SELLS 300,000 CIGARETTE CARDS EVERY MONTH

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 160, 3 April 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

SELLS 300,000 CIGARETTE CARDS EVERY MONTH

An Amazing Modern Business

Five years ago a small boy stopped Mr. C. L. Bagnall, of Chiswick, England, in the street. “Got any fag pictures, sir? he asked.

For once, Mr. Bagnall said “No. He had just decided to collect them himself. . . ’ From that moments decision has grownup one of the most amazing businesses of modern times.

Starting his collection with a mere 270 cards, Mr. Bagnall’s stock now consists of 60,000,000. He has 45,000 clients who buy from him in twentysthree different countries. He sells 300,000 cards every month, buys as many as seven tons of cards at a time and advertises “sets” valued at as much as £l4O. In ; a large room, piled from tloor to ceiling with boxes of indexed cigaiette cards the secretary of the London Cigarette Card Company told a •Sunday Referee’’ reporter the whole stoij of the business. “Started originally as a hobby, now employ nine people,; he san.. o far we have managed tn this house. Now we are compelled to move to latgei premises. “I number all sorts of people among my clients. Nine-tenths of them are serious collectors, not, as yon mi B ht imagine, schoolboys. “Many titled people, even Royalty, are among the most ardent collectois. “Inquiries come from all over the world—l deal with Siam, China. New Zealand. Brazil. Russia and other countries.”

“The earliest cards made were a. collection of ships. They were issued in 189-1. A complete sol. of 100 cards is worth £2O to £3O.

“Mistakes in the details of cards are

worth money, too. And they make interesting collecting. “The classic mistake is a card showing Benjamin Disraeli against a background of Big Ben. Big Ben had not been built at that time.

“Another error is in a set of radio celebrities, where Captain H. B. T. Wakelam was portrayed as quite a different person. “Our mail has now swollen to about COO inquiries a day.

“All sorts of people and companies buy our cards. Film companies often send round for sets showing details of period dresses. “Theatre managers want cards with period uniforms shown. “There is now an enormous demand for sets showing Royal regalia and Crown and Coronation jewellery. The buyers are goldsmiths and jewellers wlio are making jewels for the coining Coronation and are anxious to be traditionally correct.” It is estimated that there must have been between GOOD and 7000 sets of cards issued in England. Tobacco firms issue about 120 sets every year. One large firm prints 500,000.000 cards for each set. Catalogued prices show interesting figures. Here are some of the prices: England’s Military Heroes .. £l5 a set Castles and Abbeys Gallery of Beauty £lO a set Soldiers of the World £-•» a South African War Series •• £lB a set

The schoolboys’ “fag-picture” collection has now been dignified by 'the name of cartophily. The ardent collectors even run their own paper. It is called “The Cigarette Card News,” but it is proposed to rename it “The Cartophilist.”