Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Sporting Times Cigar Card (New York Giants)
Year	1888
Size	4 1/2″ x 7 1/2″
Images	Sepia
Type	19th Century Tobacco / Trade
Number in Set	1

1888 Sporting Times Cigar Cards (New York Giants) Overview

The rare 1888 Sporting Times Cigar Card featured the New York Giants’ championship team.

The star-studded team is one reason why this card is so important. It includes numerous Hall of Famers, including Roger Connor, Buck Ewing, Tim Keefe, Jim O’Rourke, John Ward, and Mickey Welch. Names of all of the players are also listed at the bottom of the card.

Classifying this card is difficult and Jefferson Burdick did not classify it in his American Card Catalog. It can most reasonably be referred to as a 19th Century tobacco card, a trade card, or possibly a publications (M-Card) card. For now, I have listed this in both the H-Card (Trade) and N-Card (19th Century Tobacco) sections.

One of the key facts of these cards is that many sustained significant damage with writing on the back (via the jotting of a financial ledger), parts torn from the cards, water damage, etc. Many also appear as if they were burned and sustained fire damage. It is important to note that at least some of the ledgers on the backs have date stamps of later dates such as 1897 or 1898 even though this card is generally accepted to have been issued in 1888 and as a printed date of 1888 on the front.

REA estimated that 30-40 known examples of this card exist when they presented a better-than-average example in 2016.

1888 Sporting Times Cigar Cards (New York Giants) Checklist

This is a standalone issue and no others are believed to be in a set.

Follow Pre-War Cards on Twitter and also be sure to like our page on Facebook.