1503# Old Baseball Card Photographs - Brown Backgrounds (T207) Series - Super High Resolution (2-DVD Set)

Old Baseball Card Photographs - Brown Backgrounds (T207) Series - Super High Resolution (2-DVD Set)

Over 175+ scans of vintage T-207 Brown Background baseball cards issued by the Cycle Cigarette Company, the Recruit Little Cigar Company and the Broadleaf Cigarette Company in 1912 make up the contents of this rare and priceless 2-DVD set. The history of tobacco and cigarettes is a long one. It is believed that tobacco was offered to Columbus in 1642, but he threw away what he called "Certain Dried Leaves". A quarter of a century later, Juan De Grijalva observed native Indians smoking the tobacco leaf. It was General Israel Putnam who introduced cigar smoking in America in 1762. Eight years later, the first tobacco shop in the United States - the Demuth Tobacco shop, was opened at 114 E. King St., Lancaster, PA.

Interestingly, the credit for inventing cigarettes goes to an Egyptian artilleryman (name not known). During the siege of Acre in 1832, the Egyptian´s cannon crew was rewarded with a pound of tobacco for their outstanding performance. Their only pipe was broken, so they took to rolling the pipe tobacco in paper tubes.

The year 1860 is a memorable one for cigarette smokers, because it was in this year that manufactured cigarettes first made their appearance in the United States. Bull Durham, a popular brand, commanded 90% of the market. Four years later, the first American cigarette factory opened and produced almost 20 million cigarettes annually. By 1875, several cigarette manufacturing companies had sprung up in the United States, leading to ruthless competition. It was at this juncture that two Allen & Ginter cigarette brands, Richmond Straight Cut No. 1 and Pet began using picture cards to stiffen the pack and protect the cigarettes. The cards with photos of actresses, baseball players, Indian Chiefs and boxers were enormously successful and represent the first modern promotion scheme for a manufactured product.

The popularity of cigarettes grew despite various laws and bans which attempted to abolish smoking. In fact in 1901 alone, 3.5 billion cigarettes and 6 billion cigars were sold across the country. Four in five American men smoked at least one cigar a day. By this time competition for a share of the limited market for cigarettes grew rapidly and many cigarette manufacturers took to advertising their brands by inserting colorful baseball card in cigarette cases.

Several cards from this era have been preserved by collectors and serve as delightful reminders of baseball’s early history.

Sample thumbnails taken from the collection. Click on image to view larger picture.

CONTENTS:

This 2-DVD set features no less than 178 invaluable scans of T-207 cards issued by the Cycle Cigarette Company, the Recruit Little Cigar Company and the Broadleaf Cigarette Company in 1912. Popularly known as the Brown Backgrounds because of the color of the background, these cards are among the more difficult ones to locate. Half the images seen here are scans of lithographs of baseball legends such as Delvin & Kirke (Boston National), Tooly (Brooklyn Nationals) and McIntire (Chicago), while the other half are scans of the reverse side of the cards, featuring biographies of the players.

EDITORIAL REVIEW:

It is difficult to explain why people become baseball card collectors. Some are in it for the sheer joy of having an album full of their favorite baseball stars’ pictures, others because they are die-hard baseball fans, while some are in it for the lucrative business opportunity this hobby represents. Whatever be the motivation, card collection by no means is an easy task. It could take hours, days and at times years to build up a sizable collection and costs a pretty penny as well.

The cards featured in this fabulous 2-DVD set date back to 1912. This naturally tags them as being vintage and priceless. They say that time and tide wait for no one and vintage baseball cards are no exception. Only a handful of cards are in circulation today, most having been sacrificed on the alter of negligence and ignorance.

This DVD collection has done baseball fans a huge service by preserving no less than 178 scans of original baseball cards from the T-207 series on DVD! This act has many benefits for card collectors. First up, it saves hours of searching. Secondly, it makes the hobby affordable thereby encouraging participation. Thirdly, the scans serve to preserve these images for an infinite period in a convenient, easy to store manner. Fourthly, these images are printable and open the possibility of building a hard copy album or using the pictures as ornate wall hangings. Since cards from the T-207 series are not always easy to locate, owning this DVD gives the collector a definite edge over regular card collectors. Last but not the least, these cards are wonderful reminders of the marketing ingenuity of cigarette manufacturers at the beginning of the 20th century.

If you are a baseball card enthusiast, add this 2-DVD set to your collection today. It is priceless.

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