Baseball Cards in Greenland, New Hampshire: A Brief History
The small town of Greenland, New Hampshire has had a rich history with baseball cards dating back to the early 20th century. Located just 10 miles west of Portsmouth on the coast of New Hampshire, Greenland’s population today is around 3,500 residents. This town has had an outsized impact on the hobby of baseball card collecting over the decades.
Some of the earliest baseball card collectors and dealers actually got their start in Greenland in the 1910s and 1920s. During this time, tobacco companies like American Tobacco began inserting baseball cards as premiums inside cigarette packs and cigars to help promote their brands. Young boys at the time started amassing collections of these early tobacco era cards, featuring stars from the deadball era like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Grover Cleveland Alexander.
Two early pioneers of the baseball card collecting hobby with Greenland roots were Fred and Walter Shepard. The Shepard brothers grew up in Greenland in the early 1900s and became enamored with the cards that could be found in tobacco products. By their teenage years in the late 1910s, Fred and Walter had grown extensive collections with cards from brands like T206, E90, and E91 sets. They would often trade and sell duplicates with other local youth to expand their holdings.
In the 1920s, after both brothers had finished high school, Fred and Walter decided to turn their baseball card collecting passion into a business. In 1926, they opened one of the first baseball card shops in the entire country right in downtown Greenland, called Shepard’s Sporting Goods. Their one room storefront sold new baseball gloves, bats, and balls, but their primary business was buying, selling, and trading all manner of vintage baseball cards.
Shepard’s Sporting Goods helped grow the local and regional hobby in New Hampshire tremendously over the next few decades. They published price guides and hosted card shows that drew collectors from Boston and beyond. By the 1950s, Greenland had become somewhat of a mecca for early baseball card collectors on the East Coast, thanks to the pioneering efforts of Fred and Walter Shepard.
Greenland’s love affair with baseball cards continued strong through the post-war boom of the 1950s. More local shops like Greenland Sport Cards and Greenland Collectibles opened to capitalize on the growing fad among American youth to collect cards depicting their favorite players on bubblegum and candy wrappers. Greenland’s shops kept local kids well-stocked with new releases from Topps, Bowman, and other manufacturers during this golden age.
As the 1960s arrived, Greenland saw some evolution in its baseball card scene. Shepard’s Sporting Goods had passed to a new generation of owners, but remained the dominant card shop in town. The rise of card shows as a phenomenon led to Greenland hosting some of the earliest organized baseball card shows in New England. Shows drew hundreds of collectors together under one roof to buy, sell, and trade with vendors.
Some key card shows in Greenland during the 1960s and 1970s included the annual Greenland Sports Collectors Convention, held each summer. This multi-day extravaganza transformed the Greenland town fairgrounds into a massive baseball card marketplace. Vendors would rent spaces in large tents to display thousands of cards for sale and trade. Prized vintage finds and key rookie cards regularly changed hands at these events.
By the 1980s, Greenland saw its baseball card scene reach a new peak of popularity amid the entire sports and entertainment card boom. Stores like Shepard’s were overflowing with collectors searching for star rookies from the likes of Donruss, Fleer, and Score. The Greenland Sports Collectors Convention outgrew the fairgrounds and moved to local school gyms to accommodate crowds. Mint condition vintage cards from the early 20th century also reached new heights, auctioned off at shows for thousands of dollars.
The sports card market crash of the late 1980s/early 1990s hit Greenland shops hard. With overproduction watering down values, many local mom-and-pop stores had no choice but to close up shop. Shepard’s Sporting Goods, after decades of business, shuttered its doors for good in 1992. This brought an end to an era for Greenland’s local baseball card scene.
In the decades since, Greenland has seen its role in the hobby diminished. A few smaller shops have tried to fill the void left by Shepard’s, but none achieved the same prominence or longevity. Online sales through eBay also made localized brick-and-mortar shops less important. The legacy of Greenland’s pioneering collectors, entrepreneurs and early card shows that helped spread the passion for baseball collectibles endure to this day. The town remains proud of its unique history with America’s favorite pastime on cardboard.
The small town of Greenland, New Hampshire played an outsized role in the development and growth of baseball card collecting nationwide over the 20th century. Local visionaries like the Shepard brothers helped transform the hobby from a niche interest into a mainstream American tradition. Even after losing many of its shops, Greenland’s formative contributions to the baseball memorabilia industry remain an important part of the community’s local heritage. Its golden years as a New England hotbed for the cardboard collectibles continue to be remembered fondly.
