Your Opinion of British Issued Tobacco Cards

Golfcollector

I know this is not an area in which most of you collect, but how do you feel about the British Issued (and other overseas sets) from the 1900's on?

These are more commonly of other sports, tennis, boxing, golf, etc, but do on occasion have cards of baseball players Sisler and Ruth for example in the late 20's churchman sets come to mind.

I often hear disgruntled moaning at the mere mention of the British Tobacco issues, just looking to get some disucssion going on the topic. In the area I collect (Golf) that is the main thing available in the marketplace from this era.......curiuos as the the CU thoughts on the topic.


Dave

qualitycards

DAVE - I have purchased some British & Irish cards from the teens, 20's & '30's. There was an eBay'er (from Colo, I believe) that had lots that went for pocket change, like a lot of 12 from 1 issue of Soldiers going for $9.99. They may never equal the value of the US tobacco issues, but 80 year old cards for under a buck each, ya can't beat it...jay

dstudeba

The Churchman Ruth (horizontal) and Big Head Churchman Ouimet are on my top 50 sportscards to acquire. Churchman Jesse Owens and Bobby Jones are in the top 100.

invader73

Hi,

Whilst I don't actively collect cigarette cards, I do have several thousand that I have picked up at auctions, flea markets and shows. We don't have sports card shows in the UK but we do have lots of cigarette card shows. I quite often visit these looking for oddball stuff that interests me.

There are some great sets that have been produced covering every subject imaginable and some are amazingly low in price. I quite often see no so popular sets of 50 cards from the 1920's and 1930's go for the equivalent of $10-20.

I have several price guides and catalogues of British and European Issued stuff if anybody ever needs any info.

One company I really like (whilst not strictly tobacco) is the Leibig Extract Of Meat Co.. They issued over 2000 sets of cards in their product and each set has 6 cards in it. They printed cards for about 100 years from the 1870's to the 1970's. I have often though about grading some of these but they are an odd size and I am not sure how they would look in a holder.

I am surprised there is not more interest in the British cards, especially the sports cards, from North American collectors.

Matt

Griffins

I have a pretty good sized stack of British Tobacco cards from the early 1900's. I find them at the Portabello Rd market pretty cheap whenever I'm in London. They look nice, and like Jay says, you can't beat a 90 year old card for a buck or less-and other than the tobacco connection it kinda cool when my son takes them to school to show the class and passes one out to every kid.

murcerfan

Many, Many fascinating British non-sport sets to be sure. Seems like a whole hobby unto itself really.
The same can be said for the Allen & Ginter plethera of the late 1890's.
I think it will be a long time , if ever, that the early English cards become very popular with US sportscard collectors.
I would however, expect to see some of those early A&G issues to become more popular in the near future. Many share graphic themes and formats with the N-28, N-29 and N-43 sets which will probably lead a few of us down that road, especially considering how popular the 19th century baseball issues have become. They are quite inexpensive in comparison....and really cool too.

qualitycards

For Xmas 1 of many gifts I gave my youngest was 7 or 8 cards from a 1930's British/Irish issue of the Navy.
He has Irish roots (from my wifes side) and plans to enlist in the Navy when he graduates high school, he loves the cards and I think they cost me $5.00 for the lot...jay

dbj77

I have lots of W.B. Churchman cards. I have the 'Kings of Speed' set. the 'Famous golfers' set and the 'Boxers' set. British tobacco cards are great and you can even find them in great condition, but most are non-sports or sports like cricket where us "yanks" don't care for them that much.

Golfcollector

The one point being brought up to some degree with this is the value. With golf cards I am shocked that they are not valued higher considering the golfers that are covered, and the respective rarity of the cards.

As an example, let’s take the biggest name of the era, Bobby Jones. Here is a quick list of cards available from US manufacturers

1926 Strip Card
Rogers Peet (this one is a real toughie 1928 or 1930?)
1932 US Caramel
1933 Sports Kings

Now here is a list of British or other overseas issues (not a complete list by any means)

1926 Lambert & Butler
1927 British American Tobacco
1927 Churchman Large
1927 Churchman Small (2 cards)
1927 Kraj Zigaretten
1928 Churchman Large
1928 Churchman Small
1928 Millhoff
1930 Major Drapkin
1930 Pattreiouex
1930 Sweetacres
1931 Churchman Large
1931 Churchman Small
1932 Abdullah
1935 Pattreiouex

So basically if you want to collect golf cards of this era, this is what you have.

Now the US Caramel and Sport Kings issues carry high values, 1) they have mainstream appeal as they are multi-sport sets, and 2) they are great looking cards, 3) they are made here in the good ol USA. This obviously has a part in their value.

I recently sold a PSA 6 and PSA 7 1927 churchman Bobby Jones for $165 and $250 respectively. This was still a good deal for me as they were “extra inventory” but when you compare to other relative sports figures of the day, this is a steal in my opinion.

gregmo32

I have a nice group of cards from the 1926 Lambert & Butler and
1927 British American Tobacco golf players PSA graded. I have traded the Bobby Jones already, but a few of the ones I still have are the highest graded examples in the Population Report. If anyone is legitimately interested in making an offer I will pull them out and list what I have...I can be reached at gregmo32@aol.com
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