Baseball cards have long captured the nostalgia of America’s pastime, and the city of Oakland, California has deep roots in the collectible card industry. From humble beginnings in the late 19th century to the modern boom in memorabilia culture, Oakland has played an important role in the story of baseball cards.
One of the earliest known baseball card sets was produced in the late 1880s by a small tobacco company in Oakland called Goodwin & Company. Their 1887 set featured 22 cards of players from both the National League and American Association. While rudimentary by today’s standards with simple black and white illustrations and no statistics, the Goodwin cards helped establish the concept of trading cards inserted in tobacco products that would become commonplace in the early 1900s.
In 1909, the American Tobacco Company began producing what is considered the first modern baseball card set with their T206 series. Featuring intricate color portraits and player stats on the reverse, the T206 set became one of the most coveted in the hobby. American Tobacco operated a large factory and distribution center in Oakland that was integral to mass producing the cards on a national scale. For several years, Oakland served as the primary production and shipping hub for these early tobacco era sets that helped popularize baseball card collecting.
During the 1920s and 30s, several smaller regional tobacco brands based in Oakland also issued baseball cards, though in much smaller print runs that the national companies. Brands like Piedmont, Sovereign, and Bayuk produced localized sets featuring both major and minor league players popular on the West Coast. While scarce today, these early Oakland tobacco issues captured the rise of regional fanbases and talent that would come to define teams like the Oakland Oaks and Oakland Oaks.
After World War 2, the baseball card boom truly took off with the advent of modern printing techniques allowing for photo reproductions and full color on a mass scale. In 1948, Bowman Gum opened a large production plant in East Oakland and immediately became a leader in the post-war card surge. For several years, Bowman Gum’s Oakland factory was one of the primary creators of sets that featured stars like Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays and early Oakland Oaks players.
Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Oakland’s economy shifted away from tobacco, but collectibles remained an important part of the city’s identity. Independent card companies like Topps and Fleer opened local distribution centers in Oakland to efficiently supply the West Coast with their newest releases. Meanwhile, the city’s minor league team, the Oakland Oaks continued to be featured in many regional issues of the time as one of the top farm clubs on the Pacific Coast League.
As the baseball card boom transitioned to the modern memorabilia era in the 1970s, Oakland again found itself at the forefront of innovation. Entrepreneurs like Bill Haber and Mike Aronstein founded the pioneering sports memorabilia company, Pacific Trading Cards in Oakland. Their innovative use of oddball materials like jersey swatches and autographs in packs helped transform cards from disposable treats to treasured collectibles. By the 1980s, Pacific Trading Cards had become the largest sports memorabilia company in the world.
When the Oakland Athletics made their dramatic move from Kansas City in 1968, it reconnected the city to major league fandom. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, A’s stars like Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers and Rickey Henderson graced the fronts of the biggest card issues from Topps, Donruss and Fleer. Parallel to this, local hobby shops in Oakland like Frank & Sons Collectibles and East Bay Sports Cards thrived, cementing the city’s reputation as a hotbed for baseball card collecting in Northern California.
Today, the legacy of Oakland’s baseball card history lives on. National conventions like the National Sports Collectors Convention and Burbank Sports Card Show regularly draw thousands of attendees, while local shops like East Bay Sports continue catering to the thriving memorabilia community. Meanwhile, the Athletics organization has fully embraced its alumni tradition, with old Oakland stars prominently featured in throwback uniform nights and special card releases from Topps and other companies. From its earliest roots producing tobacco era cards over a century ago to pioneering the modern memorabilia boom, the city of Oakland helped shape baseball cards into the iconic American pastime it remains today.
