This week, I’ll focus on an item that I’ve actually been bidding on to add to my collection. It’s the 1924 Diaz Cigarettes. Because they were printed in Cuba and feature only pictures, the 1924 Diaz cigarettes cards are among the rarest and most intriguing of all tobacco issues. Produced in Havana they were made of semi-gloss stock. The set consisted of only pitchers and all in Spanish. Common players start at $300 and range all the way up to the 700.00 range for star pitchers. Graded cards can be quite expensive, costing in the thousands, due to the rarity values and quickly go past book value.
The Philadelphia players were Grover Cleveland Alexander, Stanley
Coveleski, James Ring and Lee Meadows. There may be others, but the checklist is incomplete, due to the fact that they have not surfaced in a very long time and no values have been assigned.
Next on the list is the 1904 Allegheny Card Company set. it is the rarest cars issue of the 1900's. The cards are in playing card format and were distributed as a set. The last set to surface was in 1991 and it sold at auction for $27,000. Individual card values start at $900 and go up from there. Phillies in the set include Kitty Bransfield, Dan Casey, Red Dooin, Chick Fraser and Tully Sparks.
If you have a subject you like me to research, just email me at RRSports@ptd.net. Feel free to pass along any thoughts or suggestions for the column and let me know also if you are a collector of either Football or Baseball memorabilia.