Could your cigarette card collection make you a fortune?

Back in the 19th century, when smoking didn’t come with a health warning, each packet often had a cigarette card featuring colourful images including famous actors, animals and ships. Many were hand-painted by artists or printed from blocks.

Today, cigarette cards are collectible – and often valuable – with age, rarity and condition influencing their price. A popular example is a card featuring US baseball star Honus Wagner from the early 1900s, one of which sold for $7.25 million (more than £5.5 million) in 2022.

Later that year, a rare cigarette card of footballer Steve Bloomer sold at a UK auction for £25,900, and the market remains strong today.

So, if you’re rummaging in your attic and find a collection of cigarette cards, are you sitting on a goldmine?

According to Steve Laker, director of the London Cigarette Card Company, there’s a big global market for these collectibles.

“Card collecting is still thriving as a hobby because you can buy sets today for as little as £20,” he says. “Their popularity is growing because people realise that the card they’re holding could be 120 years old and the facts and information on there would have been written by someone at the time, not by a historian looking back.”

“Potentially, you could be sitting on a goldmine,” he adds. “The holy grail is the set of 20 clowns in different positions, produced by Taddy’s, which could make upwards from £1,100 a card.”

The boom time for cigarette cards was between the 1920s and 1940s. They were temporarily withdrawn to save paper during the Second World War, and never returned to the same level of production – although a few smaller-scale sets were created over the years that followed.

What about other valuable collectible cards?

“It's not just tobacco cards that sell. You might remember Brooke Bond tea or bubblegum cards from Barratts and Bassetts sweet candy packets, and early footballer cards are worth hundreds of pounds for a set,” says Laker.

“Famous Footballers Series A.1 from 1953 is valued at £7.50 a card or £375 for the set of 50. Some of the Brooke Bond Tea sets are sought after, such as Wild Flowers Series 1 (Paper thin issue) which has a value of £500.”

It can be tricky to know if you’re holding a valuable card, as the price can vary depending on rarity, condition and even luck of the draw in an auction – but there are ways to start your own assessment.

"Some of the nicer sets have been hand cut and we know there can be reproductions. We can identify that quite quickly by the thickness of the card and how it looks. Each cigarette manufacturer issued cards of different thicknesses,” says Laker.

“Early American cards used really thick boarding, but a lot of WG and HO Wills cards, for example, were a lot thinner. The value comes from the rarity - for example, Wills and John Players produced cards in the millions.

“There can be reproductions, but we’ll know by the thickness of the card and how it’s cut. But the value depends on the rarity of the card.”

Are UK cigarette cards worth anything?

The story of a card featuring American baseball star Honus Wagner making more than £5million certainly made headlines, but what about those made in the UK?

There might not be millions to be earned from one card, but designs featuring footballers, in particular, are popular with the American market.

“There was a whole set of Cadet’s footballers which we sold for £17.50, and one card within that set that featured Bobby Charlton went to America and went for $3,000 (around £2,300),” says Laker.

“The Honus Wagner card that sold for millions was rare and it just so happened there was a buyer at the time – whether or not it would fetch that price again, only time will tell, because it was based on demand.”

How much does the condition of your cigarette cards determine their value?

Some cigarette cards might be damaged before you even get your hands on them, as people used to flick them against the wall in a game – and there was a period when their proud owners stored them in plastic that contained acid, which eroded them.

You might think that sticking your card collection into an album will help to preserve them, but this could reduce the value significantly. So, if you’ve got a set and are tempted to glue them down, don’t give into the desire.

“We have various different methods to store [cigarette cards],” explains Laker. “Between the 1920s and 40s, manufacturers did issue albums so a lot of cards will have been stuck in, but unfortunately that does impact on the value quite dramatically because the way the market is now, we find collectors want to see the back of the cards as well as the fronts.

“It’s tempting to put them in the album to say you’ve completed the collection, but the price plummets if they’ve been stuck in.”

How can you get your cigarette cards valued?

Specialist auction houses can provide a valuation, but whether the cards will sell for the price quoted depends on the bids on the day – a surge of interest can yield an end price that’s far greater than you might expect.

Equally, if you don’t find the right buyers are around at the time of sale, you might be a little disappointed in the results.

However, buying and selling online is now popular and places such as the London Cigarette Card Company or Cigarettecards.co.uk can also look at your collection.

The London Cigarette Company has hundreds of enquiries a week, but Laker will always be interested in the history rather than just the value of the cards.

“We hold about 50 million cards in stock, so we’re always looking to buy,” he says. “We get people contacting us daily to find out if they have that fortune in their attic. I like to hear the story behind why they’re collecting them.

“One story that sticks out is a man whose father worked for one of the tobacco manufacturers at the time and he came in with cards in pristine condition and some of them were rare. He even had the artists’ print blocks and they fetched about £5,000-6,000.”

But if your cigarette card collection is of sentimental value, Laker advises you should never feel rushed to part with it for a quick sale.

“The value depends on so many different factors, such as demand. But I’d say if you’re not ready to part company with your collection, don’t. If you’re not too sure, wait – don’t let anyone push you into selling it. Ultimately, you can’t put a price on memories.”