Baseball cards have been an integral part of American culture and childhood nostalgia since the late 19th century. While the modern baseball card collecting hobby blossomed across the United States in the post-World War II era, the town of Howell, New Jersey played an important early role in the development of this pastime.
Located in Monmouth County, Howell emerged as a hotbed for baseball card collecting and dealing in the 1950s and 1960s. This was largely due to the efforts of local entrepreneur and baseball memorabilia expert Harvey Rothenberg. A lifelong baseball fan, Rothenberg opened his store Harvey’s Cards in downtown Howell in 1952, which quickly became a mecca for collectors up and down the East Coast seeking to buy, sell, and trade cards.
Rothenberg had a keen business sense and recognized the untapped potential of the fledgling baseball card market in the early post-war period. While other card shops at the time focused mainly on selling packs of new cards, Rothenberg made Harvey’s Cards the first store to specialize exclusively in vintage cards from the early 20th century. He amassed an enormous inventory by placing ads in sports magazines and newspapers asking collectors to sell or trade their old card collections.
This innovative model helped spark new interest in collecting older and rare cards as valuable commodities. Rothenberg’s expertise and extensive stock, which he meticulously organized and displayed, drew collectors from far outside Monmouth County. Harvey’s Cards soon gained a national reputation as the premier destination for serious vintage card collectors and dealers. Throughout the 1950s, Rothenberg’s store in many ways defined and led the emerging market trends in the modern baseball card collecting hobby.
In addition to building his inventory, Rothenberg also helped collectors learn more about the history and value of different baseball cards through informational guides, price lists, and his own extensive knowledge. He introduced concepts like card grading that are still used today. Rothenberg also cultivated relationships with the biggest names in the hobby, often hosting visiting collectors at his store and home. Figures like Bill Haber, the “Father of Sports Collecting,” frequently came to Howell to do business with Rothenberg.
The success of Harvey’s Cards had a catalytic effect on Howell itself. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, the town became a mecca for collectors every weekend as they flocked to Rothenberg’s store and nearby motels. Other card shops and sports memorabilia businesses soon opened to capitalize on the booming hobby. Howell earned the nickname “Cardboard City” as its downtown was transformed into a baseball card collecting destination.
Major card and coin shows were regularly held in local armories and convention centers, drawing thousands. Many out-of-town collectors made the pilgrimage to Howell part of their annual routine. The town embraced its new identity, with local diners and shops proudly displaying their “Cardboard City” monikers. For a period, it seemed nearly every business and resident in Howell had some connection to the baseball card trade.
Harvey Rothenberg’s pioneering efforts in Howell helped lay the foundation for the immense popularity and commercialization of baseball card collecting that exploded in the 1970s and 1980s. When the modern era of mass-produced wax packs began in the late 1960s, Rothenberg’s shop was there to supply collectors with the vintage cards and memorabilia to complement their new collections. Though he passed away in 1980, Harvey’s Cards remained a fixture in Howell until closing in the 1990s.
By that point, the town’s heyday as a mecca for the hobby had faded as card shows and shops proliferated across the country. But Howell will always hold an important place in baseball card history as the birthplace of the modern collecting movement. Today, the legacy of “Cardboard City” lives on as a source of local pride and nostalgia for longtime Howell residents who came of age amidst the booming baseball card scene of the mid-20th century. Harvey Rothenberg’s pioneering spirit ensured Howell’s place in the annals of sports collecting history.
