Tobacco.org

• Show is a look back at heyday of local tobacco 

An old tobacco carton can be a valuable thing.

Wayne Biby of Winston-Salem was trying to sell one for $500 at yesterday's Piedmont Tobacco Memorabilia and Postcard Show and Sale in the Home and Garden building at the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds.

The carton once contained a cigarette brand called Reyno, one of the first cigarettes made by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Biby's former employer.

Thousands of other items could be purchased at the annual show. It was sponsored by the Piedmont Tobacco Memorabilia Collectors Club, which meets in High Point. About 400 people attended the show, organizers said. The items included a Camel mirror, a Wake Forest University lighter, an old postcard featuring the Reynolds Building at night, receipts, rolling papers, pocket tins, plug cutters, and tobacco grinders, tags and pouches.

"It's a connection to their past," Biby, a dealer, said about why people collect tobacco memorabilia. "It brings back stories that they heard their parents and grandparents talking about."

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