A baseball card is a type of
trading card relating to
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stadiums, or celebrities.
Baseball cards are most often found in the
contiguous United States but are also common in Puerto Rico or countries such as Canada, Cuba and Japan, where top-level leagues are present with a substantial fan base to support them. Some notable companies producing baseball cards include
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...
and
Panini.
Previous manufacturers include
Fleer
The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubble gum; it remained a family-owned enterprise until 1989.
Fleer originally developed a bubble gum formulation called ''Blibber-Blub ...
(now a brand name owned by
Upper Deck
The Upper Deck Company, LLC (colloquially as Upper Deck and Upper Deck Authenticated, Ltd. in the UK), founded in 1988, is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards. Its headquarters are in Carlsbad, California, United State ...
),
Bowman (now a brand name owned by Topps), and
Donruss
Donruss was a US-based trading cards manufacturing company founded in 1954 and acquired by the Panini Group in 2009. The company started in the 1950s, producing confectionery, evolved into Donruss and started producing trading cards. During th ...
(now a brand name owned by Panini). Baseball card production peaked in the late 1980s and many collectors left the hobby disenchanted after the
1994-95 MLB strike. However, baseball cards are still one of the most influential collectibles of all time. A 1952
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
baseball card (
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...
; #311; SGC MT 9.5) was
sold for $12.600 million on August 28, 2022.
History
Pre-1900
![King Kelly 0554fu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/King_Kelly_0554fu.jpg)
During the mid-19th century in the United States, baseball and photography were both gaining popularity. As a result, baseball clubs began to pose for group and individual pictures, much like members of other clubs and associations posed. Some of these photographs were printed onto small cards similar to modern wallet photos. The oldest known surviving card shows the
Brooklyn Atlantics
The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn ("Atlantic" or the "Brooklyn Atlantics") was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty. The team was also the first baseball club to visit the White House in 1865 at the invitation of President An ...
from around 1860.
As baseball increased in popularity and became a professional sport during the late 1860s,
trade card
A trade card is a square or rectangular card that is small, but bigger than the modern visiting card, and is exchanged in social circles, that a business distributes to clients and potential customers, as a kind of business card. Trade cards fir ...
s featuring baseball players appeared. These were used by a variety of companies to promote their business, even if the products being advertised had no connection with baseball. In 1868,
Peck and Snyder, a sporting goods store in New York, began producing trade cards featuring baseball teams. Peck and Snyder sold baseball equipment, and the cards were a natural advertising vehicle. The Peck and Snyder cards are sometimes considered the first baseball cards.
Typically, a trade card of the time featured an image on one side and information advertising the business on the other. Advances in color printing increased the appeal of the cards. As a result, cards began to use photographs, either in
black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
or
sepia
Sepia may refer to:
Biology
* ''Sepia'' (genus), a genus of cuttlefish
Color
* Sepia (color), a reddish-brown color
* Sepia tone, a photography technique
Music
* ''Sepia'', a 2001 album by Coco Mbassi
* ''Sepia'' (album) by Yu Takahashi
* " ...
, or color artwork, which was not necessarily based on photographs. Some early baseball cards could be used as part of a game, which might be either a conventional
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...
or a
simulated baseball game.
By early 1886, images of baseball players were often included on
cigarette cards
Cigarette cards are trading cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands.
Between 1875 and the 1940s, cigarette companies often included collectible cards with their packages of cigarett ...
with
cigarette packs and other tobacco products. This was partly for promotional purposes and partly because the card helped protect the cigarettes from damage.
As the popularity of baseball spread to other countries, so did baseball cards. By the end of the century, production had spread well beyond the Americas and into the Pacific Isles.
Sets appeared in Japan as early as 1898,
in Cuba as early as 1909 and in Canada as early as 1912.
1900–1920
![Honus wagner t206 baseball card](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Honus_wagner_t206_baseball_card.jpg)
By the turn of the century, most baseball cards were produced by confectionery companies and tobacco companies. The first major set of the 20th century was issued by the Breisch-Williams Company in 1903. Breisch-Williams was a confectionery company based in
Oxford, Pennsylvania
Oxford is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Oxford is the closest town to Lincoln University. The population was 5,733 at the 2020 census.
History
The borough was once called Oxford Crossing and Oxford Village during the ...
. Soon after, several other companies began to advertise their products with baseball cards. This included, but was not limited to, the
American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members ...
, the
American Caramel Company
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
, the
Imperial Tobacco Company
Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...
of Canada, and
Cabañas. a Cuban cigar manufacturer.
The American Tobacco Company decided to introduce baseball advertising cards into their tobacco products with the issue of the
T206
T206 is a tobacco card set issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company. It is a landmark set in the history of baseball card collecting, due to its size and rarity, ...
White Border Set in 1909.
The cards were included in packs of cigarettes and produced over a three-year period until the company was dissolved. The most famous card, and most expensive for the grade, is the
Honus Wagner card from this set; Wagner objected, so only a small number were ever distributed. Another famous one, from 1911, is Joe Tinker.
At the same time, many other non-tobacco companies started producing and distributing baseball trade cards to the public. Between 1909 and 1911, The American Caramel Company produced the E90-1 series and 1911 saw the introduction of the 'Zee Nut' card. These sets were produced over a 28-year span by the Collins-McCarthy Company of California. By the mid-teens companies such as ''
The Sporting News
The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...
'' magazine began sponsoring card issues.
Caramel companies like Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein were among the first to put 'prizes' in their boxes. In 1914, they produced the first of two
Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack is an American brand of snack food that consists of molasses-flavored, caramel-coated popcorn, and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of trivial value inside. The Cracker Jack name and slogan, "The More You Eat The ...
card issues, which featured players from both major leagues as well as players from the short lived
Federal League
The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...
. As the teens drew to a close, the Chicago-based Boston Store Department company also issued a set.
1920–1930
After the end of World War I in 1918, baseball card production lulled for a few years as foreign markets were not yet developed and the United States' economy was transitioning away from wartime production. This trend would continue until the late 1930s when the effects of the
Great depression finally hit. The twenties produced a second influx of caramel cards, a plethora of postcard issues, and a handful of cards from different regions of the world. During the first two years, an influx of strip cards hit the market. These cards were distributed in long strips and often cut by the consumer or the retailer in the store.
The American Caramel Company re-emerged as a producer of baseball cards and started to distribute sets in 1922–1923. Few, if any cards, were produced in the mid-twenties until 1927 when companies like York Caramel of
York, Pennsylvania
York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...
started producing baseball cards. Cards with similar images as the York Caramel set were produced in 1928 for four ice cream companies,
Yuengling's, Harrington's, Sweetman and Tharp's.
In 1921, the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago started to release issues on post card stock. Although they are considered a post card issue, many of the cards had statistics and other biographical information on the back.
1920 saw the emergence of the foreign markets after what was essentially an eight-year hiatus. Canadian products found their way to the market, including products branded by the Peggy Popcorn and Food Products company of
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
from 1920 to 1926, and Willard's Chocolate Company from 1923 to 1924. Other Canadian products came from ice cream manufacturers in 1925 and 1927, from Holland Creameries and Honey Boy, respectively. Billiken Cigars, a.k.a. "Cigarros Billiken", were distributed in Cuba from 1923 to 1924.
1930–1950
![JimmyFoxxGoudeycard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/JimmyFoxxGoudeycard.jpg)
In the early 1930s, production soared, starting with the 1932 U.S. Caramel set. The popular 1933
Goudey Gum Co. issue, which included cards of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, best identifies this era. In contrast to the economical designs common in earlier decades, this card set featured bright, hand-colored player photos on the front. Backs provided brief biographies and personal information such as height, weight, and birthplace. The 240-card set, quite large for the time, included current players, former stars, and prominent minor leaguers. Individual cards measured , which Goudey printed on 24-card sheets and distributed throughout the year. The bulk of early
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees appear in this set.
1933 also saw the delivery of the World Wide Gum issue. World Wide Gum Co. was based in Montreal and clearly had a close relationship with the Goudey Gum Company, as each of their four issues closely resembled a Goudey contemporary. Goudey, National Chicle, Delong and a handful of other companies were competitive in the bubble gum and baseball card market until World War II began.
After 1941, cards would not be produced in any significant number until a few years after the end of the war. Wartime production transitioned into the post-war civilian
consumer goods
A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike a intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good, b ...
, and in 1948 baseball card production resumed in the U.S. with issues by the
Bowman Gum
The Bowman Gum Company was a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of bubble gum and trading cards. It was founded by Jacob Warren Bowman in 1927.
Bowman produced a line of baseball cards, which were highly popular in the 1940s. Bowman also produced ...
and the
Leaf Candy Company
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...
. At the same time,
Topps Gum Company issued their Magic Photos set, four years before they issued their first "traditional" card set. By 1950, Leaf had bowed out of the industry.
Japanese baseball cards became more numerous in 1947 and 1950. The cards were associated with
Menko, a Japanese card game. Early
baseball menko were often round, and were printed on thick cardboard stock to facilitate the game.
1948–1980
Bowman was the major producer of baseball cards from 1948 to 1952. In 1952, Topps began to produce large sets of cards as well. The 1952 Topps set is the most sought-after post-World War set among collectors because of the scarcity of the Mickey Mantle
rookie card
A rookie card is a trading card that is the first to feature an athlete after that athlete has participated in the highest level of competition within their sport. Collectors may value these first appearances more than subsequent card issues. Ath ...
, the first Mantle card issued by Topps.
Although it is not his true rookie card (that honor belongs to his 1951 Bowman card), it is still considered the ultimate card to own of the post-war era.
Topps and Bowman then competed for customers and for the rights to any baseball players' likeness. Two years later, Leaf stopped producing cards. In 1956,
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...
bought out Bowman and enjoyed a largely unchallenged position in the U.S. market for the next two decades. From 1952 to 1969, Topps always offered five- or six-card nickel wax packs, and in 1952–1964 also offered one-card penny packs.
In the 1970s, Topps increased the cost of wax packs from 10 to 15 cents (with 8–14 cards depending on year) and also offered cello packs (typically around 18–33 cards) for 25 cents.
Rack packs containing 39–54 cards could also be had for between 39 and 59 cents per pack.
This did not prevent a large number of regional companies from producing successful runs of trading cards. Additionally, several U.S. companies attempted to enter into the market at a national level. In 1959,
Fleer
The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubble gum; it remained a family-owned enterprise until 1989.
Fleer originally developed a bubble gum formulation called ''Blibber-Blub ...
, a gum company, signed
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1 ...
to an exclusive contract and sold a set of cards featuring him.
Williams retired in 1960, forcing Fleer to produce a set of ''Baseball Greats'' cards featuring retired players.
Like the Topps cards, they were sold with gum. In 1963, Fleer produced a 67 card set of active players (this time with a cherry cookie in the packs instead of gum), which was not successful, as most players were contractually obligated to appear exclusively in Topps trading card products. Post Cereals issued cards on cereal boxes from 1960 to 1963 and sister company Jell-O issued virtually identical cards on the backs of its packaging in 1962 and 1963.
In 1965, Topps licensed production to Canadian candy maker
O-Pee-Chee
The O-Pee-Chee Company, Ltd. was a Canadian confectionery company founded in 1911 that produced candy until the mid-1990s. Based in London, Ontario, the company produced its first trading card sets in the 1930s, releasing several collections of ...
. The O-Pee-Chee sets were essentially identical to the Topps sets until 1969, when the backs of the cards were branded O-Pee-Chee. In 1970, due to federal legislation, O-Pee-Chee was compelled to add French-language text to the backs of its baseball cards.
In the 1970s, several companies took advantage of a new licensing scheme, not to take on Topps, but to create premiums.
Kellogg's began to produce 3D-cards inserted with cereal and
Hostess printed cards on packages of its baked goods.
In 1976, a company called TCMA, which mainly produced minor league baseball cards, produced a set of 630 cards consisting of Major League Ball players. The cards were produced under the name the Sports Stars Publishing Company, or SSPC. TCMA published a baseball card magazine named Collectors Quarterly which it used to advertise its set offering it directly via mail order. The cards were available directly from TCMA, and were not made available again, like other sets issued by TCMA, due to a manufacturers' agreement.
1981–1994
Fleer
The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubble gum; it remained a family-owned enterprise until 1989.
Fleer originally developed a bubble gum formulation called ''Blibber-Blub ...
sued Topps in 1975 to break the company's monopoly on baseball cards and won, as in 1980 federal judge
Clarence Charles Newcomer
Clarence Charles Newcomer (January 18, 1923 – August 22, 2005) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for more than 33 years.
Education and career
Newcomer was born in ...
ended Topps Chewing Gum's exclusive right to sell baseball cards, allowing the Fleer Corporation to compete in the market.
[Douglas Martin (August 28, 2005)]
"CLARENCE NEWCOMER, 82, LONGTIME FEDERAL JUDGE,"
''South Florida Sun Sentinel''. In 1981, Fleer and
Donruss
Donruss was a US-based trading cards manufacturing company founded in 1954 and acquired by the Panini Group in 2009. The company started in the 1950s, producing confectionery, evolved into Donruss and started producing trading cards. During th ...
issued baseball card sets, both with gum. An appeal of the Fleer lawsuit by Topps clarified that Topps' exclusive rights only applied to cards sold with gum. After the appeal, Fleer and Donruss continued to produce cards issued without gum; Fleer included team logo stickers with their card packs, while Donruss introduced "Hall of Fame Diamond Kings" puzzles and included three puzzle pieces in each pack. In 1992, Topps' gum and Fleer's logo stickers were discontinued, with Donruss discontinuing the puzzle piece inserts the following year.
[''2006 Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles''] With the issuance of a very popular and rare (compared to other sets at the time) set in 1984, Donruss began to take hold as one of the most popular card brands in competition with Topps. In particular, several rookie cards in the 1984 Donruss set are still considered the most desirable cards from that year of any brand (especially the
Don Mattingly
Donald Arthur Mattingly (born April 20, 1961) is an American former professional baseball first baseman, coach, and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He is the bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed ...
rookie card). Also in 1984, two monthly
price guide
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvio ...
s came on the scene. ''
Tuff Stuff
''Tuff Stuff'' is an online magazine that publishes prices for trading cards and other collectibles from a variety of sports, including baseball, basketball, American football, ice hockey, golf, auto racing and mixed martial arts. The print edi ...
'' and ''
Beckett Baseball Card Monthly'', published by Dr.
James Beckett, attempted to track the approximate market value of several types of
trading cards.
More collectors entered the hobby during the 1980s. As a result, manufacturers such as
Score (which later became
Pinnacle Brands
Pinnacle Brands, Inc. was a US-based manufacturing company of trading cards, focused on sports-related items. Pinnacle produced American football, baseball, hockey and motor sports cards.
Founded in 1986, the company had licenses with several ...
) and
Upper Deck
The Upper Deck Company, LLC (colloquially as Upper Deck and Upper Deck Authenticated, Ltd. in the UK), founded in 1988, is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards. Its headquarters are in Carlsbad, California, United State ...
entered the marketplace in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Upper Deck introduced several innovative production methods including tamper-proof foil packaging, hologram-style logos, and higher quality card stock. This style of production allowed Upper Deck to charge a premium for its product, becoming the first mainstream baseball card product to have a suggested retail price of 99 cents per pack. In 1989, Upper Deck's first set included the
Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. The card became highly sought-after until Griffey's persistent injury troubles caused his performance level to decline.
![Bowman brand logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Bowman_brand_logo.png)
The other major card companies followed suit and created card brands with higher
price point
Price points are prices at which demand for a given product is supposed to stay relatively high.
Characteristics
Introductory microeconomics depicts a demand curve as downward-sloping to the right and either linear or gently convex to the origi ...
s.
Topps resurrected the
Bowman brand name in 1989. Topps produced a Stadium Club issue in 1991. 1992 proved to be a breakthrough year as far as the price of baseball cards was concerned, with the previous 50-cents per pack price being replaced by higher price points, overall higher-grade cardboard stock, and the widespread introduction of limited edition "inserts" across all product lines. 1992 was the beginning of the collectors' chase for "gold foil," which was commonly stamped on the limited edition "insert" cards. Notable examples from 1992's "insert" craze include Donruss Diamond Kings, which included gold-foil accents for the first time ever, and Fleer's host of gold foil-accented "insert" cards, including All-Stars and Rookie Sensations. 1992 was also the first year that "parallel" cards were introduced. In 1992, Topps produced Topps Gold "insert" cards of each card in the standard base set. The "parallel" Topps Gold cards had the player's name and team stamped in a banner of "gold foil" on the card front. The "parallel" moniker became popular to describe these cards because each and every card in the standard base set had an accompanying "insert" variation. In 1993, the card companies stepped up the "premium" card genre with "super premium" card sets, with Fleer debuting its "Flair" set and Topps debuting its "Topps Finest" set. Topps Finest was the first set to utilize refractors, a technology that utilized a reflective foil technology that gave the card a shiny "rainbow" appearance that proved extremely popular among hobbyists. Other notable "premium" card sets from the 1990s are as follows: Donruss issued its
Leaf
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...
brand in 1990; Fleer followed with Fleer Ultra sets in 1991; and Score issued Pinnacle brand cards in 1992.
1995–current
Starting in 1997 with Upper Deck, companies began inserting cards with swatches of uniforms and pieces of game-used
baseball equipment
; Bat : A rounded, solid wooden or hollow aluminum bat. Wooden bats are traditionally made from ash wood, though maple and bamboo is also sometimes used. Aluminum bats are not permitted in professional leagues, but are frequently used in amateur ...
as part of a plan to generate interest. Card companies obtained all manner of memorabilia, from uniform jerseys and pants, to bats, gloves, caps, and even bases and defunct stadium seats to feed this new hobby demand.
It is also in 1997 that the first "one-of-one" cards were released by Fleer, beginning with the 1997 Flair Showcase "Masterpieces" (the Ultra set would begin to include purple 1-of-1 masterpieces the following year). Both kinds of inserts remain popular staples in the hobby today.
The process and cost of multi-tiered printings, monthly set issues, licensing fees, and player-spokesman contracts made for a difficult market. Pinnacle Brands folded after 1998. Pacific, which acquired full licensing in 1994, ceased production in 2001. In 2005,
Fleer
The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubble gum; it remained a family-owned enterprise until 1989.
Fleer originally developed a bubble gum formulation called ''Blibber-Blub ...
went bankrupt and was bought out by Upper Deck, and
Donruss
Donruss was a US-based trading cards manufacturing company founded in 1954 and acquired by the Panini Group in 2009. The company started in the 1950s, producing confectionery, evolved into Donruss and started producing trading cards. During th ...
lost the MLB license in 2006 (they also did not produce baseball cards in 1999 and 2000). At that time, the
MLBPA
The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the collective bargaining, union representing all current Major League Baseball players. All players, Manager (baseball), managers, Coach (baseball), coaches, and athletic trainers who ...
limited the number of companies that would produce baseball cards to offset the glut in product, and to consolidate the market. As a result of the measure that included revoking the MLB/MLBPA production licenses from Donruss, only two companies remained; Topps and Upper Deck.
Topps and Upper Deck are the only two companies that retained production licenses for baseball cards of major league players. In a move to expand their market influence, Upper Deck purchased the Fleer brand and the remnants of its production inventory. After purchasing Fleer, Upper Deck took over production of the remaining products that were slated to be released. Upper Deck continues to issue products with the Fleer name, while Topps continues to release Bowman and Bazooka card products. Topps is also the only company that continues to produce pre-collated factory sets of cards.
Card companies are trying to maintain a sizable hobby base in a variety of ways. Especially prominent is a focus on transitioning the cards to an online market. Both Topps and Upper Deck have issued cards that require online registration, while Topps has targeted the investment-minded collector with its eTopps offering of cards that are maintained and traded at its website. Also, since the late 1990s, hobby retail shops and trade-show dealers found their customer base declining, with their buyers now having access to more items and better prices on the Internet. As more collectors and dealers purchased computers and began trusting the Internet as a "safe" venue to buy and sell, the transformation from the traditional retail shops and shows to Internet transactions changed the nature of the hobby.
During the same time period, MLBPA also introduced a new guideline for players to attain a rookie card. For years, players had been highlighted in previous sets as a rookie while still in the Minor Leagues. Such players would sometimes remain in the Minor Leagues for considerable time before attaining Major League status, making a player's rookie card released years before their first game as a major leaguer. The new guideline requires players to be part of a Major League team roster before a rookie card would be released in their name, and a designated "rookie card" logo printed on the face of the card. The rookie card logo shows the words "rookie card" over a baseball bat and home plate with the Major League Baseball logo in the top left corner.
Baseball cards garnered national media attention again in early 2007, when it was found that Topps' new
Derek Jeter card had allegedly been altered just prior to final printing. A reported
prankster inside the company had inserted a photo of
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
into the
Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...
' dugout and another showing a smiling President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
waving from the stands. Topps Spokesman Clay Luraschi later admitted that it was done on purpose by the Topps creative department.
In February 2007, one of the hobby's most expensive card, a near mint/mint professionally graded and authenticated
T206 Honus Wagner
The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card depicts the Pittsburgh Pirates' Honus Wagner, known as "The Flying Dutchman,” a dead-ball era baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and iss ...
, was sold to a private collector for $2.35 million. The card was sold again later that same year for a record-setting $2.8 million.
Throughout the 20th century, baseball cards were always made from cardboard. Now, companies use other materials that they claim can withstand being soaked in salt water.
In 2012, Topps created the Topps Bunt digital trading card app. The app has gained over 2 million users from more than 50 countries.
On August 28, 2022, a 1952
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
baseball card (
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...
; #311; SGC MT 9.5) was
sold for $12.600 million.
Attributes
The obverse (front) of the card typically displays an image of the player with identifying information, including, but not limited to, the player's name and team affiliation. The reverse of most modern cards displays statistics and/or biographical information. Many early
trade card
A trade card is a square or rectangular card that is small, but bigger than the modern visiting card, and is exchanged in social circles, that a business distributes to clients and potential customers, as a kind of business card. Trade cards fir ...
s displayed advertisements for a particular brand or company on the back. Tobacco companies were the most instrumental in the proliferation of baseball cards, which they used as value added bonuses and advertisements for their products.
[Baseball Cards Section](_blank)
, The Cardboard Connection Although the function of trading cards had much in common with
business cards, the format of baseball cards initially most resembled that of
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...
s. An example, is the design of 1951 Topps Baseball cards.
While there are no firm standards that limit the size or shape of a baseball card, most cards of today are rectangular, measuring .
Classification: the type card
Since early baseball cards were produced primarily as a marketing vehicle, collectors began to classify those cards by the 'type' of company producing the set. The system implemented by Jefferson Burdick in ''
The American Card Catalog'' has become the ''de facto'' standard in identifying and organizing trade cards produced in the Americas pre-1951. The catalog itself extends into many other areas of
collecting
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvi ...
beyond the sport of baseball. Sets like 1909–1911 White Borders, 1910 Philadelphia Caramels, and 1909 Box Tops are most commonly referred to by their ACC catalog numbers (
T206
T206 is a tobacco card set issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company. It is a landmark set in the history of baseball card collecting, due to its size and rarity, ...
, E95, and W555, respectively).
Rare cards
The most valuable cards are worth millions. One
T206 Honus Wagner
The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card depicts the Pittsburgh Pirates' Honus Wagner, known as "The Flying Dutchman,” a dead-ball era baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and iss ...
card was sold at auction in May 2021 for $3,750,000. A 1952
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
card, graded as PSA 9 on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), sold for $2,880,000 in 2018. Another Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card, graded PSA 9.5, sold for $12,600,000 in August 2022, becoming the
most valuable piece of sports memorabilia of all time.
Condition can play a huge role in the price. Other 1952 Topps Mantle cards, graded 1, have sold for as little as a few thousand dollars.
Card collectors
Vintage baseball cards have been a prime focus of countless collectors and historians of one of America's favorite pastimes. Some baseball card collectors pay large sums of money to gain possession of these cards and they may also put a lot of time into it. Since rare baseball cards are difficult to find, collectors seek for ways to be aware of the rare cards that come into the trading or selling market. Baseball card collectors normally obtain them from other card collectors or from specialized dealers. Some collectors may sell rare baseball cards over the internet and very often on
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
.
Rare baseball cards may also be purchased at major baseball card shows. These events are held periodically in different cities, allowing baseball card collectors and dealers to meet. In valuing a card, the potential buyer takes into consideration the condition (or graded condition) of the card.
Rookie card
A rookie card is a trading card that is the first to feature an athlete after that athlete has participated in the highest level of competition within their sport. Collectors may value these first appearances more than subsequent card issues. Ath ...
s, players' first cards, are the most valuable ones.
Sports card catalogs are a main source of obtaining detailed information on baseball cards. Online catalogs typically also contain tools for collection management and trading platforms.
Markets
United States
Baseball cards in the United States have gone through numerous changes in everything from production and marketing to distribution and use. The earliest cards were targeted primarily at adults as they were produced and associated by photographers selling services and tobacco companies in order to market their wares. By the early 1910s, many cards were issued as part of games and confection companies began to distribute their own card sets.
The market in the United States has been particularly affected by issues both sports and non-sports related. Economic effects of World War I, World War II, and the Great Depression have all had a major impact on the production of cards. For example, World War I suppressed baseball card production to the point where only a handful of sets were produced until the economy had transitioned away from wartime
industrialization.
The 1994 players' strike caused a decline in interest and industry consolidation. Yet, with the advent and acceptance of third-party companies bringing greater objectivity in the grading of baseball cards (coupled with online marketing), the ''vintage'' baseball card business has become quite popular again, with sales in the multi-millions of dollars recorded every year for at least ten years.
The Topps monopoly
Topps' purchase of Bowman led to a stranglehold on player contracts. Since Topps had no competition and there was no easy way for others to break into the national market, the company had a de facto monopoly. However, several regional sets featuring players from local teams, both major league and minor league, were issued by various companies.
Over the years, there was also a great deal of resistance from other companies. In 1967, Topps faced an attempt to undermine its position from the
Major League Baseball Players Association
The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the union representing all current Major League Baseball players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held a signed contract with a Major League cl ...
, the League's nascent
players' union
The Association Football Players' and Trainers' Union (AFPTU), commonly known as the Players' Union, in the United Kingdom was the original association that became the Professional Footballers' Association. Their stated aims were freedom of move ...
. Struggling to raise funds, the MLBPA discovered that it could generate significant income by pooling the publicity rights of its members and offering companies a group
license to use their images on various products. After initially putting players on
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
bottlecaps, the union concluded that the Topps contracts did not pay players adequately for their rights.
Fleer even filed a complaint with the
Federal Trade Commission alleging that Topps was engaged in unfair competition through its aggregation of exclusive contracts. A hearing examiner ruled against Topps in 1965, but the Commission reversed this decision on appeal. The Commission concluded that because the contracts only covered the sale of cards with gum, competition was still possible by selling cards with other small, low-cost products. However, Fleer chose not to pursue such options and instead sold its remaining player contracts to Topps for $395,000 in 1966.
Soon after, MLBPA executive director
Marvin Miller
Marvin Julian Miller (April 14, 1917 – November 27, 2012) was an American baseball executive who served as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 to 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players ...
then approached Joel Shorin, the president of Topps, about renegotiating these contracts. At this time, Topps had every
major league player under contract, generally for five years plus renewal options, so Shorin declined. After continued discussions went nowhere, before the 1968 season, the union asked its members to stop signing renewals on these contracts, and offered Fleer the exclusive rights to market cards. Although Fleer declined the proposal, by the end of 1973, Topps had agreed to double its payments to each player from $125 to $250, and also to begin paying players a percentage of Topps' overall sales. The figure for individual player contracts has since increased to $500. Since then, Topps used individual player contracts as the basis for its baseball cards.
Fleer vs. Topps
In April 1975, Fleer asked for Topps to waive its exclusive rights and allow Fleer to produce stickers, stamps, or other small items featuring active baseball players. Topps refused, and Fleer then sued both Topps and the MLBPA to break the Topps monopoly. After several years of litigation, the court ordered the union to offer group licenses for baseball cards to companies other than Topps. Fleer and another company,
Donruss
Donruss was a US-based trading cards manufacturing company founded in 1954 and acquired by the Panini Group in 2009. The company started in the 1950s, producing confectionery, evolved into Donruss and started producing trading cards. During th ...
, were thus allowed to begin making cards in 1981. Fleer's legal victory was overturned after one season, but they continued to manufacture cards, substituting stickers with team logos for gum. Donruss distributed their cards with a
Jigsaw puzzle
A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture.
In t ...
piece.
Canada
The history of baseball cards in Canada is somewhat similar to that of baseball cards in the United States. The first cards were trade cards, then cards issued with tobacco products and later candies and gum. World Wide Gum and
O-Pee-Chee
The O-Pee-Chee Company, Ltd. was a Canadian confectionery company founded in 1911 that produced candy until the mid-1990s. Based in London, Ontario, the company produced its first trading card sets in the 1930s, releasing several collections of ...
both produced major sets during the 1930s.
In 1952, Topps started distributing its American made cards in Canada. In 1965 O-Pee-Chee re-entered the baseball card market producing a licensed version of the Topps set. From 1970 until the last Topps based set was produced in 1992 the cards were bi-lingual French/English to comply with Canadian law
From 1985 until 1988,
Donruss
Donruss was a US-based trading cards manufacturing company founded in 1954 and acquired by the Panini Group in 2009. The company started in the 1950s, producing confectionery, evolved into Donruss and started producing trading cards. During th ...
issued a parallel Canadian set under the
Leaf
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...
name. The set was basically identical to the Donruss issues of the same years however it was bi-lingual. All the Leaf sets were produced in the United States.
There were several promotional issues issued by Canadian firms since Major League Baseball began in Canada in 1969. There were also several public safety sets issued, most notably the
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...
fire safety sets of the 1980s and early 1990s and the Toronto Public Libraries "Reading is fun" set of 1998 and 1999. These sets were distributed in the Toronto area. The cards were monolingual and only issued in English.
Japan
The first baseball cards appeared in Japan in the late 19th century. Unlike American cards of the same era, the cards utilized traditional Japanese pen-and-ink illustrations. In the 1920s, black-and-white photo postcards were issued, but illustrated cards were the norm until the 1950s. That decade brought about cards which incorporated photos of players, mostly in black and white.
Menko cards also became popular at the time.
NPB
or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''.
Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...
branded baseball cards are currently widely available in Japanese toy stores, convenience stores, sports stores, and as bonus items included in certain packages of potato chips.
United Kingdom
In 1987 and 1988 the American company
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...
issued two series of American baseball cards featuring cards from American and Canadian
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
teams in the UK. The full color cards were produced by Topps Republic of Ireland subsidiary company and contained explanations of baseball terms. Given baseball's lack of popularity in the United Kingdom, the issues were unsuccessful.
Latin America
Topps issued licensed sets in Venezuela from 1959 to 1977. Most of the set had Spanish in place of the English text on the cards and the sets included winter league players. There were locally produced cards depicting players from the winter leagues produced by Offset Venezolana C.A., Sport Grafico, and others which were in production until the late 1990s.
In Cuba, sets were issued first in the early 1900s. By the 1930s various candy, gum and chocolate makers were offering cards, most notably Baguer Chocolate. The post-World War Two era had cards issued by magazines, candy makers,
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
, and of course a gum company. In post
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
Cuba, baseball cards were still issued.
Several sets of
Mexican League
The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country.
The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...
baseball cards have been issued in the past few years.
American made cards of Major League Baseball players-Puerto Rican and internationals-are widely available in Puerto Rico.
Australia
Australian produced baseball cards were first released in 1990 by the then newly created trading card company
Futera
Futera is a trading card publisher founded in 1989. It is a privately owned company, its main markets being Asia, Europe, Australasia, US, with commercial and operational bases located in SE Asia, print and distribution facilities in UK/Europe an ...
. These cards featured players from the newly created
Australian Baseball League
The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it ...
. Subsequent baseball cards were released annually in boxed sets or foil packs until 1996 when declining interest saw production cease. No new baseball cards were released in Australia until Select Australia released six team sets of cards during the 2012-13 Australian Baseball League season. This was then followed up by Dingo Trading Cards releasing multiple baseball card team sets during the 2013-14 Australian Baseball League season.
Price guides
Price guides are used mostly to list the prices of different baseball cards in many different conditions. One of the most famous price guides is the Beckett price guide series. The Beckett price guide is a graded card price guide, which means it is graded by a 1–10 scale, one being the lowest possible score and ten the highest. In addition, Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) grades cards 1–10, and can authenticate autographs as well.
References
Relevant literature
*Dorinson, Joseph. "A Stack of Jewish Baseball Cards: Some Thoughts on Jews and the Roles They Have Played in the Major Leagues." ''Beyond Stereotypes: American Jews and Sports'' (2014), 1–18.
External links
Baseball collectionson Topps
on Panini America
baseball cardson Select Australia
{{Baseball
Baseball cards
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