Vintage non-sport Cards

I love the old time tobacco cards. While I feel sports cards reached their peak years in the early 1990s, non-sports cards' glory years were before World War II. I didn't pick up many but I did add a couple. Presented in chronological order of release.

1910 American Tobacco Company Fish Series. My first card from the set, I didn't really think a lobster was a fish but what do I know. I've always been a fan of lobsters...every time I see them in the tank at the grocery store I want to buy them all and release them back into the ocean. I have a Soverign back here.

Think Topps Now/Panini Instant is a new concept? Think again. This set, from the American Tobacco Company, issued two new cards a day in the early days of World War I, in 1914-15. This is the 219th card in the series, and features a painted photograph of the Russian Artillery. The condition is poor, but I don't mind. My first card of the series.This is a Sweet Caporal back.

 1929 Player's Hidden Beauties. Believe it or not this is my 6th card from this set! I never would have imagined I'd ever be able to build a set from 1929...or that I'd have completed an older one...but as it turns out vintage non-sports cards are actually very affordable if you know where to look. With only 30 cards in this set, I'm starting to think I might one day actually complete it.

 1936 Player's International Air Liners. This "feels" like a Player card, but there is no marking as to manufacturer at all. That seems odd because all my other Player cards are clearly marked as such, but there's a LOT more I don't know about the era than I do. This is my first card from the set.

 1939 Player's Modern Naval Craft. My first card from the set. I've never been on a boat ride, but as I've mentioned before, I love ships

 1942 Gum, Inc. War Gum #85. My 9th card from the set, which I've posted about before. I had no idea this set existed until I found some for sale. Her name is Liudmila Pavlichenko. She had an interesting life, and was the first person from the Soviet Union to visit the White House.

1950 Topps Freedom's War. One of the military history sets that I was missing from my collection, I had to add a card from it...COMC did not have many and most I felt were a bit overpriced for condition (IE, Dean's Cards style) but this one was not. I do wish Topps had not put the caption on crooked, but it's a minor quibble. Since I got this one, there have been a LOT of cards from the set posted to COMC...over 300 listings at the time of my writing this, August 20th. When I bought this card there were, I think, less than 10, but it was back in 2016 sometime so I don't remember for sure. Many of the new listings are much better price wise and I will probably pick up a few more in time. Most of the cards in the set feature drawings but this one is an actual photograph.

And that's all for this post. Still a few more from the COMC order to go. Hopefully there will be more vintage non-sport in the near future.

Sets in my Collection #8 - 1929 Player's Hidden Beauties

I have been slacking on posting my Sets in my collection. Today is October 15th and I've only done one so far this month! I have not been really motivated to write too much- and it shows. I have so many things I want to write about- just getting the motivation to do it is not always easy. I sat looking at a blank white screen before I decided if I wanted to post in the Sets series, or start a new series I have been slowly working up to that will require a lot more work on my end, and lots of research, but the research involves looking at lots of cards, so it's not unenjoyable. In the end I realized I didn't have the motivation to do a large post, so a Sets post it is. It's already Thursday and I haven't even started this week's roundup Hot off the Scanner Tray yet...

Anyway...

Set #8 is from 1929, and was issued by Player, a major British tobacco firm.

I received this card as a gift from a member of the Non-Sports forum several years back, after I posted that my main goal was to get a tobacco card. I just stopped posting on all the forums at the conclusion of 2013, and I have not been back since. I really should go back to some- I do miss some of them. (It isn't just blog posting I have trouble maintaining).

The set is 25 cards, tobacco standard size. I have only this one card.

Each card highlights something microscopic, a cool concept for a card set that worked in the early days but wouldn't get off the drawing board now- perhaps as an insert in Allen & Ginter but it's own standalone set? Not a chance.