Bid With Fellow Collectors on Quality Auctions; Plus Tobacco Cards & Luggage Labels
In this Issue:Quality Auctions (with Bids) on bidStartSpotlight on Tobacco CardsSpotlight on Luggage LabelsFeatured ItemsWin Items! Enter Our Monthly GiveawaysQuality Auctions (with Bids) on bidStart
Auctions at bidStart have always been fun and exciting, and at the heart of our community. Which is why back in January, we implemented new policies to ensure that all of the items you see at auction, are true auction items. We also wanted to ensure that sellers who take the time to create exciting auction offers every week wouldn't see their items lost among items which were priced at or above retail, and were simply being relisted dozens of times by certain sellers.
Which is why we're happy to announce, that since January, auction activity on bidStart is significantly up, and you can now find better starting prices and more quality items than ever before! Whether you're searching for stamps, postcards, or any other collectible, now is a great time to join in on the bidding action with your fellow collectors. For sellers, we're also happy to announce that with only quality auctions now on bidStart, more buyers have been participating in auctions, leading to more items sold. So if you've been thinking about listing quality auction items, now is a great time to do so.
Remember, when browsing or searching on bidStart, if you want to view only auction listings, just click on the 'Auctions Only' tab at the top of any item results page. You can also check out a few of our latest quality auction items below:
Spotlight on Tobacco Cards
History: Beginning in 1875, cards depicting actresses, baseball players, Indian chiefs, and boxers were issued by the US-based Allen and Ginter tobacco company. These are considered to be some of the first cigarette cards. Other tobacco companies such as Goodwin & Co. soon followed suit. They first emerged in the US, then the UK, then, eventually, in many other countries.
In the UK, W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1887 were one of the first companies to include advertising cards with their cigarettes, but it was John Player & Sons in 1893 that produced one of the first general; interest sets ‘Castles and Abbeys’. Thomas Ogden soon followed in 1894 and in 1895, Wills produced their first set ‘Ships and Sailors’, followed by ‘Cricketers' in 1896. In 1906, Ogden’s produced a set of football cards depicting footballers in their club colors, in one of the first full-color sets.
Each set of cards typically consisted of 25 or 50 related subjects, but series of over 100 cards per issue are known. Popular themes were 'beauties' (famous actresses, film stars and models), sporters (in the US mainly baseball, in the rest of the world mainly football and cricket), nature, military heroes and uniforms, heraldry and city views.
Today, for example, sports and military historians study these cards for details on uniform design.
Some very early cigarette cards were printed on silk which was then attached to a paper backing. They were discontinued in order to save paper during World War II, and never fully reintroduced thereafter.
Spotlight on Luggage Labels
Travel back in time to the golden era of travel, when you collect nostalgic luggage labels. There's no denying their instant appeal and beautiful designs, and they're currently a hot collectibles. With tens of thousands of items currently available on bidStart, now is a great time to start or add to your collection.
Featured Items
Win Items! Enter Our Monthly Giveaways
