New here and looking for info....

I just found your site as I recently picked up some late 1800's to early 1900's tobacco cards. They are not baseball cards, and I realize that this site is dedicated to sports cards, but this is literally the only site I have found that deals specifically with vintage cards and I was hoping to get some information.

I picked these up at the shop the other day and I'm thinking of picking up some more, but first I want to know if these are worth picking up at all.

Welcome to the forum, kharmon. Well the good news on your cards is that they're very old (1887-1889 range), authentic, and collectible. So if you enjoy collecting these, they are worth picking up.

Value wise though, you're not going to make a bundle on these if you're looking to resell. Actress cards from that era are abundant but not widely collected, so it's a case where supply outweighs demand more often than not, and prices are resultingly quite low. You can probably find cards like those on ebay for around $5 a pop.

Hope this helps a bit - I'm sure a few others will chime in as well. Let us know if you have any other questions.

For actresses I prefer the Duke cards. They use much better photos than OJs and are larger. There is a decent non-sports market out there and a number of people that frequent this board also collect them. There are certain sets that are very popular like those featuring Native Americans, politicians and law enforcement. Keep checking back, I'm sure one of these collectors will chime in and help you out.

Jay

I appreciate the help guys, I picked them up because I thought they were cool.....about as vintage as I got prior to these is my 1961-71 Washington Senators collection which is a massive work in progress.

I'm didn't get these for resale.....my wife has been looking for a collecting interest since I introduced her into the hobby and sports just isn't her thing. I'm also in the process of picking up some 1930's and 1940's actor post cards and studio photos....picked up a REAL nice Clark Gable with Jenna Davies post card the other day.

What you have there are N245 cards. Most N245's exhibit Sweet Caporal (kinney Bros.) backs, but they are found with a lot of different companies on the back, with Duke being the second most common. The $5 price quoted above is pretty dead-on with this series (probably the most common of all 19th Century Tobacco cards w/ over 3,000 different subjects reported), although more obscure brands would bring more money to type-collectors.

**Just FYI** N245 is the card collectors code-name for that particular set.

Hope this helps,
-Rhett Yeakley

A site which specializes in pre-war non-sports cards is:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/526604/
Their site contains a Gallery Section which displays many different non-sport card sets, as well as b/s/t, discussion and other sections; like this Full Count has.