Sorry I wasn't aware this thread got so much attention. I'll try to reply to a few of the questions asked of me.
Shown below are the two n28 and n162 ad pieces I own, Ward and Brouthers. The n28 is off of the n28 Champion's poster that Wonka and others posted. You can tell by the colors that are showing on the borders of the Ward that it matches up perfectly with the Ward shown on the poster. It's also a thinner stock overall like the others were saying.
The Kelly that Dan posted about on the first page is from an A36 Goodwin Album released around 1888, about the same time as the n162 set. You can see a good shot of this album below. There is also an image below showing what the back of the panel with Kelly, Glasscock, Dunlap and Keefe looks like. As you'll see, the back of the Kelly that is on Ebay now, matches up perfectly with what is shown in this image.
The Brouthers shown below is cut from a different page in this same A36 Album. However that particular page is blank backed, as is the Brouthers shown below. The page with the Kelly has the large advertisement for Old Judge as you can see.
Dan, not sure when you spoke to the guy on Ebay about his cards, but I've shown him scans of the ones I have and have shown him the entire pieces that they were cut off of. I've had this conversation with him in the past week or so. I've not come up with any info supporting a theory that these were redemption cards. But I've told him that the cards resembling n162s were cards cut of the A36 Champions album, so hopefully my explanation made sense. I feel that given the backs matching up perfectly on the Kelly, Glasscock, etc... that particular mystery is solved.
I agree with Barry's point about the cards only having marginal value. These, while likely not easy to find, are likely to not carry the value anywhere near the value of the actual cards. They are authentic, and were released at the same time the cards were issued however. The Kelly on Ebay surprises me a bit since it's already up to $500...heh
$T2eC16dHJIIFHJrRiFvnBR1jGl)-Z!~~60_57.jpg
73.jpg
112655c_lg.jpg
itnward.jpg