Hunt's monthly auction is currently running and it consist of an incredible collection of vintage tobacco related memorabilia. Heck, it's one of the largest groupings of tobacco unopened packs, advertising displays, and other tobacco related collectibles I've ever seen. I kind of find the collection breathtaking.
On the other hand, I understand that this part of the hobby isn't PC in todays world- tobacco and all. Nevertheless, I still find it fascinating to see the packaging and the artwork that once contained collectible cards at the turn of the last century. These items ushered in a new hobby that would be followed throughout the country, and would eventually spawn a industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the auction, several of the lots pair up a vintage pack with an example of the vintage Baseball card that could be found within it. There are various 1909-11 T206 packs:
They even have more obscure packs like
Mecca Cigarettes that had T201's,
OBAK pack with held T212 cards,
Old Judge pack with N172's, a
Dog's Head pack that had non-sports cards in it, and a
Allen & Ginter pack with a N28.
Like I said, it's an incredible array of collectibles pointing to the origins of the card hobby.
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There were some items in the auction that I though would be of interest to Dodger fans. Below are a couple of unopened packs of Red Man Tobacco from 1954. As vintage card collectors will know, Red Man produced a set of cards that season that were much larger than the typical Baseball card made by Topps and featured a colored drawing of 54 different Major League ballplayers. As you can see they cellophane wrapped the packs with the Baseball card visible on the outside.
In the
pack below it features Brooklyn Dodger infielder Billy Cox. This pack looks a little rough around the edges as it appears to be toned and peeling a little bit.
Here is one of the nicest one's I've ever seen. This
pack has World Series hero Jim Gilliam. It looks brand new.
The Dodgers announced on twitter that they just signed Clayton Kershaw to a two year deal. This contract only takes up a couple of Clayton's arbitration years, but looks reasonably priced. Dylan Hernandez has the details:
As Chad Moriyama points out, this deal is less than the two year deal Tim Lincecum received at this time of his career. I say that this alone makes this contract a big win for the Dodgers.
Here are the Dodgers at their first stop on the 2012 Dodgers Caravan tour this morning at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. (Pic via @Dodgers Twitter)
Like I said, it's an incredible array of collectibles pointing to the origins of the card hobby.
With it almost a week into the 2012 Topps Baseball madness, I am sure many of you have already seen this card, or others like it. It is a limited insert card found in packs that feature 15 different Golden Greats along with a golden colored coin embedded with it. This is the Sandy Koufax coin insert card and, as you can see, is numbered to only 32 copies.