Baseball cards have been a beloved part of American culture for over a century, chronicling the players, teams, and history of our national pastime. While the industry is now a global billion-dollar business, there was a time when baseball cards were simply a fun hobby for kids across the country. In the small town of Ooltewah, Tennessee, located just outside of Chattanooga, a group of entrepreneurs helped shape the early baseball card industry and bring joy to collectors everywhere.
In the late 1800s, tobacco companies like American Tobacco Company began inserting baseball cards into cigarette packs as a marketing gimmick. This helped introduce the cards to a mass audience and kicked off the baseball card craze. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the modern baseball card collecting hobby truly took off. Brothers Lester and Clarence Hamby of Ooltewah saw an opportunity. In 1933, they started the Hamby Card Company, one of the first dedicated baseball card publishers.
At the time, most baseball cards were still produced by cigarette manufacturers. But the Hamby brothers saw demand from collectors who wanted cards that weren’t associated with tobacco products. Their company focused solely on producing high-quality baseball cards featuring the biggest players and teams of the day. Some of their earliest and most coveted sets included 1933 Goudey and 1935 Diamond Stars. These sets introduced innovations like color photos, statistical information on the back, and dedicated designs that set them apart from cigarette inserts of the time.
The Hamby Card Company was a pioneer in direct marketing to young collectors as well. They advertised aggressively in hobby publications and mailed catalogs to customers. This helped foster a community of dedicated baseball card fans. The company also introduced the concept of parallel sets, with variations in design, photos, and statistics. This added to the collecting hobby and increased demand for complete sets. By the late 1930s, the Hamby Card Company had become one of the largest and most respected names in the fledgling baseball card industry.
World War 2 brought challenges. Shortages of materials like paper made mass production of cards difficult during the war years. After the war ended, the Hamby brothers decided to get out of the baseball card business and focus on other ventures. They sold the Hamby Card Company in 1946 to another pioneer, the Bowman Gum Company. Bowman had been producing popular sets inserted in gum packs since 1948. The purchase helped Bowman become the dominant baseball card publisher for much of the post-war era.
While the Hamby brothers stepped aside, their impact on the hobby was immense. They helped transition baseball cards from a novelty insert to a serious collecting category. Their innovative marketing and parallel sets introduced key concepts that are still used in sports cards today. Some of their rarest early Goudey and Diamond Stars issues from the 1930s remain among the most desirable in the hobby, fetching tens of thousands of dollars in auctions. The Hamby Card Company put the small town of Ooltewah, Tennessee on the map for serious baseball card collectors worldwide.
In the 1950s and 60s, Bowman and Topps became the dominant publishers. But the hobby started to decline in the 1970s with the rise of new entertainment options. Still, dedicated collectors in Ooltewah and around the country kept the flame alive for baseball cards. Then, in the late 1980s, the hobby experienced a massive renaissance driven by nostalgia, increased discretionary income, and speculation. Iconic rookie cards from the 1950s skyrocketed in value, putting the original Hamby issues from the 1930s out of reach of most collectors except the extremely wealthy. Today, baseball cards remain a multi-billion dollar industry.
While the Hamby Card Company has been forgotten by many, its influence looms large over the modern collecting world. The brothers established many of the fundamental practices that made baseball cards a serious part of popular culture. From their home in Ooltewah, Tennessee, they helped spark imaginations, build communities, and preserve history. Even after all these years, the legacy of the pioneering Hamby Card Company lives on through the joy their classic cards continue to bring to collectors and fans everywhere. The small town of Ooltewah played a bigger role in the business of baseball than many realize, thanks to two innovative brothers who forever changed the hobby.
