Baseball Cigarette and Tobacco Packs...

I wanted to make the announcement here as well...

As most everyone on this board already knows, one of my major focuses in this hobby is on baseball related cigarette and tobacco packs. Over the last year or so, I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in the number of collectors who share my enthusiasm for this little niche of the hobby. While some may not focus their collection around empty cigarette or tobacco packs, there are numerous people who have added a few or many to their collections. I constantly get emails and phone calls from other collectors who are looking for advice or have questions regarding cigarette and tobacco packs. It was with this in mind when I realized there really isn’t a lot of information on the web regarding cigarette and tobacco packs that once held baseball cards, and the little bit of information is available certainly not centralized. So, I’d like to introduce the following (both addresses lead to the same site; I just decided to purchase both URLs):

http://www.baseballandtobacco.com
http://www.baseballcigarettes.com

Over the last month or so, I’ve been patiently writing html code as a framework for this site. Last week, I purchased the domains and hosting services and since then, I’ve been working on uploading the pages I had been creating. While the site is probably about 90% operational at this point, I felt it’s time for an introduction but I apologize in advance for any missing links that you may encounter (these broken links will only be on the “Cigarette Boxes and Tobacco Packs” page and are missing due to me not having written those pages as of yet).

There are really two main sections to this website; the first is a research center that discusses how to date a cigarette pack as well as providing the corresponding factory, district and state codes for each set. The second section is the section entitled “Cigarette Boxes and Tobacco Packs” and contains correct scans of virtually every cigarette or tobacco package used in the distribution of cards organized (by ACC#) from 1886-1933.

As I continue to work on this site, I appreciate any and all suggestions and comments. Also, you will note that each set has a short summary. Should anyone who specializes in a particular set choose to suggest a better overview of that set, I would welcome the edits.

I think you answered a lot of questions I had had about how much packs are worth.
One thing that I think you should fix is that your site says t205's were distributed in Carolina Bright's packs. Carolina Bright's did not advertise on t205's.
Other than that the site looks great.


-Randy

John, thank you very much for providing this information.

Jay

Randy - thanks for pointing out my error. It has been updated. I also want to encourage those who are interested in this sort of memorabilia to sign up for the mailing list. It is linked on the main page, Cigarette and Tobacco Pack page, and For Sale page.

- Jon

A significant contribution to a niche of collecting that many of us (myself included) are pretty clueless about. I'm sure many people will benefit from your research and efforts on the website, Jon. Thanks!

Jon,

I just made a post on my blog about your site and think it's awesome. Great work in an area that really needed an authoritative dedicated site for reference. I think we all very much appreciate your work in this niche.

AndyH

Andy (and everyone else who contacted me),

Thanks so much for the kind words. I know the site may not be needed as a reference by a lot of collectors, but there are certainly a good number of those out there who I think can benefit from having a centralized source of information and images on cigarette packs.

As of a few minutes ago, I technically "finished" the site in that all pages have been uploaded and all links should be working. However, the site will truly never be finished as I intend to try and fill in some gaps, correct errors or omissions, and constantly evolve the site to include more information and more descriptive resources. In fact, I've already had requestes to add "S" premiums (such as Turkish Trophies) and will work on that in the upcoming days.

Again, thanks to all.