I'm always surprised at how affordable vintage tobacco sets are (especially English sets). Twenty bucks, give or take, can get you 50 cards that include some of the best boxers in history. And the sets are easy to find. I've had my eye on this for a while and found one in nice condition at around that price.
Up top, we have the great Jack Johnson. A product of Galveston, Texas, just down the road. Here's the back.
Max Schmeling and Jack Dempsey
Four more great ones...James J. Braddock, made famous to modern audiences through Cinderella Man, one of my favorite boxing flicks. Primo Carnera was well known as a wrestler after his boxing career. I grew up going to school with one of his nephews. And below them, Gene Tunney and Joe Louis, considered by many the greatest of all time.
The back of Braddock's card....
1 Lou Ambers
2 Henry Armstrong
3 Max Baer
4 Jack "Kid" Berg
5 Eric Boon
6 James J. Braddock
7 Primo Carnera
8 Georges Carpentier
9 Dave Crowley
10 Arthur Danahar
11 Al Delaney
12 Jack Dempsey
13 Jack Doyle
14 Jim Driscoll
15 Tommy Farr
16 Ben Foord
17 Larry Gains
18 Len Harvey
19 Frank Hough
20 Jack Johnson
21 Peter Kane
22 Jack Kilrain
23 Johnny King
24 John Henry Lewis
25 Ted "Kid" Lewis
26 Joe Louis
27 Benny Lynch
28 Jock McAvoy
29 Tommy Milligan
30 Harry Mizler
31 Walter Neusel
32 Jack Petersen
33 Eddie Phillips
34 Max Schmeling
35 Gene Tunney
36 Paolino Uzcudun
37 Jimmy Walsh
38 Billy Wells
39 Jimmy Wilde
40 Moss Deyong
41 C.H. Douglas
42 Jack Hart
43 Jack Smith
44 Victor Berliner
45 Ted Broadribb
46 Sam Russell
47 Johnny Sharpe
48 Arthur J. Elvin
49 Sydney Hulls
50 John E. Harding
They're cheap because a lot of them were made, and every year there's less and less people left who are still interested in them. This is why I always think it funny when I come across those smug people on Twitter who say that they only collect "pre-war" cards. They go on and on about today's cards being over produced, and how they won't hold their values, then they show their latest pick-up, which is a card from a 100 year-old set that can be bought in it's entirety for $10 or less from multiple British sellers on eBay -- apparently that's what "holding it's value" means. They also seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that in another fifty years or so, there's not gonna be anybody left who's interested in those cards, today's cards, or just about anything else that collector's currently hold dear.
ReplyDeleteI find the pre-war English tobacco sets really interesting and have a pretty big collection, including this et.
ReplyDeleteThe artwork and subject matter on them are cool - trains, ships, airplanes, etc - and being able to get whole sets for less than what you'd pay for a beat up baseball card of a common player from the same era makes them way more enticing to me.
Yay you finally got one!
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated by the prices of tobacco sets from England. I always figured someone over there was reprinting them... but I could see where supply just exceeds demand. Whatever the reasoning is... twenty bucks for this set is mind-blowing. I'd much rather have this set than a blaster box.
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