[Exhibitman]

I think I posted this originally in 2006 but I can't find it, so I thought I'd throw it out there again. It is the only prewar "find" I got in on at the ground level:

I was invited into a transaction in progress with the nephew of a homeowner who found a box of vintage tobacco cards in her attic. The cards included in the find broke down into two categories, baseball and boxing. The group included two T202s, six T205s, five T207s, approximately 40 T219s, and ten T227s. The most interesting thing I realized on viewing the lot was something that should be obvious but that we often forget: T card distribution was entirely dependent on the smoking habits of the tobacco customers. Every card represents another pack of coffin nails purchased, ostensibly by an adult who either saved the cards or gave them to a child. In this case, it was obvious that the smoker in the house was an Honest Long Cut loyalist. All of the T219s and T227s were Honest Long Cut branded, as were 5 of the 6 T205s. The sole other T205 was a Sovereign. One of the T207s was a Recruit, one a Napoleon, and three were Broad Leaf backs (how I wish that the smoker had been loyal to that brand!). The three Broad Leaf cards included Alex McCarthy (one of the rarest cards), Phelan and Otto Miller (Brooklyn), while the Napoleon was Golden and the Recruit was Germany Schaefer. The T205s included Ed Walsh (2 cards), Wiltse right ear showing variation, Moriarty, Tinker (the Sovereign back), and Ford (dark cap). From T227 we found one baseball player, Rube Marquard, three boxers (Johnson, Attell and Coulon), wrestler Zybsko and a few of the miscellaneous sports and pseudosports subjects.