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Posted By: davidcycleback

The tobacco albums were premiums, consisting of several pages. The pages pictured the cards with various attractive backdrops. The pages were printed on similar stock as the trading cards, though are blank backed. There are albums with baseball cards and also albums for non baseball cards (horses, state capital cards, etc). The collector got one by sending in tobacco coupons found in the tobacco packs.

The complete baseball albums are rare and very desirable, costing in the thousands a piece. I beleive they are included in the price guides along with the corresponding card sets. The non-sport can be more affordable and you can find them with some regularity on eBay. You will see individual pages for sale, and the baseball versians can also be expensive. The pages have holes in them and were tied together, so the page itself can remain undamaged.

The Goodwin round album is the most expensive and desirable. The pages are round. This is the one album that doesn't picture trading cards, but color lithographs of the big players like Comiskey and King Kelly. There are 2 Allen & Ginter baseball albums, for the two card sets, and a Kimball baseball album for the Kimball cards.

Below is an 1887 A16 Allen & Ginter album. Notice how the pages are tied together with a string.



Below is a page from the 1887 A35 Goodwin Round Album



Below is one of the numerous non-baseball tobacco albums, also by Allen & Ginter