Baseball cards have a long history in Adelaide, dating back to the late 19th century when the sport first gained popularity in the city. Some of the earliest baseball cards produced featured Adelaide-based players and teams. While the hobby grew internationally in the 1900s and 1950s, baseball card collecting remained a niche pastime in Australia for many decades. Interest in the history of the sport and memorabilia from early Adelaide baseball has seen collecting rise in the city in recent years.
One of the first baseball card sets featuring Adelaide was issued in 1887 by Goodall & Co, a local confectionery manufacturer. The cards were included in packages of sweets and gum as a promotional item. Featuring images of players from the Adelaide Baseball Club, South Adelaide Baseball Club and Norwood Baseball Club, the cards helped raise the profile of the sport in the city. Only a small number of the Goodall cards are known to exist today, making them highly valuable for collectors.
In the early 20th century, cigarette companies began inserting baseball cards in packs as incentives. In 1903, Wills’s Cigarettes issued a set featuring players from across Australia, including several based in Adelaide at the time. The Wills cards helped spread interest in baseball card collecting beyond the city. Production of local cards was sporadic in the following decades as the hobby remained niche. It wasn’t until the 1950s that dedicated baseball card companies like Topps began including Australian players in their expansive international sets.
A key development came in the 1960s when Topps signed an exclusive licensing deal with the Australian Baseball Federation to produce annual baseball card sets featuring the country’s top domestic leagues and national teams. For the first time, collectors in Adelaide and nationwide had access to affordable, mass-produced cards focused specifically on Australian baseball. Players from the highly competitive South Australian Major League that operated from 1947 to 1990 received regular coverage in the Topps annual issues.
The 1970s marked the peak popularity of baseball cards in Adelaide. With the sport gaining increased mainstream attention nationally thanks to media coverage and the first World Baseball Classic held in Australia in 1975, collecting boomed. Local card shops and hobby stores stocked the latest Topps releases alongside emerging competitors like Donruss. Meanwhile, the emergence of extensive baseball card shows and conventions saw collectors in Adelaide able to trade, sell and learn more about the expanding hobby.
As interest in baseball waned in Australia from the 1980s onward following the rise of other sports, so too did card collecting. Production of Australian baseball cards ended after Topps’ license expired in the 1990s. Local hobby stores phased out stock of the items. A dedicated core of collectors in Adelaide helped preserve the history and memorabilia from the sport’s early days in the city. Groups like the South Australian Baseball Museum work to archive rare local cards and share the stories behind the players and teams they depict.
In recent years, renewed interest in baseball among younger Australians as well as the growth of online communities has seen card collecting experience a revival in Adelaide. Vintage local issues from the 19th/early 20th century command high prices at auctions as their rarity is appreciated. Meanwhile, annual baseball card shows in the city regularly attract over 100 attendees as both casual fans and serious investors trade and sell. New independent companies have also emerged producing limited edition modern sets focused on the sport’s heritage in Australia to appeal to collectors.
Adelaide’s rich baseball history is now represented through both the preservation of rare early cards but also a modern thriving hobby scene. From the first Goodall promotions to the Topps glory years, baseball cards have helped document the individuals and teams that built the foundation for the sport locally over generations. Collecting also keeps interest alive in the city’s proud baseball past.
