Welcome to the premier source for baseball related cigarette and tobacco pack information
Collecting cigarette and tobacco packs which once contained baseball cards can be a very fun and rewarding side to the hobby. This “niche” area of collecting has recently seen a dramatic rise in popularity. In today’s market, early baseball-related tobacciana is highly desired and very valuable.
However, identifying and purchasing a pack that once contained a baseball card can be a difficult task. Often times, cigarette and tobacco manufacturers produced many versions of packs, tins, and other containers for decades at a time with little or no variation in appearance. Also, manufacturers frequently offered many sizes and styles of product. Despite this, usually only one specific type of packaging and style manufactured during a single year or span of years would have once held a baseball card inside.
The purpose of this website is to offer pictures and reference materials so you will be able to identify exactly which style of cigarette or tobacco pack once contained a baseball card. As such, the focus of this website will be between the years of 1886 and 1930 as it was during this “golden age” of cigarette and tobacco production when manufacturer’s produced and issued numerous baseball card and related sets within the packaging of their products.
The informational part of this website is broken into two main sections which are the linked at the top and entitled “Research Center” and “Cigarette Boxes and Tobacco Packs”, respectively. The “Research Center” offers dating information, as well as factory codes, district codes, and states of production for cigarette and tobacco products that distributed cards within its packaging. These information sections will help the collector identify the correct cigarette or tobacco pack for an individual issue. The “Cigarette Boxes and Tobacco Packs” section offers a detailed photo of the cigarette or tobacco pack as well as an image of the style of card that was once contained inside. The information provided in this section appears in a simple table organized by ACC number and also contains information on the year of issue, pack size (in number of cigarettes), pack style/configuration and manufacturer. Without question, this section features the most advanced image library of baseball related cigarette and tobacco packs.
Aside from the informational sections of this website, there is also a small store under the “For Sale” link where some original baseball related cigarette and tobacco packs are offered for sale. Photos, descriptions and prices for the packs available for sale are all available on this page. Lastly, there is a “Links” section that offers links to many other websites, both baseball and cigarette/tobacco related.
When collecting, it is important to remember that the majority of these cigarette and tobacco packs are nearly 100 years or older. Locating and collecting these pieces of memorabilia can be a difficult task, yet the thrill of finding them is very much satisfying.
As always, I welcome any questions, comments, critiques, corrections or suggestions that you may have regarding this website. I envision this site to be a constant “work in progress” and I always enjoy conversing with other collectors. Also, should you have any cigarette or tobacco packs for sale, please contact me as I'm always looking to add to my collection. Lastly, if you would like to join my mailing list which will include information on baseball related cigarette and tobacco packs, as well as email notifications of *new* items for sale, please input your name and email in the form below. Information is encoded and kept private.
