Collectors with an appreciation for baseball history have been head over heels in love with the T206 set for years.
The iconic set of cards, issued one per pack of American Tobacco Company produced cigarettes, has quietly turned 100 years old.
The colorful images of well-known and not-so-famous ballplayers are hard to resist for those who appreciate the game.
Surprisingly, many of these cards are still very affordable.
T206 cards were among the first promotional gimmicks utilized by 20th century tobacco makers, a concept that married the wildly popular game of baseball with efforts to turn more young men into smokers and keep steady customers buying their product.
They were an instant hit.
Newspaper accounts of their arrival indicate kids chased down the cards however they could, asking adults for them and even buying them from smoke shops and newsstands not yet tuned in to the modern era warnings about smoking and one's health.
Early card collectors began compiling checklists of the cards that were issued.
The current count is 504 with major and minor leaguers represented and some players having multiple cards.
Unlike today's cards, there were no statistics on the backs-just the ads.
Issued over a three year period, from 1909-1911, the cards were among the first that serious adult collectors began examining and cataloging during the late first half of the 20th century.
Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and other greats are included, but the most famous baseball card of all is the elusive star of the set.
Honus Wagner, as the story goes, didn't want kids chasing his card in packs of cigarettes and asked that his picture be removed.
It was and today less than 100 are believed to exist.
Even poor grade examples sell for over $100,000.
Not long ago, a collector paid $2.
8 million for the highest-graded example, one some card scholars believe was cut from a sheet long after it was produced.
Eddie Plank is another rare card from the set as is the Sherry "Magee" error card.
Tobacco cards were basically designed to provide a stiff element of support to the cigarettes wouldn't get crushed.
Debuting in the 19th century, they quickly evolved into collectible entities and boosted product sales.
T206 cards were important in another respect.
They did what newspapers of the day could not: put faces to the names fans saw in print every day.
In an era long before fans knew everything about players, the cards were a godsend to fans.
Today, T206 baseball cards can range in price from a few dollars for common minor leaguers in low grade to tens of thousands of dollars for star cards in high grade-and on to Wagner, considered the 'holy grail'.
They're not easy to find, of course.
Over 100 years, many have been lost or ruined.
Yet dozens are available each day online, enabling historians and baseball fans to grab a little piece of history.
The iconic set of cards, issued one per pack of American Tobacco Company produced cigarettes, has quietly turned 100 years old.
The colorful images of well-known and not-so-famous ballplayers are hard to resist for those who appreciate the game.
Surprisingly, many of these cards are still very affordable.
T206 cards were among the first promotional gimmicks utilized by 20th century tobacco makers, a concept that married the wildly popular game of baseball with efforts to turn more young men into smokers and keep steady customers buying their product.
They were an instant hit.
Newspaper accounts of their arrival indicate kids chased down the cards however they could, asking adults for them and even buying them from smoke shops and newsstands not yet tuned in to the modern era warnings about smoking and one's health.
Early card collectors began compiling checklists of the cards that were issued.
The current count is 504 with major and minor leaguers represented and some players having multiple cards.
Unlike today's cards, there were no statistics on the backs-just the ads.
Issued over a three year period, from 1909-1911, the cards were among the first that serious adult collectors began examining and cataloging during the late first half of the 20th century.
Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and other greats are included, but the most famous baseball card of all is the elusive star of the set.
Honus Wagner, as the story goes, didn't want kids chasing his card in packs of cigarettes and asked that his picture be removed.
It was and today less than 100 are believed to exist.
Even poor grade examples sell for over $100,000.
Not long ago, a collector paid $2.
8 million for the highest-graded example, one some card scholars believe was cut from a sheet long after it was produced.
Eddie Plank is another rare card from the set as is the Sherry "Magee" error card.
Tobacco cards were basically designed to provide a stiff element of support to the cigarettes wouldn't get crushed.
Debuting in the 19th century, they quickly evolved into collectible entities and boosted product sales.
T206 cards were important in another respect.
They did what newspapers of the day could not: put faces to the names fans saw in print every day.
In an era long before fans knew everything about players, the cards were a godsend to fans.
Today, T206 baseball cards can range in price from a few dollars for common minor leaguers in low grade to tens of thousands of dollars for star cards in high grade-and on to Wagner, considered the 'holy grail'.
They're not easy to find, of course.
Over 100 years, many have been lost or ruined.
Yet dozens are available each day online, enabling historians and baseball fans to grab a little piece of history.
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