Greetings---
The $35 Ken Wallace paid for the Players Cycling Cards is about right. They can be had quite frequently on ebay US and UK and elsewhere in the $10-50 range, with the accompanying 5" x 7" booklet into which you pasted the cards.
The Players' cards were put together in the late '30s, to celebrate the centenary of cycling (1839-1939).
They're very cool little cards because they cover the entire history of the bicycle, from the hobby horse to modern lightweights, and often use real clubmen and women in the colour illustrations. For instance, Reuben Firth, "the great Yorkshire road rider" is used to show time trialing machines and "Billie" Dovey, a British female long-distance rider, to illustrate touring position and machine.
Unfortunately, I don't have time right now to scan my entire set, but here's the cover from the booklet and one of the later pages for you, with the cards pasted into the booklet. I'll try to get the rest of the pages posted next week.----
http://www.flickr.com/
When I first stumbled onto the cards I thought they'd be worth a lot of money. But like many things, I soon learned that they were quite common and so not very dear at all. But they're great to own and look at. I'd love to have high-quality blow-ups of the cards to frame and hang on the walls!
Cheerio,
Peter Jourdain Whitewater, Wisconsin USA
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Ken Wallace wrote: "I think I paid $35 for my set."
Ted Ernst wrote:
> > If those are the little guys that are about 1-1/2" X
> 2-1/2 ", aren't those the ones that came in a book from
> Player's that one collected while ruining their lungs,
> forcing them to go out and ride to get healthy again.
> > Or is that $350 is waaaay too expensivo for that.
> > Anybody?
Angel Garcia wrote: > >> A local antique shop has a complete "cycling"
> collection of Player's
> >> Cigarette cards from England. The 50 cards are
> mounted between glass, the
> >> cards are prevented from moving by the 50 cutouts
> in the mat and the glass.
> >> Framed. The shop specializes in cigarette card
> collections....I don't know
> >> anything about them. Just passing the info along
> in case anyone is
> >> interested. $350.00. [edit]