1910 Mecca & Hassan Champions Cigarette Cards

Although the sport of boxing is currently going through a lean time, that certainly wasn't always the case.  In fact, prize fighting was one of the most popular sports in America.  Evidence of this fact are the once popular 1910 Mecca & Hassan Champion Athlete and Prize Fighter Series cards.  Fortunately, Dean's Cards was recently able to acquire a handful of them.

The 1910 Mecca & Hassan Champion cards were issued by tobacco manufacturers as both a tactic to promote their brand as well as serving as a valuable piece to the packaging.  The inserted card would give structure to the loose packaging that the cigarettes were wrapped in.  Another famous example of a tobacco card is American Tobacco Company's T206 Honus Wagner.

However, the T218 Mecca & Hassan Cards have a lot of really great features.  Perhaps the most striking feature of the Prize Fighting collection is the beautiful color artwork of the cards.  The full color images are set in front a bold background and set inside of a white border.  The rich colors that fill the cards are particularly enjoyable because they're an excellent example of colorized photos, a technique used before the invention of color photography.

Another cool characteristic of the T218 cards is the level of detailed information printed on the back of the cards.  They include a paragraph biography of the prize fighter as well as a recapped listing of his bouts; including their date, the opponent, the result and the length of the bout.

Another unique hallmark of the 153 card Mecca & Hassan Champion Athlete & Prize Fighter collection is that they included champion athletes from a wide array of the day's most popular sports, including aviation, track & field, swimming, billiards, golf and even roller skating.  Without a doubt, the 1910 Mecca & Hassan cards are a lasting mark of a very different time in America's sporting life.

Please click here to fill out the rest of your boxing card collections.

DeansCards.com Releases First eBook: Before there was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards

Contact: Elana Winget
e-mail: Elana@DeansCards.com
Phone: 513-898-0651
www.DeansCards.com

DeansCards.com Releases First eBook: Before there was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards

CINCINNATI, Ohio (April 20, 2011) – After six months of hard work, Dean Hanley of DeansCards.com, has published his very first eBook, chronicling the history of the Pre World War I baseball cards. With the help of co-author Allyson Hamlin, a Dean’s Cards employee who focuses the majority of her attention on these early cards every day, the duo has published a 50 page informational read on some of baseball’s earliest cards.

While Dean has been considered an “expert” within the vintage card field for several years now because of his numerous published articles, this is Allyson’s first major publication. She began working for Hanley when she was fifteen years old, and though she went away for college, she continued to work for him on her various breaks. She is now 23 years old, and a graduate of Indiana University. When she first went to work for Dean 8 years ago, Allyson simply sorted and sleeved cards, and pulled various orders in Deans basement office space. In recent years, Allyson has grown to love various aspects of the hobby, and has devoted much of her time researching the many Pre-World War I vintage sets out there. Only six short months ago, Allyson and Dean began compiling the book.

“There’s not a lot of information out there. All of the Pre-War players are deceased, as are the original buyers, leaving us with very few primary sources”, says Allyson. With that said, Allyson really had to scour the web and piece together a lot of tid-bits of information when writing this book. “I found a few pictures of packaging, I would zoom in on the picture to see who manufactured the package, and then researched the manufacturer. It was a lot of detective work”.

Initially, Allyson conducted this research in order to write short blog articles on the various Pre-War sets. When Dean saw how much work she had put into her research, he came to the conclusion that it would be wasteful not turn this valuable information into some sort of book that other collectors and baseball enthusiasts would enjoy. “Virtually no one knows about several of the sets discussed in this book. There’s just not much information out here on these early sets” says Hanley.

Before there was Bubble Gum: Our favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards discusses a variety of early cards, ranging from tobacco cards, to caramel cards, to cards issued with clothing, and everything in-between. The book is divided into sections, and each section is devoted to focusing on one type of card. The T-Card section for example, gives an overview of the T-Card industry as a whole, and then is further broken down by chapters. Each chapter contains information on one specific set of cards, and features numerous color pictures of the cards being discussed. The T206 chapter for example, discusses the various rare and common card backs found on the American Tobacco Company’s famed white-border cards.

Both Dean and Allyson put a lot of hard work into publishing this eBook, as well as the rest of the Dean’s Cards staff who edited the book and helped with the formatting. To learn more about the eBook, click here.

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1912 T207 Baseball Card Set

***The information in this article was used to write our ebook, Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Card Sets.  To purchase the ebook, please click here.***

Here at DeansCards.com, we have been lucky enough to see several dozen T207 baseball cards come through our doors. The T207 set, also commonly known as the brown background set, was manufactured by the tobacco industry giant, the American Tobacco Company, in 1912. Shortly after this set was printed, the American Tobacco Company would be dissolved due to a monopoly on tobacco.

There are several different backs that can be found on the T207 baseball cards. The most common is the Recruit back. We have several empty Recruit cigarette boxes in inventory now that are significantly smaller than modern day cigarette packs. Blank or anonymous backs are also somewhat common, depending on the factory number. Cycle, Broadleaf, and Napoleon are also rare backs that command a significantly higher price than the Recruit backs. The most expensive back is the Red Cross back, which was unknown to exist until a few years ago when a large lot of the cards were found. A few Mello-Mint backs, which take up the entire back of the cards, have also been discovered.

The T207 baseball cards measure 1½” by 2-5/8”. There are 200 cards total, six of which have variations that range from differences in cap color to the wrong back. One important aspect of the T207 set is that there are no major stars. However, that does not mean that there are not expensive cards within this set. Card #105 Irving Lewis has an A and B variation and both have very low populations. The A variation shows the original Boston Braves logo, while the B variation does not have a logo on his sleeve. Card #112 Louis Lowdermilk is the most expensive card in the set. Lowdermilk played only two years in the major leagues as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. Buck Weaver, one of the key players in the Black Sox scandal, is another expensive card in this set.

DeansCards.com is always looking to buy T207 baseball cards. If you are interested in selling T207 cards or any Pre-War baseball cards, please click here. If you would like to view our current inventory of T207 baseball cards, please click here.

1888-89 Allen & Ginter N28 and N29 Baseball Cards Sets

N28 Cap Anson

***The information in this article was used to write our ebook, Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Card Sets.  To purchase the ebook, please click here.***

The 1888-89 Allen & Ginter baseball card sets are some of the most popular Pre-War sets ever printed. Although known for being one of the earliest baseball cards sets, the manufacturers of the Allen & Ginter cards were more interested in printing cards of the World’s Champions in all sports, so baseball players make up only a fraction of the set. Topps continues to print modern Allen & Ginter cards using current baseball players and athletes of other sports. However, it is difficult to recreate the popularity of the original two sets released in 1888 and 1889.

N28 back

The Allen & Ginter Tobacco Company was originally established by John Allen and Lewis Ginter in Richmond, Virginia in 1875. The company played a key role in the development of the city of Richmond. In 1890, shortly after the Allen & Ginter sets were released, the Allen & Ginter tobacco firm was purchased by the American Tobacco Company, the tobacco industry leader.

The 1888 N28 Allen & Ginter baseball card set consisted of 50 cards, but only the first ten cards featured baseball players. The cards measure 1½” by 2¾” and include boxers, wrestlers, track stars, and even swimmers. The N28 cards can be distinguished by the Allen & Ginter advertisement on the front. The back of the card features a checklist that clarifies to which sport each person belongs.

N29 Buck Ewing

The 1889 N29 Allen & Ginter baseball card set also consists of 50 cards, but this time includes only six total baseball players. These cards have the same dimensions and N28, but a different checklist. The N29 baseball cards can be distinguished by the placement of the players’ positions and teams on the front of the card where the advertisement for Allen & Ginter tobacco used to be. The N29 Allen & Ginter cards also came with an album. The album is a large 6” by 8” with 14 pages designed to collect the Allen & Ginter cards from the cigarette packages.

DeansCards.com is always looking to purchase original Allen & Ginter cards. If you are interested in selling Allen & Ginter or any Pre-War baseball cards, please click here. If you are interested in viewing our Allen & Ginter reprints, please click here.

1888 N403 Yum Yum Tobacco Baseball Cards

***The information in this article was used to write our ebook, Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Card Sets.  To purchase the ebook, please click here.***

One of the most sought-after baseball card sets produced before the 20th century is the Yum Yum Tobacco N403 baseball card set. These cards remain difficult to find and expensive to collect.

The entire N403 set consists of 53 cards that measure 1⅜” by 2¾”. They were issued in 1888, around the same time as many of the other early cigarette and tobacco cards. The cards themselves are light photographic prints that are somewhat hard to distinguish from the ivory background. The cards are unnumbered and, like many other rare tobacco cards, have blank backs. The front of the cards has the advertising phrase “Smoke and Chew Yum Yum Tobacco” at the bottom. The cards have a similar design to the E223 G&B Chewing Gum set, which was the first candy card set ever made. Many of the players also have the same poses as the E223 cards.

The Yum Yum Tobacco cards were printed by August Beck & Company in Chicago. The wholesale tobacco and cigar manufacturer sold tins of tobacco and placed the cards at the bottom. There are two possible styles of card in the N403 set. The players are either sitting for a studio portrait or posing for a full-length action shot. The action shots are similar to many of the classic Old Judge cards. There are several variations in the N403 set that are differences in poses, usually a portrait versus an action shot.

DeansCards.com is always looking to buy Pre-War cards, including Yum Yum Tobacco baseball cards. If you are interested in selling Yum Yum Tobacco cards or any Pre-War baseball card, please click here. If you are interested in viewing our entire selection of Pre-War baseball cards, please click here.

1913 Fatima Teams T200

T200 Cleveland Naps

***The information in this article was used to write our ebook, Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Card Sets.  To purchase the ebook, please click here.***

DeansCards.com has been lucky enough to see a few 1913 Fatima Teams T200 cards in the past couple of years. These rare baseball cards are similar to some of the earliest baseball cards ever printed because they show a photo of the entire team instead of individual players. The entire set consists of only 16 cards. There are 8 National League and 8 American League teams represented. Each card measures 2⅝” by 5-13/16”. The players’ names are listed at the bottom of the photo, above the Fatima logo on the front.

The Fatima T200 set is also known to have been printed as premiums. The American Tobacco Company, which owned the Fatima brand at the time, had used the idea of premiums in the past with the Turkey Red cards. The Fatima premiums, however, are exceedingly rare and very expensive. The premiums measure a much larger 13” by 21” and were printed on glossy paper. The Fatima premiums could be obtained by sending in 40 Fatima cigarette coupons, which would have required a lot of smoking, considering that the Fatima packages held 100 cigarettes each.

The regular Fatima baseball cards were inserted into the Fatima cigarette tins. The Fatima brand name originally belonged to the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, which was purchased by the American Tobacco Company in 1897. When the American Tobacco Company’s monopoly was dissolved in 1911, the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company reappeared and began manufacturing Fatima cigarettes again. Liggett & Myers is still one of the largest American tobacco companies today.

The backs of the Fatima cards make them very easy to identify. They have the Fatima logo and the phrase “No gold tips but finest quality” at the top and then an explanation of how to obtain the Fatima premiums. Some of the more popular T200 cards include the Philadelphia A’s card, which features Hall-of-Famers Chief Bender, Eddie Collins, Connie Mack, Eddie Plank, and Home Run Baker. The Cleveland Naps card is also highly valuable because it includes Shoeless Joe Jackson. The New York Giants photo also features Jim Thorpe.

The T200 Fatima cards are some of the most interesting and historically valuable cards ever made. Here at DeansCards.com, we are always interested in buying T200 cards. If you are selling T200 cards or any other Pre-War cards, please click here. To view our T200 Fatima reprints, please click here.