1937 British Video Showing Cigarette Cards (Baseball)

[Ed]

Hi all, I rarely post, but I came across this very short video on the popularity of Cigarette Cards in the UK. I was particuarly interested when there is a shot of Baseball Cards (Allen Ginter) - Anson/Keefe at the 0:39 mark. Anyway, it's really short, and fun. Thought you might enjoy if you haven't seen already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnnRyCP353Q

[FromVAtoLA]

Wow! Impressive storage and organization - can’t believe they aren’t putting them in sleeves and top loaders though ��

[EddieP]

The popularity of tobacco cards in the UK rose when interest supposedly waned in the US. The forced breakup of American Tobacco , due to violating the Sherman Anti-trust Act, into smaller tobacco companies was the major cause of this. For this reason, I think the pre-war UK/ Continental tobacco cards are underappreciated by the hobby . To compound this , these cards are oftentimes mislabeled by the TPG which contributes to the misunderstanding of these cards. If collectors educate themselves with the background of the companies that printed the cards then I think the cards would gain in popularity. For example, British American Tobacco ( which is today one of the largest Multi- national corporations) is, for all intents and purposes , American Tobacco with a different name.

[GasHouseGang]

Long ago, I met a gentleman in Edinburgh, Scotland selling British issued cigarette cards at a small show I happened into. He said he had many more cards at home that his father had collected. I went to his house later that day and he brought out some beautiful British Cards but also some American Old Judge baseball cards and many other tobacco era baseball players that his father had collected. I certainly didn't expect to see anything like that in Scotland. Unfortunately he wasn't interested in selling any of these precious gems. So there may be many other hordes of these early American tobacco cards that were collected by avid collectors in other countries just waiting to be discovered.

[D. Bergin]

The Brits were certainly way ahead of us as far as storing and protecting their cards from damage.

Also, their grading scale was much different.

In the 1990's I used to order a ton of stuff out of the London Cigarette Card Company catalog and also bid in their mail auctions. I must have had a dozen sets or so of the Churchman's Sports and Games with the Babe Ruth card in it, back when nobody cared a lick about that card.

I was often pleasantly surprised when I ordered/won a set that said "VG" in the description, and I received it and it was nearly NM to MT condition.

Had a ton of Joe Louis cards I wish I could have back also.

[Jay Wolt]

Ed neat video

[brianp-beme]

Fun video...I guess when you have a pile of cards like seen in the video, it makes sense that you have to manhandle them like the women shown.

Here is an image of an even more recent pile I spotted on the internet many years ago (I believe it was an Ebay listing) and felt it necessary to save, just for an occasion such as this.


Brian