1952-55 Redman

[kailes2872]

I have just discovered these cards and they look really sharp.

Are there any collectors of these? What is the history of them? What is the significance of the white tabs?

Thanks a ton,
Kevin

[bradmar48]

Red Man Tobacco issued baseball cards in 1952, 1953, 1954 and 1955, making them the only tobacco company to do so since 1920. For 20 cents you got a pouch of Red Man tobacco and one baseball card. The 1952 to 1955 Red Man Tobacco cards all measured approximately 3 ½ inches by 4 inches with the cutoff tab and 3 ½ inches by 3 5/8 inches without the tab. The cards are very attractive with a large, painted portrait and a short player's bio on the front. On the back is company advertising. 1/2" tabs at the bottom of each card could be exchanged for a prize. The exchange rate was 50 tabs for one free Big League style baseball cap from your favorite team ! The cap's were made of felt with "Red Mans Baseball Cap" on the inside. Cards with their tabs still intact are much, much, harder to find making them more valuable.

Without the tabs it is difficult to determine which year certain players were issued. It is usually easiest to determine the year by looking at the expiration date on the back. Subtract 1 from the expiration year to determine the year of the card.

Each set is made up of 25 players from each league all personally selected by Editor J.G. Taylor Spink of the "Sporting News". Red Man did not waste much effort once they designed their set. They even used the same artwork for players with different backgrounds, year after year, as long as the player did not change teams. If a player changed teams between years, the new team name and logo were "painted over" the old one.

Managers from each league were included in the 1952 and 1953 sets. The 1954 set had four different variations. If you ignore the many variations of the expiration dates, that brings the total to only 208 cards to complete your Master Red Man Tobacco Baseball Card Set.

If you decide to collect I recommend getting one of Bob Lemke's custom
52 Mickey Mantles Red Man cards to add to it.

[kailes2872]

Thanks. I sure appreciate the feedback

If one of these are sent in for grading and the have the white tab, do they automatically receive a higher grade than a similar card without the tab? Or is that immaterial to the TPGs?

[bradmar48]

I'm probably not the best person to answer a question about graded cards.
I have complete sets of all the Red Man cards.All the cards are in raw state and
the majority do not have the tab. I went for nice cards regardless of whether they had tabs or not. I looked for bright color and how nice the tab had been removed.

A quick search of all Red Man years on EBay shows that all but a small handfull of the graded cards have tabs. If you want a PSA 9 expect to pay upward of
$2500. Most PSA 8s were $800 and above.

[Mamunrud]

I really like my one Red Man I own, it's the 52 Willie Mays. I didn't care if it had the tab or not.

[Volod]

Have a complete set of '52's, but one of them always held a special significance for me because it was handed to me one day by my old man as he stuffed a wad of chew in his craw. My favorite team at the time was the Braves, and to my goofy little eight-year-old brain, Torgy was the best player in the league.

[MikeGarcia]

Originally Posted by kailes2872

I have just discovered these cards and they look really sharp.

Are there any collectors of these? What is the history of them? What is the significance of the white tabs?

Thanks a ton,
Kevin

...depending on the patience ( and maybe the age ? ) of the original owner , a well-cut Red Man is almost like having a separate set..

...it probably just depends on your degree of mental il....ummm collecting preference , yeah , that's the ticket...

[PowderedH2O]

Originally Posted by kailes2872

Thanks. I sure appreciate the feedback

If one of these are sent in for grading and the have the white tab, do they automatically receive a higher grade than a similar card without the tab? Or is that immaterial to the TPGs?

No, they do not automatically receive a higher grade. The flip will designate with tab or without tab. So, the cards do not fit into the sets of each other. A person working on a PSA graded set with tabs will not be able to use a graded card with no tab, and vice versa. But, they are graded within their own sets.