The first year that Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. produced baseball cards as the standard for the collecting industry was in 1952. Before Topps entered the market, other chewing gum and candy companies had produced baseball cards as premiums and promotions to help drive sales of their products in the 1940s and very early 1950s. However, Topps is credited with beginning the modern age of baseball cards when they acquired the license from Bowman Gum in 1951 and dramatically increased production and distribution for the 1952 season.

Some key facts and details about the first Topps baseball card set from 1952:

Topps had recently gained the exclusive licensing rights for Major League Baseball players after outbidding Bowman Gum. This allowed Topps to use actual photos of the players on the cards rather than artist renditions.

The 1952 Topps set contained a total of 72 cards that featured players from both the American and National Leagues. The cards had a pink border with yellow writing and each card measured approximately 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, which became the standard size for decades to come.

Production went from around 50 million cards in 1950 from Bowman to over 200 million cards for the 1952 Topps set, showing their commitment and resources to make baseball cards a mass-market product. Distribution included drug stores, candy shops, five-and-dime stores, and other retail locations.

Unlike previous issues that were just limited to team sets, Topps had players grouped together alphabetically by last name on the cards rather than by specific teams. This was done both for the collecting/organization aspect as well as to get players from multiple clubs on cards kids may not typically collect otherwise and spark additional interest.

While most cards featured a single current player, there were also rookie cards issued for players like Hank Aaron, Don Drysdale, Willie Mays, and Harvey Kuenn among others in their first Topps sets. These early cards of future Hall of Famers are now highly valuable to collectors.

The photography quality had improved significantly from prior card issues, with crisper images on a standard size that made the cards perfect for organization in albums. Photo selection was still evolving and not all cards included the player’s team uniform or team name.

On the back of each card was a lot of uniform and career statistics for the player such as batting average, home runs, RBI, career win-loss record for pitchers, etc. This statistical information was a big innovation to help fans learn more about the players.

While the 1952 set is not considered the most valuable overall, high-grade examples of stars like Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial, and Whitey Ford have sold for well over $10,000 individually due to their significance as the first modern baseball cards.

The immense popularity of the 1952 Topps set established the company as the leader in the sports card industry going forward. They continued to sign exclusive deals and produce higher quality cards each year. Within a few short years, collecting Topps baseball cards had become a mainstream hobby for millions of American children and fans.

That original 1952 Topps baseball card set truly kicked off the entire baseball card collecting category as we now know it. The foundations they established like licensed player photos, uniform statistical info, and mass distribution methods served as the blueprint for Topps and other card companies for decades and helped transform baseball cards into both a storied part of the game’s history as well as a highly valuable collectibles category.

The inaugural 1952 Topps baseball card set was hugely significant as the first widely distributed modern issue to featured licensed MLB photos and standardized the size, design elements, and production quality that provided the framework for the entire sports collecting industry in subsequent years. While old examples can be quite rare and pricey today for the most valuable stars, the historical and cultural impact of that groundbreaking initial Topps set cannot be overstated in terms of how it popularized baseball cards as both a mainstream hobby and collectibles market.