Research

Most vintage baseball card collectors have chosen a type card as their favorite (or even a couple), and this has sometimes lead them to take on the challenge of set collecting.

My question is, how far beyond the card, or the player on the card do you research? Have you ever tried to research the company that put out the card, and if so what have you found? Where do you look?

I'd be interested in hearing some information about any of the companies that put out the different "T" and "E" cards, that you have and that you'd be willing to share.

I've thought about getting into the research behind Kotton Cigarettes, but I guess I wouldn't know where to even begin.

I did some back in the 80s, but nothing to extensive. Mark Macrae on the other hand has pretty extensive knowledge about various PCL set issuers. I've some the company related stuff he has in regards to Zeenuts (Collins McCarthy was the maker) and its pretty neat. Hopefully he will chime in and share some it and how he goes about his research.

Jay

Scott Mosley and I have both done a bit of research about the Croft's and Allen Company that put out E92 Crofts Cocoa and Crofts Candy cards. I have also done some research on the People's Tobacco Company which produced the T216 Kotton Mino and Virgina Extra issues. Not enough to write an article yet, but a little.

It is not really a card manufacturer, but I did quite a bit of research on the "Toy Town Post Office" stamp that is found on many T and E cards. My findings were published in Issue #15 of Old Cardboard.

The Toy Town research that Richard did was excellent and in my opinion changed the way collectors thought about the issue.

Background research on companies begins with information that we already know...(Example...year of issue, likely areas of distribution, subject matter).. A trip to the library (sometimes online) you can start searching annual city directories (early comparables to phone books, but have more info). Advanced researching for players or individuals can lead you to tax records, voter registrations, state birth & death indexes, draft registration cards, etc. It's important to never rely on a single source of information. Often times "Official' information is wrong (The Social Security Death index lists the location of my father's death over 1000 miles from where it happened). Never rule out any areas for assistance. Longtime collectors of tobacco memorabilia may have extensive knowledge on a specific area, say Obak cigarettes, not related specifically to the cards, but information that can help sports collectors understand about the marketing practices or product distribution area....Mark

Thanks Mark. Your contributions are always appreciated and a great help.

Jay

rman444 wrote:Scott Mosley and I have both done a bit of research about the Croft's and Allen Company that put out E92 Crofts Cocoa and Crofts Candy cards.

Richard is correct that I've spent a fair amount of time gathering whatever information I can find regarding Croft & Allen and, more specifically, Montague & Company which were the advertisers behind the Crofts Cocoa E92 issue. I happen to live in the Philadelphia area and both of these companies were Philadelphia based companies so they are of particular interest to me.

One of the most interesting things, at least to me, is that I discovered that Montague & Company was run by four women (all sisters) and that at least one of the Montague women got their start as an employee of Croft & Allen.

As I worked on collecting an all Crofts Cocoa E92 set, a goal which I haven't quite reached as of yet, I found that I got a lot of enjoyment in trying to find information and items related to either of the two companies.

Visits to a library which contains city directories and/or newspapers from the particular town where the company existed is a big help. In my particular case, my proximity to Philadelphia is a huge advantage as there is a historical society in center city which I frequent which has a good archive of these type of resources.

Scott

p.s. - I'd also like to commend Richard for his work in researching the Toy Town stamp as that was an excellent and informative article that he published.

I have made a couple of attempts at doing research on the T202 Hassan Triple Folder set. Each time I have hit a dead end. If anyone has any information on the manufacturing of these cards I would love to hear it. Brian Hodes and myself helped Lyman (Old Cardboard) write an article for Old Cardboard. I think this information only scratched the surface. The journey is always great fun but frustrating at times.

Lee

Absolutely have researched companies of several rare issues. If you can get your hands on the old VCBC magazines, please read the 1894 Alpha Photo Engraving article that my good friend Tom Lawrie wrote for me. He did a lot of the research but picked up where I left off and it is an amazing article! I loved that magazine.