t is often thought that trade cards are the poor relations to cigarette cards. Well this whole area of the website is dedicated to blowing away that myth. True the production values of trade cards did fall in the later years but they were still going strong 30 years after cigarette cards basically left the planet. Who is to say what the quality was going to be like for cigarette cards by then?
The prices of trade cards certainly do not reach the heady heights that some of the top cigarette cards have reached (go see)
'We feel that we cannot ask people to collect more than 24 cards
I have choosen a break-off point of £25/$42 per card. Now I do not know about you but I consider this a considerable price to pay for what is a bit of card.
Now this is a departure for me as usually prices are by set but a quick glance down the # in set column will highlight another difference.
There is no particular structure to the number of cards in a set although quite a few a based on the dozen concept, half a dozen, a dozen, a bakers dozen.
Masnufacturer
Name
Date/No.
£ price per card
$ price per card
Arrow Confectionary
Conundrums
1904/13
27.50
47
Arrow Confectionary
Shadowgraphs
1904/12
27.50
47
Cadbury Bros
Antartic Series
1913/T12
25.00
43
Cadbury Bros
Dogs
1908/6
30.00
51
Cadbury Bros
English Industries............
1908/P12
27.50
47
Cadbury Bros
Fish & Bait series
1909/P6
27.50
47
Cadbury Bros
Locomotive series
1906/6
25.00
43
Cadbury Bros
Match Puzzles
1906/12
27.50
47
Cadbury Bros
Sports Series
1906/T6
30.00
51
H. Chappel
British Celebrities
1905/10
25.00.................
43
Clarnico
Colonial Troops
1900/30
25.00
43
J. Edmondson
Actresses 'FROGA'
1901/26
45.00
77
English & Scottish CWS
British Sports Series
1904/50
25.00
43
Film Pictorial
Film Stars (Silk)
1923/P2
27.50
47
JS Fry & Son
War Leaders
1915/6
25.00
43
Huntler & Palmer
Aviation
1900/P12
45.00
77
Londesboro Theatre
War Portraits
1916/50
25.00
43
JF Mearbeck
Army Pictures, Cartoons etc
1915/30
25.00
43
Oxo
Oxo Cattle studies
1930/P6
25.00
43
HJ Packer
Footballers
1924/K30.
25.00.................
43
James Pascall
King George V & Queen
Mary
1910/2
25.00
43
James Pascall
Rulers of the World
1916/?
25.00
43
H Poppleton & Sons
Wembley Empire Exhibition
Series
1924/?12
25.00
43
RK Confectionary
Felix Pictures
1930/32
25.00
43
Robertson
British Medals
1914/L6
30.00
51
Slade & Bullock
Cricket Series
1924/25
50.00
85
Spratts Patent Ltd
Prize Dogs
1910/12
30.00
51
Spratts Patent Ltd
Prize Poultry
1910/12
27.50
47
Nov 1975, Cadbury Typhoo Limited, on the subject of why only 24 cards:
'We feel that we cannot ask people to collect more than 24 cards...The alternative would be to...run the picture cards in packets of Typhoo for a considerable length of time in which case we would have had to sacrifice quality for quantity.
The size of the set is related to the product. In smoking terms, in the heydey of cheap cigarettes without the medical knowledge we have today, 100 cigarettes a day was quite a common habit. At this rate of consumption there would be a lot of cigarette cards floating about the house in no time. Trade cards did not really have that level of consumption within the products. There were only so many tins of dog food you could force into the family pet, only so many cups of tea you could consume or magazines you wanted to buy.
April 1975: 3 pence (about 5 cents) got you a six Planet of the Apes cards and a stick of chewing gum. 1998: The cards are worth £1 ($1.7) each, the gum is still worthless.
Nothing is set in stone in this game though. Childrens bubble gum packets would often have more than one card in them. In reality the card was the product in many instances and the stick if unpleasant bubble gum was the free gift. This meant long runs of cards could make up the series.
A&BC Gum (Topps in the US) had many a set that ran over 100 cards (Hip Patches, 1968 had 200) and many had over 60 cards. This means sets can surpass £400/$688 without a lot of trouble and many many more are £200/$344.
t is often thought that trade cards are the poor relations to cigarette cards. Well this whole area of the website is dedicated to blowing away that myth. True the production values of trade cards did fall in the later years but they were still going strong 30 years after cigarette cards basically left the planet. Who is to say what the quality was going to be like for cigarette cards by then?