Arts Entertainments

The origins and popularity of baseball cards

Baseball cards have been popular with adults and children in love with the game and the focus of collectors since they were first distributed. These cards were originally produced as a marketing vehicle, but with the rise in popularity of baseball, these trading cards have become a more valuable commodity.

Baseball became a professional sport in the late 1860s, around the same time that photography was also gaining recognition. Baseball clubs soon began posing for group and individual photos that were printed on small cards. These cards were the size of wallet photos and were used by a variety of companies to promote their businesses. Advertised products had no connection to baseball until in 1868 a New York sporting goods store called Peck and Snyder began producing trade cards featuring baseball teams. The typical card featured an image on one side and advertising on the other.

In the late 19th century, cards with images of baseball players could be found inside cigarette packs. This was not only done for promotional purposes, but also to protect the cigarettes from damage. In the early 1900s, tobacco and confectionery companies began producing and distributing baseball cards with their products. A candy company called Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein was one of the first to include boxed prizes. In 1914 they produced Cracker Jack card editions featuring major league players.

Production of baseball cards declined during World War I until the economy moved away from wartime production. The economic effects of the Great Depression also had an impact on the production of baseball cards. The popular 1933 edition of the Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig cards from the Goudey Gum Co. once again revived significant production. These cards had hand-colored player photos on the front, and personal information and short biographies on the back.

During the 1940s, a major producer of baseball cards was the Bowman Gum Company. Its biggest competitor was the Topps Gum Company, which eventually bought Bowman and monopolized the US baseball card market for the next two decades. Other players emerged during the 1960s when Post Cereals issued cards on cereal boxes and Jell-O included identical cards on the back of their packages. During the 1970s, Kellogg’s produced 3D cards inside their cereal, and Hostess printed them on their packages of baked goods.

The 1980s saw an increase in collectors entering the hobby market as higher-quality cardstocks, tamper-evident foil packaging, and hologram-style logos fetched higher premiums for cards. With the popularity of computers and Internet access in the late 1990s, hobby retail stores and trade shows saw a decline in business as online transactions took away most of their customer base. customers.

Baseball cards have also been popular around the world. Canada followed in the same historical footsteps as the US by first selling trading cards and then issuing them through tobacco products and later gum and candy. Baseball card games also appeared in Japan as early as 1898, although they used traditional Japanese pen and ink illustrations. Topps Gum Co. issued licensed games in Venezuela from 1959 to 1977 with Spanish text on the cards, and Cuba issued games in the early 20th century.

What started out as a clever marketing ploy aimed primarily at adults has led to a growing market of collectors and historians trading and selling, hoping to acquire thousands of dollars worth of vintage baseball cards.

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