My Wagner for Your Parakeet? - slightly OT

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

California air getting to u, frank? Great topic! I bet the younger folk cared a lot more than others...and i love that kids bought the cigs just for the cards...then sold the cigs for a profit. The earliest bb card dealers!

The air is fine, Pete. The prevalence of Tobacco cards of all subjects in both this country and in England raises at least some curiosity about what the culture of collecting was from 1888 to 1911 and beyond. I would not expect the cigarette manufacturers to continue putting cards in packs for 20+ years unless there was a boost in sales due to the cards themselves. I would therefore disagree with those who feel that 99% of them were simply discarded. What percentage survived for 100+ years is a different question, as the realized value of the cards themselves back then was nil.

The modern corollary may be the Happy Meal toys. In the context of vintage collectibles what do you suppose the value of an unopened Happy Meal toy might be in 100 years? Like the '52 Topps baseball packs, most of them them were opened.

My dad was born in 1918. When I showed him a tobacco card, he claimed to have never seen one as a kid growing up in the twenties. I wonder if the same could be said for a kid in 1910 who liked baseball.