The Incomplete Mayo Cut Plug collector set

If you grew up around New England collectors, you probably heard about certain cards the same way older relatives talked about Ted Williams or Fenway before the renovations. Not as things they owned, but as things they once crossed paths with. An uncle might mention a tobacco card from the 1890s that passed through a local shop years ago, handled carefully, talked about for a bit, and then gone. More often than not, he was talking about the 1895 Mayo Cut Plug cards. The story usually carried a sense that you had missed something important.

The Mayo cards were issued by P.H. Mayo and Brother of Richmond, Virginia, and packed in with chewing tobacco during the mid-1890s. Today they are cataloged as N300, which puts them squarely among the earliest recognized tobacco card issues. They show up in hobby references, but rarely in the wild, and that alone has helped keep their reputation intact among collectors. Once you start reading about them, it is easy to lose an afternoon going through old auction listings and registry notes. [1]

Scarcity is what defines the set. These cards were never meant to be keepsakes. They came packed with tobacco, were exposed to moisture, bent and handled, and usually tossed aside once the product was gone. That early life explains why so few survived and why condition is always part of the conversation. Creases, rounded corners, and general wear are the norm, even on cards that have been graded. Compared to later tobacco issues that collectors tucked away, the Mayo cards lived a harder life from the start. [2]

The full checklist consists of 48 cards covering 40 players. Several players appear more than once, shown in different poses or uniforms as teams changed. Collectors have studied these variations for decades, and while small details still get debated, the accepted checklist has stayed consistent. Some cards show players in uniform, others in street clothes, which adds another layer of interest for those who like digging into the details. [3]

The player lineup is part of what keeps collectors interested. The set includes Cap Anson, Hugh Duffy, Ed Delahanty, Kid Nichols, Billy Hamilton, Monte Ward, and other well-known stars of the 1890s. These were major National League players of their day, not obscure names brought back to life by modern research. Seeing these players together gives a clear picture of who mattered in baseball at the time. [4]

In terms of looks, the Mayo cards keep things simple. Each one shows a photographic portrait with the player’s name printed underneath. There are no stats, no biography, and no advertising copy cluttering things up. Compared to later tobacco cards with colorful designs and ads, these feel more like small studio photographs than mass-produced inserts. That plain approach is part of their appeal, but it also helps explain why many were not saved. [5]

Finding complete or near-complete sets is especially tough. They do not come up for public sale very often, and when collectors do manage to assemble large groupings, they tend to hang onto them. When a significant run of Mayo cards does surface, it usually gets noticed right away. One near-complete set, missing just one card and fully graded, sold for more than twenty seven thousand dollars in 2020, which says a lot about how rarely these cards appear together. [6]

Price history follows that same pattern. Individual Mayo Cut Plug cards often sell in the four-figure range even in lower grades. Hall of Famers in stronger condition can go much higher. A Hugh Duffy example in modest shape recently sold for more than seventeen hundred dollars, while a higher-grade Kid Nichols brought over twenty-two thousand dollars. Sales like that show how much weight collectors put on both the player and the condition. [7][8]

Near-complete sets have brought five figures at auction, and fully complete sets are almost never offered publicly. That makes pricing tricky and highly dependent on timing and who happens to be bidding. In 2014, a collector who spent years putting together a 46-of-48 Mayo set, along with related tobacco items, saw that group sell for over fourteen thousand dollars. Those kinds of sales stay in collectors’ memories because they prove these cards are still out there. [9]

The 1895 Mayo Cut Plug set holds a small but important place in baseball card history. For collectors who can look past rough edges and focus on survival and context, these cards offer a direct link to the game’s early professional years. They come from a time when baseball cards were everyday throw-ins, not centerpieces. Even now, collectors trade stories online when one turns up, and there is always hope that more will come out of old collections, estate sales, or attics that have not been opened in decades. [10]

[1] PSA CardFacts, 1895 Mayo’s Cut Plug (N300)[https://www.psacard.com/cardfacts/baseball-cards/1895-mayos-cut-plug-n300/3212]

[2] Sports Collectors Daily, “1895 Mayo’s Cut Plug Set Worthy of Attention” [https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1895-mayos-cut-plug-set-worthy-attentioninvestment/]

[3] PSA Set Registry, 1895 Mayo Cut Plug N300 [https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/baseball/company-sets/1895-mayo-cut-plug-n300/468]

[4] PSA Mayo Cut Plug checklist and notable players [https://www.psacard.com/cardfacts/baseball-cards/1895-mayos-cut-plug-n300/3212]

[5] Sports Collectors Digest, Mayo Cut Plug design and history[https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/news/little-known-1895-mayo-tobacco-cards-another-monster-set-from-1890s-early-1900s]

[6] Heritage Auctions, 1895 N300 Mayo Cut Plug near-complete set (47 of 48) [https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-cards/sets/1895-n300-mayo-cut-plug-sgc-graded-near-set-47-48-/a/50023-50169.s]

[7] PSA Auction Prices, Hugh Duffy Mayo Cut Plug [https://www.psacard.com/auctionprices/baseball-cards/1895-n300-mayos-cut-plug/hugh-duffy/344489]

[8] PSA Auction Prices, Kid Nichols Mayo Cut Plug [https://www.psacard.com/auctionprices/baseball-cards/1895-n300-mayos-cut-plug/kid-nichols/344512]

[9] CollectREA Auction Archive, near-complete 46-of-48 Mayo Cut Plug set [https://collectrea.com/archives/2014/Spring/60/1895-n300-mayos-cut-plug-psa-and-sgc-graded-near-complete-set-46-of-48]

[10] Reddit, vintage baseball card discussion featuring Mayo Cut Plug [https://www.reddit.com/r/baseballcards_vintage/comments/1g02he2/1895_mayo_s_cut_plug_bill_dahlen/]