The "tobacco cards were used as package stiffeners" myth
 

I'm not sure why people use the claim that T206 cards and similar tobacco cards were used to help stiffen the cigarette packages.

Tobacco cards didn't begin distribution until the Duke cigarette company developed the sliding box packaging around 1886. Other manufacturers like Kinney, Allen & Ginter, and Godwin quickly followed suit.

The packages were already firm with the box. The cards were purely for advertising and marketing and served no physical value to the pack.

Agreed. They only put those beautiful cards in there to make people buy more (and smoke more!)

It was a marketing campaign to indoctrinate kids into smoking tobacco.

Could a current cigarette Co, reinsert vintage t-cards in their packs with possible HOF players ?-- maybe suggested retail 150.00-250.00 pack---?--I suppose a Bad ideal to attract new buyers !

There were cards that came in very flimsy packs too. Not sure about the stiffening of said packs but that is what has always been thought. I am not sure it's a myth. I had a Pirates unopened pack, circa 1910s. It was a flimsy pack, not cardboard, and the card inside sure helped stiffen it on one side. That is not a myth. My guess is the cards were mostly for marketing though.

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I disagree......the Kimball Tobacco Co. initially inserted blank cardboard stiffeners
 

Civil War veteran and Tobacco tycoon, William Smith Kimball, produced his cigarette brand in the Peerless Tobacco Works in Rochester, NY.
In 1867, Kimball took over this Tobacco Co. and transformed this factory using modern, more efficient cigarette manufacturing equipment
which by the 1880's was producing 750 Million cigarettes a year.
Originally, small rectangular pieces of BLANK cardboard were inserted in their packs as stiffeners. Kimball was one of the first
to have these pieces of cardboard printed with Sports images (N184).


http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...IMBALLpack.jpg . http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...LLpackBack.jpg . https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...packONeill.jpg



Checklist printed on the back of the Kimball cards......

http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...yKIMBALLbk.jpg




TED Z

T206 Reference
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I always thought this was an interesting read in regard to the T206 set..

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...ll-card-mania/

T205s are too thin to be much help in stiffening a pack of cigarettes. Thicker cards, or double-thick cards like folded T202s, maybe a different story.

Imagine buying/opening a vintage tobacco pack from 1867 and pulling a blank? And we thought modern collecting was frustrating, lol!

A case can definitely be made that stiffening was part of the T206 job. Look at contemporary (1909-10) sets put out by ATC and it's clear that where harder packs were used, the paper stock on the associated cards was very thin. An example would be Murad T51s or Helmar T207s.

T-card stiffeners
 

We have American Tobacco Co. documentation that instructs the Factory(s) to insert two T206 cards in each Cigarette pack.

Each card on each side of the Slide-Shell inside the pack.

I would assume this was also done with two T205 cards.



TED Z

T206 Reference
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I dunno, a fresh mint T205 Cobb would certainly stiffen the packages of a lot of folks around here...

It certainly would be a hard core collector to have such a physical reaction to a bit of cardboard. :eek:

The older I get the more I like cards.

a mint T205 cobby might get me a little excited LOL....

https://luckeycards.com/tyt205.jpg