Incredibly Rare Cigarette Pack Discovery

canjond · #1 09-30-2018, 11:12 PM

Thanks Rhett. I assume the Stanley Cup image is a scan of the actual Stanley Cup card from the set and not the back of the cigarette box?

oldjudge · #2 09-30-2018, 11:33 PM

Great find, Jon. Congratulations! Are you almost complete now on your pack collection?

canjond · #3 09-30-2018, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Great find, Jon. Congratulations! Are you almost complete now on your pack collection?

Thanks Jay. I'm slowly getting closer. There's only a handful that I know exist that I'm still missing (Mono, TTT, Uzit and a couple others).

Jobu · #4 10-01-2018, 12:02 AM

Very nice, I am happy to see you able to add this to your collection. Congrats!

Do you have scans of the T231 cards you can post?

canjond · #5 10-01-2018, 12:08 AM

Here�s an example.

WillowGrove · #6 10-01-2018, 08:17 AM

Huge congrats to you Jon. How great was getting that letter in the mail? Really happy that pack is getting to your collection.

irv · #7 10-01-2018, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by canjond

Apologies for not posting this in the "tobacco pack" thread, but I wanted to share a very exciting discovery with the Board. As many of you know, I have been collecting baseball related cigarette packs for 25+ years now. Although my collection is pretty advance, there are still a handful of packs I've never come across, so it makes adding to my collection incredibly difficult. I'm at the point now that the 10-15 remaining packs I need are either unknown, or there is only a handful of copies that exist, and those reside in collections of old-timers or the whereabouts of the packs have been lost to time. The pack below is one such example.

To say that T231 Fan cigarettes cards are rare is an understatement. In fact, to date, only 3 examples of the cards have ever surfaced, Frank Baker, Larry Gardner and Carson Bigbee. What's incredible, however, is that about 15 years ago while doing research on the brand, I came across an old black and white photocopy of a Fans cigarette pack. It had appeared on the front cover of a cigarette newsletter in 1984. In an effort to track the box down, I contacted the publisher of the newsletter, many advanced cigarette pack collectors, and literally anyone else I could think of, but to no avail - no one had ever seen the pack beyond the newsletter, or knew what had happened to the gentleman's collection that was featured. I've been on the lookout for the pack ever since, and until recently, had resided myself to the real possibility that I'd never find it.

Fast forward to last week. Out of the blue, I received a letter in the mail (not email!) from a gentleman who ended up with the pack 40+ years ago. After some negotiation, we arrived at a price (a very steep price!), but the pack is now mine. The inner slide is missing, but the condition is incredible. So, for the first time, here is a picture of a T231 Fans cigarette box. I hope others can appreciate the pack as much as I do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhettyeakley

I only have the very small image in board member Bobby Burrell's "Vintage Hockey Collector" guide book. I will copy the tiny image from there here, if he wants me to take it down I will but it is the only copy I have ever seen of it...

The set includes a card of the Stanley Cup itself as well and has been on my wantlist for years without seeing one for sale. One of the best Hockey sets ever made in my opinion.

Complete Set of the C144 Champ's Cigarettes Hockey Set that sold several years ago at Heritage (check out the Stanley Cup card):
https://sports.ha.com/itm/hockey-car...a/7024-80064.s

Stanley Cup card alone:
https://sports.ha.com/itm/hockey/192...Results-012417

I don't want to hijack your thread but here are some of the C140 Canadian Athlete Series, this is BY FAR the most difficult of the various Mixed Sport Athlete sets from the early 1920's in Canada (the other being V122 Willard's Chocolate and V31 Dominion Chocolate), the backs are somewhat on topic as they feature coupons for discounts for sporting goods (often baseball) which may account for their rarity today...

2 great stories in one.

Congrats to the OP. One heck of a P/U for you!

Thanks to Rhett as well for sharing that hockey card info.

rhettyeakley · #8 09-30-2018, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by canjond

Thanks Rhett. I assume the Stanley Cup image is a scan of the actual Stanley Cup card from the set and not the back of the cigarette box?

The Stanley Cup pictured above from Bobby's book is on the box (the back, I'd assume). One of the links I posted above features the card from the set (which has a gold color look to it)

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