Distribution of 19th century baseball cards

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Posted By: will watson

hello everyone,

i have a question that i haven't seen discussed before. it involves the distribution of 19th century (and even early 20th century) baseball cards. not how they were distributed - it's common knowledge that most cards, if not all, came from tobacco products. my question is where they were distributed. i assume that the highest concentration would be found in the northeastern United States, since most cigarette manufacturers were located around there. does anyone know if they were distributed nationwide (especially to regions where there were no baseball teams), or only in certain areas of the country?

i wonder this because of a recent conversation between my friends and i - if you could time travel to any time and any place in history, where would you go? some people said the Stone Age, some said the time when Jesus was around, some said WW2....not me. i would travel back to the late 1800's, find the closest tobacco vendor, and simply buy the place out.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Some very rare issues, like Just So, were regional and available around Cleveland. Larger issues like Old Judge and Allen and Ginter were more nationally distributed but my guess is most were east of the Mississippi. Since there were California League issues then that state had its own distribution. Middle of the country, I bet you couldn't find much of anything. I think a city would need to be near a major league team. Some of this is guesswork.

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Posted By: Rhett Yeakley

I know that Old Judges were distributed at least as far west as Omaha. Several years back there was a guy who found nearly the entire Omaha team in the form of Old Judge Cabinets (with ads removed). They originated from an estate within Omaha. So they guy obviously had access to the cigs to send in his coupons.
-Rhett

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Posted By: john/z28jd

The only problem with going back in time(assuming youve found out how to do that) is that you would have to pay in money from whatever era you went back to.The only way to get that money is buying it and by that time you better be getting a ton of cards to cover the cost of time travel.You would also need retro clothes so you dont stand out and if you do buy alot of cards youll ruin the overall value because the population,especially in high grade would change.Other than that its a good idea.Id just go watch a few games,make that a few hundred

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Posted By: Anonymous

Rochester

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

?

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Posted By: identify7

The cost of time travel?

Are there tolls?

Heck, Id go one day into the future (to minimize costs), find out the winning lottery numbers, then come back and buy the tickets.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

and make it the stock market.

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Posted By: Scott M

I think Dave would like to go back in time to Rochester so he could apply for a job at the local baking company... Isnt that right Dave?

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Posted By: Anonymous

a couple sweet confections (D359) and it would be down to Ole Cullivan's (T208) for a smoke of fireside scrap..and then off to go through the neighborhood looking for SF Hess and Kinney hand-me-downs(N-whatnot)..don't forget to stop on the way home for a loaf or two of Butter Krust(D304)

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I'd like to go back in time and taste some of the candies, gums, etc. that came with these cards. What does a "Zeenut" taste like? A "Big Eater"? How was Yuengling's ice cream, or Fro-Joy? Did Lummis Peanut Butter suck; is that why they issued cards? Was Kahn's really The Wiener The World Awaited?