Oh How They Change

1869, Cincinnati, Ohio- this is where the game of professional baseball originated and 150 years later, the game of baseball has been established as not only America’s pastime, but the original sport for fans to watch, idolize, and root for their favorite baseball team and favorite players. Fans and followers of the game very early on in the games existence had a way to interact and get involved with the players and important figures of the game, and this was collectible baseball cards. What started out as team photos glued to a piece of cardboard have grown into a passionate collectible hobby with deep roots spanning back to the mid 1800’s.

Due to the historical and cultural impact the game of baseball has had on America, baseball cards that people could get nearly for free in the early years of baseball have price tags in the thousands and even hundred thousands today. The first ever baseball card that was produced was a team photo of the Brooklyn Atlantics in the year 1865. At the time, Major League Baseball wasn’t even officially established but teams around the United States and regionally still held competitions within a non-established baseball league. For many, a baseball card was no more than what it was, a piece of cardboard with a photo glued to the front of it. The first baseball card was given to fans of the Brooklyn Atlantics before some of their games, and in 2013, the card that was given out as a giveaway with the price of admission was sold for $92,000. Baseball cards began to become more frequently produced and distributed to fans in the mid to late 1800’s which gave other industries an opportunity to partner with baseball and start including cards within their company’s product packaging.

In 1875, tobacco companies started putting baseball cards produced by Old Judge and Allen & Ginter free inside packs of cigarettes which at the time was a industry that had almost unlimited free range in advertising among radio, print, and stadium billboards. The health risks of cigarettes were not known of in the 1800’s and it wasn’t until 1970, almost a century after the first baseball cards were put in cigarette packs, that adverting of cigarettes on radio and TV were officially banned by the United States congress. While cigarette packs were the first form of an alternative industry promoting the game of baseball through inclusion of baseball cards in their products, baseball cards would continue to pop up in other industries packaging and continue so for many years to come.

At the turn of the century, in the 1900’s the game of baseball was gaining popularity among people in the United States and the organization of professional baseball was growing as a result of increased national popularity. With the game gaining popularity in the U.S, fans of the game were creating a demand for collectible items that were connected to the game in some way, shape, or form. In 1914- 1915 industries such as popcorn and a candy coated food referred to and popularized as “Cracker Jacks”, began putting a baseball card inside every package of their products. These cards were considered as a prize or an incentive for buying a box of popcorn, or Cracker Jacks and at the time, were just a card of a player or team photo, but became a hobby for many fans of the game. Fans would purchase a pack of Cracker Jack’s and begin collecting all of the cards they would get from the inside of the packaging. In the early 1930’s more products such as bubble gum would include baseball player cards and for the first time, people could see player stats on the front and back of them. This practice stuck and was used on some of the most notable and famous players at the time of production. With the rising popularity of the cards, the cards themselves began to change and evolve which led to newly invented features such as the “die cut”. The “die cut” was a feature in the baseball cards that gave them the ability to fold over the top and stand on their own. This gave people a way to take all of their baseball cards and stand them up on a shelf to show off their collectible displays instead of just stacking the cards or laying them out.

When the United States entered WW ll, production for many industries across the country went down and more production went towards producing military equipment and supplies that would be sent overseas and to stationed soldiers around the world. At the end of the war, baseball cards began to comeback as they were introduced in packages of Bowman’s gums and were called “leaf cards”. Unfortunately, the cards themselves had a very short shelf life as many of them were damaged or wrecked by the gum and powder from the stick packaging they were placed in. In the early 1950’s a company named Topps revolutionized the production and selling of baseball cards and become one of the most iconic and well known brands for the making of them. Baseball cards were well known at the time Topps entered into the card making competition, but Topps, unlike other manufactures of the product, would last thought the rest if the 20th century and become a company that is still known in the United States as iconic and well standing collectible making company today. Some of the cards that Topps made in the 1950’s such as the #311 Mickey Mantle, are being sold today for six figures. Topps, like many card making companies, would begin trying out new variations of their cards with cool innovative features such as the introduction of 3-D into their cards in 1968. While baseball cards at this time were only being known for collecting, they would soon begin being regarded in a term many had never even thought to associated with these chewing gum collectibles, value.

In 1979, a man by the name of James Beckett published the first ever baseball card price guide. This guide took cards that were made over the years and assigned value to each one depending on the player, the style, authenticity, condition, and many either features that added or took value away from the cards. This guide changed the way that people viewed baseball cards and it increased the age demographic of people who were interested in collecting them. Collecting of baseball cards slowly shifted from a childish hobby, to an adult hobby and while kids still collected baseball cards, many of them would hold on to them as they would become of some value many years later. The more that the game of Major League Baseball gained increasing national recognition, the more value cards from the game’s first 50 to 60 years increased in value. The hobby of collecting was evolving, and so were baseball cards themselves.

When cards began gaining value, Topps, and other companies began working on ways to make their cards stand out more and be more geared to investment- minded collectors. In 1989, Upper Deck Cards unveiled product features including, glossy cards, tamper proof packaging, a holographic logo, and intentionally low print runs. Features like these continued to be a part of baseball cards for the next quarter century with more value adding innovation such as players wearing game worn jerseys, cards with player signatures on the front, etc.

Baseball has come a long way from where it began over 150 years ago, but the creation, growth, and innovation of baseball cards has helped in keeping an interest in the game and the players that made it America’s pastime. In 2013, Topps made and displayed a 90 ft by 60 ft player card of MLB first baseman Prince Fielder. It was laid out across across a little league outfield and it was a display that reminded people how much baseball is still idolized and cherished not only by the youth that play and follow the sport today, but the adults young and old that grew up collecting cards and integrating themselves into the game many still regard as “America’s Pastime”.