Baseball cards have a long history in Baltimore dating back over a century. Some of the earliest baseball cards were produced in the late 1880s and featured players from the original Baltimore Orioles franchise that played in the American Association from 1882 to 1891 and then joined the National League in 1892.
While tobacco companies started producing baseball cards as promotional inserts in cigarettes in the late 1880s, some of the very first stand-alone baseball cards came from candy, gum, and cookie manufacturers looking to capitalize on the growing popularity of the national pastime. In 1887, the Baltimore based company Good & Plenty began inserting baseball cards into boxes of cookies featuring players from the hometown Baltimore Orioles team like John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson. These early Baltimore Orioles cards are now highly collectible among vintage baseball card enthusiasts.
In the early 1900s, tobacco companies like American Tobacco, Allen & Ginter, and Goodwin & Company began dominating the baseball card market by including cards as incentives to purchase their cigarette brands. Many of the top tobacco brands produced sets that featured both major and minor league players, including many from the Baltimore Terrapins and Baltimore Orioles International League teams that called the city home during this time period. Notable Baltimore players to appear on early tobacco era cards included Babe Ruth during his minor league years in Baltimore from 1914 to 1915 before his legendary career with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
The golden age of baseball cards is widely considered to be the post World War 2 era from the late 1940s through the 1960s. During this time, the top tobacco brands like Topps, Bowman, and Fleer produced high quality, colorful cards that have become some of the most coveted and valuable in the collectibles market today. Baltimore had two major league teams during this period, the original Baltimore Orioles that played in the American League from 1954 to 1972 before relocating to become the New York Yankees and then the new expansion Baltimore Orioles franchise that began play in 1954 and still calls Baltimore home today. Dozens of Hall of Fame caliber players like Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, and Frank Robinson had their early career accomplishments memorialized on vintage 1950s, 60s, and 70s Topps, Fleer, and Bowman cards while starring for the Baltimore Orioles.
In the 1970s, the baseball card market expanded dramatically with the rise of non-sports related trading card inserts included in packs of bubble gum. Topps Gum became the dominant baseball card producer during this decade, producing highly collectible sets that featured the likes of future Hall of Famers like Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr., and Mike Cuellar as they emerged as stars for the powerful Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1970s that won three straight American League Pennants and one World Series title in 1970. The 1970s also saw the rise of regional variations of Topps cards, with special “home town” photo variations inserted in packs sold locally. This meant Baltimore area collectors had a chance to find Orioles stars like Murray and Scott McGregor featured on special hometown variation cards during this period.
The 1980s saw the introduction of higher glossy photo quality cardboard stock for baseball cards from Topps and new competitors like Fleer and Donruss entering the market. This decade was perhaps the peak of popularity for collecting baseball cards among both kids and adults alike. For Baltimore fans, future Hall of Famers like Jim Palmer in the early 80s and then Cal Ripken Jr. in the latter half of the decade had their iconic baseball card images produced during this time as they established themselves as all-time great Baltimore Orioles. The early 90s saw the introduction of ultra premium sets like Topps Finest and Ultra that featured incredible photo quality and parallel short printed “hit” cards that drove new levels of excitement in the hobby. Stars of the 1990s Baltimore Orioles teams like Brady Anderson, Mike Mussina, and Roberto Alomar all had their career-defining baseball card images released during this decade.
In the late 80s through the 1990s, the baseball card market experienced explosive growth that unfortunately led to an overproduction of cards that flooded the secondary market. This caused a collapse in values of even the rarest vintage and modern rookie cards in the late 90s. The early 2000s saw the market stabilize somewhat but also saw new challenges like the rise of internet sales on eBay that disrupted the traditional brick and mortar hobby shop model. Through it all, Baltimore baseball icons like Rafael Palmeiro in the 1990s and then Miguel Tejada in the early 2000s had their rookie cards released during these transitional modern baseball card boom and bust eras.
Today, the baseball card market has found new stability with the rise of both high-end vintage reprints from companies like Topps Heritage as well as ultra-premium modern parallels and autograph cards inserted at unprecedented low print runs. While physical baseball cards have declined some in popularity compared to the 1980s peak, the collectibles market remains strong. For Baltimore fans both young and old, seeing the latest stars like Trey Mancini, Cedric Mullins, and John Means featured on modern Topps, Bowman, and Stadium Club cards connecting the past, present, and future of Baltimore baseball continues a tradition that began well over a century ago when the earliest cards brought the hometown heroes of the original Baltimore Orioles franchise to life for local collectors.
