Non-baseball tobacco hoard

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Posted By: ephuspitch

Hi folks. I'm a long-time lurker, infrequent poster. I've dealt with a few of you on this board along the way ... and just about everything I've learned about cards comes from right here.

Over the last two years I've been slowly moving a big tobacco hoard for a friend of the family (a retiree who is NOT a collector, but needs the money. The cards are an attic find.)

I've sold a bunch of cards through Sloate Auctions, and some of them have gone individually (to board regulars, in many cases.) Most of the good baseball stuff is gone.

Here's my question: He still has over thirteen hundred tobacco cards to go. Only a few (around 100) are sport cards (mostly T218s and T225s). The rest are things like Indians, actresses, aviators, automobiles, animals, cowboys, military figures, state flags, and on and on and on. The brands are the brands I'm used to seeing on tobacco cards: Turkey Red, Hassan, Sweet Caporal, etcetera. The baseball stuff was all 1908-1912, so I'm assuming this other stuff will be in that range, too ... but I truly don't know.

It's my job to help him move the cards. The baseball stuff was easy enough, because EVERYONE wants the baseball stuff. Can anyone tell me some outlets or informational sites (or books) for this non-sport stuff?

Condition on the hoard, btw, is very solid. I'd say an average of Ex, and some of the better baseball stuff got graded as high as SGC 80+.

Thanks for any assistance.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

I would consign them to the Mastro Americanna Auction. They have been getting great prices.

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Posted By: brian parker

The best readily available book that covers the range of American non-sport tobacco cards (it sounds like your friend has tobacco issue cards) is the American Tobacco Cards book by Robert Forbes and Terence Mitchell, issued by Tuff Stuff Books in 1999. It is a price guide and checklist for both 19th and 20th century non-sport tobacco cards, providing front and back pictures for almost all of the issues. Because of these pictures it is probably the most helpful guide in identifying cards. The American Card Catalog, which was last published in the early sixties, has a few more issues listed, but almost no pictures and scant description of the cards, so it is hard to use. A reprinted version is available from Larry Fritsch Cards.

Brian