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 #23: 1942 Gum Inc. War Gum

Nearing the end of a HUGE project. Details hopefully tomorrow, by the weekend for sure. Since I don't have the time to look at the boxes of cards I've gotten, or to type up another post in my NBA encyclopedia, here is a post in my Sets in my collection series that I wrote up back in 2015 and has been sitting in my queue ever since.

This is a pretty spectacular set. It's 132 cards and it was issued right in the midst of World War II. Remember my comments on the 1939 World in Arms set? Well, Gum Inc. has changed it's tune, now going all-out for the war effort...the USA was now at war with Germany, Japan and Italy. While still mostly objective, current slang terms now appeared on the cards, especially in regards to the Japanese.

It's also a large set for that time period, at 132 cards. I have 9 of them. (6.8% according to the Database) This is another set I want to complete some day. As a history buff and a card nut, this set is a clear favorite of mine.

Here are two card fronts, and one back. I couldn't post just one!

#66

#70

Note also the "Buy War Bonds and Stamps for VICTORY" on the bottom of the card.

Cards are slightly smaller than current standard size, but that appears to have been Gum, Inc's standard at the time as all three sets I have from the company are the same size. Gum, Inc, of course, later became known as Bowman; but the card size in the Bowman era was different.

I actually didn't know this set existed until I added it to my collection. I had mistakenly believed I was purchasing Horrors of War- known as the king of non-sports sets (also produced by Gum, Inc, in 1937) and not realizing the truth until I got home and started researching it online. While Horrors of War is still high on my wantlist (I don't have any yet) it actually turns out that had I known this set existed, it would have actually ranked higher on my list of sets wanted for my collection! (Between writing this in November 2015 and now I've added three Horrors of War to my collection)