Card Identification Forum

I came across these 4 cards at an online auction that ended last night.  I tried to buy them but was outbid.  I did not go high as they are obviously in very rough shape and I was bidding much more seriously on 5 1911 tobacco cards including 2 HoF (no not Cobb or Wagner).  There are two sets here. One is titled United Nations Battle Planes adn the other is British Empire Victoria Cross Heroes. When I first saw them, I did a quick search on this site but did not find them listed.  There is more information to be had on the internet.  If no one else takes this on, I will come back to it eventually.

By the way, they sold for just under $15 after all taxes and buyer's premium are added in (of course some wouldn't include all that in the price of the cards ).  And yes, I got my 5 tobacco cards; pick up is tomorrow afternoon .

https://www.skytamer.com/V407.html

might be them?

Definitely the Battle Planes set.  Odd that the site you linked does not have the Victoria Cross Heroes set.

Battle planes appears to be a confusing multi-year / Multi-print run set.

From Non-sport.com:

"This beautiful series was released in boxes of Cracker Jack in Canada in the 1940's. Each of the cards depicts a colorful action scene of an airplane in battle. It appears that the initial runs of cards consisted of 50 and 98 different subjects respectively as indicated by the backs. Later the set was expanded to 147 subjects and all 147 cards were released with "147" replacing the "98" on the backs. Card back also shows set title, card number, narrative of action scene, and company name."

Looks like the same applies to the British Empire Victoria's Cross Heroes (V408) set:

So do we list them in 3 sets, one for each year of release?  I wish the cards at the auction had been in better condition.  They would have been a nice addition to my non-sport collection.

IMHO, one consolidated checklist.

I have found that most collectors / collecting sites that deal with vintage non-sport organize checklists based on the ACC #. There are some exceptions but as a general rule - one checklist. 

In baseball, the T206 and T213 series are popular examples of multi-year issues being consolidated into a single checklist.

I realize that some on this site see it differently. A stronger argument may be that for those who don't care about slight card-back variations, it is impossible difficult and cumbersome to build and track  a "basic" or "master" set on TCDB when the checklists are separated. 

To keep the confusion to a minimum, i very much agree with cnangle....my vote is to keep these 2 sets together.  I recently had access to an "unofficial Cracker Jack Prizes" book from the library.  I was slowly working on some other sets.  As for the 120 card VIictoria's Cross set, the release date for these was 1944.  The checklist in the book was very incomplete.