Questions on baseball cards cost back when?
 

How much did T-206 cards cost in 1909-1911? Were the t-205 a more expensive packs? Were kids able to purchase the tobacco card products?


How much did the Goudey packs cost in 1933? Were regular depression era kids able to afford the cards or was it just for the upper class?


Any informational help would be great. Have a nice day.

This thread has a lot of good contemporary accounts of collecting tobacco cards when they first came out. They were inserted into packs of 10 cigarettes that I think cost a dime.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=246121

Here are accounts by Wirt Gammon and John Wagner of collecting T206s as a kid:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=217635
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=207915

These threads have firsthand accounts of collecting cards in the 1930s. They came in packs that had a piece of gum and one card for a penny, and were collected by kids of all economic levels.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219310
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219683

Also, these articles have memories of collecting cards in the 1880s:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=202129
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=239836

How many times I’ve heard or read that kids back in the early days of collecting didn’t care about the condition of their cards yet in the first article this guys recounting how he didn’t like flipping his cigarette picture cards because it would ding the corners and ruin the cards.

It's entirely probably that, although most kids didn't care about condition back then, there were those who liked to take care of their cards.