Make believe you're an old fashion tobacco salesman .....

[T206DK]

My dead grandfather started smoking at age 11 , according to what I remember my grandmother telling me. I know he rolled his own cigarettes from granulated tobacco, and plug tobacco. From my understanding , tobacco was tobacco to him and his coal mining buddies...it was smoked. The only pre-rolled cigs I have evidence of him smoking are Sweet Caporal's. My grandmother used the empty tins and boxes to keep sewing thread and buttons and things like that in. I think it is plausible to say that The Ty Cobb cards were made for distribution inside the tins, and some were made for enticement purposes or for advertising the "new" brand. Obviously, ATC tried to take advantage of Cobb's status , and name recognition, in order to promote a new brand of tobacco. Perhaps the line on the back of the card " King of the Smoking Tobacco World" was used because more people smoked cigarettes rather than chewed tobacco at that time. It's too bad we may never know the extent to which the Ty Cobb brand was supposed to be marketed. In my opinion , there may have been a nationwide plan to distribute TY Cobb tobacco, but for whatever reason it never saw full fruition. If it had, I think there would be a lot more tins and card examples out there for collectors. If it was a short lived idea that didn't take off, then perhaps some of the theories that store owners and tobbacconists simply threw the tins and the glossy coated cards out when the brand was discontinued. Does anyone think the Ty Cobb brand was only distributed in Georgia ? That may not have been the plan but it could have been the reality of this brand. I think the evidence of advertisments in newspapers around different parts of the country in 1910 blows holes in that theory. Thanks to Ted and Shawn for their work on this intriguing subject !!