Probably the first great trading card set ever issued. In 1888, The Allen & Ginter Tobacco Company issued a set of 50 sports cards. The set was titled The World's Champions, Series One. This N28 set included ten baseball players, plus oarsmen, wrestlers, pugilists, rifle shooting, billiard players, and pool players. Besides the hard to find baseball cards, John L Sullivan, Miss Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody are favorites among cigarette card collectors. These wonderful cards were inserted into Richmond Straight Cut slide-in-shell packets of ten cigarettes. The condition breakdown of the cards is as follows. Baseball Cards (10) Anson SGC 50 VG/EX 4, just a small bit of stock loss to the lower left corner prevents this card from grading higher. Kelly VG with some toning to the reverse, Caruthers VG (light pencil on front), Ward EX, Mulvey VG, Bennett VG (minimal stock loss to the reverse), Glasscock EX-MT, Keefe VG (minimal stock loss to the back), Clarkson VG-EX on the front minimal stock loss to the back, Comiskey VG (20% stock loss on the reverse). Additional highlights include, Sullivan VG-EX (with scrapbook paper and glue on reverse). Oakley VG-EX (scrapbook paper on reverse), W.F Cody "Buffalo Bill" SGC 70 EX+ 5.5. (12) Cards have clean backs (no scrap paper or missing stock.) The (25) remaining cards have some type of back damage either remains of scrapbook paper or stock loss/toning. For the most part these cards all present VG or better on the front. This is a great opportunity to acquire one of the very first (and most attractive) tobacco sets issued, the N28 set of 50 has been a perennial favorite with collectors for over 100 years.