1888 N403 Yum Yum Tobacco Set and Checklist

‘It’s In The Details’

Title N403 Yum Yum Tobacco (A. Beck and Company)
Year 1888
Size 1 3/8″ x 2 3/4″
Images Sepia
Type 19th Century Tobacco
Number in Set
64

N403 Yum Yum Tobacco Overview

N403 040 Esterbrook.jpg

The 1888 N403 Yum Yum Tobacco set is another obscure 19th Century tobacco issue rarely seen these days. These cards do pop up occasionally with major auction houses, but are not staples of most collections.

The set includes numerous Hall of Famers, such as Cap Anson, John Clarkson, King Kelly, Tim Keefe, Connie Mack, Buck Ewing, Pud Galvin, and several others.

A few players have more than one card. When that is the case, the cards are variations. For example, Hall of Famer Cap Anson has a portrait card as well as a full-body card showing him batting. Several players have two cards but Hall of Famer Mickey Welch is the only player with three known variations.

Like the N172 Old Judge set and others from the same period, this set includes cards with two parts – a photograph affixed to a piece of cardboard. The fronts include a picture of the player in a sepia tone and the Yum Yum Tobacco name while most of the backs are blank. Some of the pictures are actual photographs while others are unique drawings. The A. Beck and Company (out of Chicago, Illinois) name is also present on the fronts as the likely manufacturer as are the individual player names and positions.

While most backs are blank, some cards have been spotted with a redemption offer. Those backs stated that upon returning 100 of the Yum Yum cards, the company would mail a lunch box. While that offer was mostly on the backs of Yum Yum’s N402 card set featuring actresses, one was discovered with a baseball card in recent years.

N403 Yum Yum Tobacco Checklist

SGC has graded almost every known card in the checklist. Note that while Sullivan appears on most recognized checklists of this set, I have not yet verified that card.

  1. Anson
  2. Anson
  3. Baldwin
  4. Brouthers
  5. Brown
  6. Buffinton
  7. Burns
  8. Burns
  9. Clarkson
  10. Clarkson
  11. Coleman
  12. Connor
  13. Connor
  14. Corcoran
  15. Daly
  16. Deasley
  17. Donahue
  18. Dorgan
  19. Esterbrook
  20. Ewing
  21. Ewing
  22. Ferguson
  23. Flint
  24. Fogarty
  25. Galvin
  26. Gerhardt
  27. Getzein
  28. Gillespie
  29. Glasscock
  30. Gore
  31. Greer
  32. Keefe
  33. Keefe
  34. Kelly
  35. Kelly
  36. Krock
  37. Mack
  38. Madden
  39. Miller
  40. Morrill
  41. Mutrie
  42. Nash
  43. O’Rourke
  44. O’Rourke
  45. Pfeffer
  46. Richardson
  47. Roseman
  48. Ryan
  49. Ryan
  50. Sowders
  51. Sullivan
  52. Sunday
  53. Sunday
  54. Sutton
  55. Thompson
  56. Tiernan
  57. Tiernan
  58. Van Haltren
  59. Ward
  60. Welch
  61. Welch
  62. Welch
  63. Whitney
  64. Wood

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