my favorite TV show as a kid.......and as an adult!

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by philliesfan

I wish Gilligan's Island were easier, I would love a set from my favorite TV show as a kid.......and as an adult!

me2!

[parkplace33]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

The 1933 American Heroes/US Caramel William McKinley is considered very rare.

Agree, and the most celebrated of the rare non sports cards.

Others include:

1936 Wolverine Gum Strange True Stories card 24, The Bat Man

1933 Wild West Gum card 25, Cowboy Outfit

1930s Schutter Johnson I'm Going to Be card 4, The Strongman

[Musashi]

Depends on what your idea of a fun collecting challenge is. For example, "rarest" doesn't always equal "most collectable". With that in mind, some things that could be fun:

G-Men and Heroes of the Law: The set itself isn't rare, but there are some short prints that make completing the set a challenge. You can also go down the variations rabbit hole if you prefer games set to "hard"

Goudey Indian White Backgrounds are a nice challenge

T59's Flags of All Nations master set (every possible front/back combo) if you're looking for a challenge to pass along to the next generation

If you want rare - uncut T175 Heroes of the Spanish American War. Issued as box panels with Sweet Caporal cigarettes. The cut singles aren't something you see every day, I've seen an uncut package only once (caveat: non sport is not my focus, YMMV) or T11 Tales of the Turkish Trophies are tough.

[Leon]

Good luck, Cody. Thanks for the quick chat on the phone. We love enthusiastic collectors. And remember, there is a link to the Vintage Non Sports cards site in the upper right corner of each page.

Me, hard at work with one of my techie guys...


.

[codycody]

Thanks Leon, appreciate the explanation. Thanks for all you do for the hobby!

[yanks87]

1940 Superman issues are getting tougher and tougher to acquire.

Gum Inc. - Probably the most attainable, though prices on card #1 and #72 are creeping up into the thousands for mid grade examples. 1-48, low numbers, 49-72 high numbers that are more expensive to get.

Novelty Candy - Hand cut from the candy boxes, lots of shared artwork with the Gum Inc set, but tougher to find as they had to be removed from the box. The cover of the box is also floating around out there, and can be grabbed for a couple hundred bucks, there are 2-3 variations on the simple print.

Junior Defense Bread Cards - Nearly impossible to find, more so with the tab still attached. Individual cards have gone for $2k-$3k recently. 24 cards in the set, I know of 2 that exist, one was sold at a show "10 years ago" according to a dealer I was speaking at a show with for $25k.

[Lucas00]

I'll share a random one too

[Ronnie73]

That's an extremely difficult question to answer. I guess because of the amount of different sets there are. I like to find cards that don't have a catalog name. I figure if nobody gave them an offical catalog name, they must be difficult.

[rjackson44]

1940 superman#1 #2 three stooges #s 1,2,3,

[Johnny630]

Not Super Rare but Still a Cool Non Sport baseball ⚾️ themed Pre War R Card.

[brianp-beme]

Not rare, and not technically non-sports, but this T203 card really is just showcasing assault with a deadly weapon, in this case a baseball bat, and uses a little baseball jargon to make it all seem lighthearted.

Brian (name of my least favorite baseball club is...to the head!)

[gonefishin]

Not really rare, but I like the 1953 Fighting Marines. Since General Wilson was the Commandant and I had the pleasure of meeting him, card #64 is one of my favorites along with GySgt John Basilone, card #62. My card's condition doesn't matter in the slightest in this case.

My recommendation - collect the one's that you like, covet and enjoy!

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by parkplace33

Agree, and the most celebrated of the rare non sports cards.

Others include:

1936 Wolverine Gum Strange True Stories card 24, The Bat Man

1933 Wild West Gum card 25, Cowboy Outfit

1930s Schutter Johnson I'm Going to Be card 4, The Strongman

McKinley is the most discussed because it is attainable for those with the funds to do so and does pop up every few years.

The Strongman is the undisputed king of rarity to me. Never seen one once and I think the 22k REA got in 2014 was a bargain.

I would also add the N519 Marquis of Lorne to that list too.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Definitely want to check out our Non-Sport auction coming up in June. From 1860's to today.

[NonSportDaniel]

The fanfare around the N519 Marquis of Lorne had to do with the misconception that it was the first insert tobacco card. That notion was thoroughly and completely debunked some time ago. There's a great thread on the topic on the non-sports board.

[G1911]

The rarest are all of the cards that are unique and the only ones known. Most all of these are not popular. At least a few need to be out there to get popularity, first because the more there are the more exposure the card gets and two, only one person has a vested interest in pumping and marketing a card that is unique. The US caramel McKinley is the non-sport version of the T206 Wagner, but there are many much rarer cards. Rarest and most collectible are usually contrary descriptors.

For example, here's some unique cards. Thick cardboard, the same images as on T29 in lower quality, but with blue borders. Ad piece on thick cardboard? Card fronts from a set otherwise known glued down? Just a really shoddy card? Poster cuts? Unique items are hard to identify. This lot cost me 99 cents at auction for all of them; the only extant copies known of whatever this set was. That's century old unique cards for under 13 cents a pop. The truly rare stuff can be a ton of fun precisely because they are so tough but also unpopular or unknown because there's usually no interest in them.

[steve B]

There are lots of sets that are rare, not particularly valuable but rare.

T49s - the full checklist wasn't known until 2011.
It's a small set sort of like T51 in makeup, where there are images representing colleges. Only a few are sports.

[Vintagedeputy]

This one is rough, but it’s a hard to find SP.

[yomass]

To my knowledge, no one has finished this set. I'm still three short.

[Exhibitman]

1926 Exhibit Vaudeville. We don't even have close to a complete set checklist.