Pirate Cigarettes on eBay

[rdwyer]

The pack is opened. Wouldn't take the chance myself, because the foil could've been opened and refolded. Maybe Jon can chime in, but I would think that the packs were issued over many years here and there.

[Jeffrompa]

Thought it was a bit of a gamble also . If it's a baseball card well worth it .

[steve B]

Apparently the distribution was fairly wide for such an uncommon brand. I bought a pack outer sleeve since it's as close as I'll probably get. Mine is from Holland and has their tax stamp. I'm not sure about the year, but it's a neat item with interesting graphics.

Steve B

[1880nonsports]

As there are VERY few surviving DUPLICATES of the Pirate baseball cards after accounting for the only known set (90+ cards sold for about 10,000. each) - and no proof has ever been offered with regard to them actually being distributed - it seems fairly easy to conclude not a single one ever made it's way into a pack. To begin with the window in which these cards (and most cards) were produced and distributed was small. Even if one was able to tie the tax stamp and cancel to the proper verified date of insertion - my guess is that the pack would likely be marked differently in some manner to differentiate it as the intent was supposedly our boys overseas.
For me it's all moot as the value is little if a pack shows ANY evidence that it might at any time have been opened regardless of the intent or if it's just possible based on the physical condition. If a pack is SEALED - the value is in the sizzle and not the steak. The mystery is what it's all about. If you open it the value is in whatever is or isn't in there. While one can't discount scarcity and condition, value is often dependent on the attributional characteristics like stamping, configuration, factory/district information. They define the relationship between product and manufacture - those that most accurately reflect that - the smallest leap of faith - tend to get the bigger bucks.

no guarantees whether written or implied.

However

If someone could show me visual and verifiable proof of a pirate baseball card being pulled from a pack

I'll buy and eat it

and the next net54 dinner is on me. Seriously.........

[1880nonsports]

Richard I wasn't aware that Pirate cigarettes were distributed here? I probably should revisit the big auction or perhaps Lipset's book? I don't really follow this subject anymore although I try and pickup information and a pack or two when I can - where did you hear that? Hard to figure I would have forgotten that but anything is possible.

[ethicsprof]

the best I can offer you for support of your theory is anecdotal corroboration(oxymoronic at best).
My pirates pack contained air.

all the best,
barry

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by ethicsprof

...anecdotal corroboration(oxymoronic...

Possibly the coolest word trifecta ever!

[1880nonsports]

before you opened it - did it feel like there might be a card in there as has been told to me previously by two different reliable people with regard to such a pack they had in hand? I believe both people when they say something, I trust both people, but this is still me doubting even a chinese character card is nestled inside either pack. WITHOUT FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE (or something damn close) of any card being pulled out of any pack - I will forever be skeptical. My response to them was that it's probably the resultant folding of parts of the inner sleeve when constructing the pack and after that if anything at all I suppose a card or coupon is possible. Without question there won't be a ball player on it and doubtful even a chinese character. I suppose if the character cards came in a soft pack (doubt it) one might be able to feel something - I don't think you can "feel" a card that likely was distributed in a slide and shell pack. Foreign packs often employed the slide and shell packaging system long after it fell out of favor in the US so dating packs of that nature requires a study of the packaging and verbiage as it evolved over time moreso than on US manufactured packs.
As an aside - this is a good time to appologise to you Barry (should you come across this) for not answering a question quite a while back that you posed about the forces behind my somewhat eclectic accumulation.
I struggled at the time to find a way to explain it in less than 600+ pages but without the aid of my attending psychiatrist to get me over the rough spots and given I was in excess of my posting limit I just let it go. I'm inclined to respond now that I'm already here wasting time but I warn you my posts are usually governed strictly by a rolling stream of consciouness.
Simply put I guess my collection is about the celebration of the organic beauty inherent in objects and remnents of living things primarily from ancient times, juxtaposed with the art and beauty of the more recent but still old and antique objects and advertising (1860-1920) whose longevity and preservation was primarily dependent on their beauty and rarely their utility.
I collected NOTHING before the early 90's. Then I collected EVERYTHING. Now I am trying to hold steady......The fossils, gems, minerals, shells, quills, ammonites, and more are all a part of that once living world in which I still see beauty and wonder. The other half of the puzzle began with collecting cards and eventually morphed into a more global undertaking as I became interested in the history as well as ancillary graphic and three dimensional pieces associated with the companies who produced and distributed the earliest cards. Although I went afield a couple of times I maintain my original focus to frame my adventure under the umberella of tobacco as art. Tobacco seemed a good choice because some facet of tobacco distribution, production, sales, or manufacture was important in almost every aspect of life and commerce in the mid to late 1800's which provided lots of history - and plenty of tie-ins to base ball and other sports. In terms of tangibles there was and still is a good deal of tobacco related material out there to allow for a wide variety of pathways to follow and opportunities for more frequent acquisitions.
I suppose it was a little happenstance as well but the best part of having settled on a "category" for me is that it allowed for some kind of boundary to mitigate my genetic predisposition to accumulate anything and everything I found interesting. All that being said - unfortunately some of my tangents were driven by something at the time that I no longer connect with in the same way. With some things - in fact many things - it's no longer nessesary to own them to appreciate them - the experience was sufficient. They however remain with me in part because they are my children (after all I bought them as they had elements I appreciated aethetically or historically) and in part because I need an acceptible circumstance for their exchange.
Giving up at this point as I tried to make this short but obviously I've been only been somewhat successful . It took too much time to write this to just throw it out. I guess it can be cathartic at times and oppresive at others to look inside and examine ourselves and the motivations for what we do - especially when the motivation for one's actions are primarily self-centered. My hobby helps to keep me grounded although there's always something that comes up and makes me a little crazy. It can be crazier to put one's self out on a chat board uncensored. I'm not well..........