FORTUNE MADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 26 October 1937, Page 7

FORTUNE MADE

FAR-SIGHTED COLONEL 60,000,000 CIGARETTE CARDS. BUYS, SELLS AND EXCHANGES. LONDON, Oct. 2. A business which is prospering is that of buying, selling and exchanging cigarette cards. In 1931 Colonel Charles L. Bagnall set up business with a stock of half a million cards. He formed a limited company called the London Cigarette Card Company. Twice in six years he has had to move to larger premises. The firm now has a stock of 60,000,000 cigarette cards, 3000 different complete sets (a set may contain anything from six to 4000 cards) and unnumbered thousands of odd cards from incomplete sets or duplicate sets. The most expensive are the sets (mostly 6, 12 and 25 cards to the set) issued with cigarettes in the ’nineties. They cost up to £2O a set. Issues of present day sell at sixpence a set of 50. Colonel Bagnall issues a catalogue in which are listed cigarette cards from all parts of the world—from Germany, Siam, the United States. In his list of customers are lawyers, doctors, Army and Navy officers, sailors, innumerable schoolboys from all parts of the world. About 140 new series of cards now appear in a year. One firm has reached a print of 1,800,000,000 for a series of four sets every year. Customers have entered the library of Colonel Bagnall’s firm and have spent up to £lOO on a collection of cards.