Baseball cards have been a beloved pastime for collectors across the United States for over a century. In San Diego, the hobby has a very rich history and continues to thrive today with a vibrant collecting community. From the early tobacco cards of the late 1800s to the modern era of inserts, parallels and memorabilia cards, baseball cards have long captured the imagination of both casual and serious collectors in America’s Finest City.
Some of the earliest references to baseball card collecting in San Diego date back to the 1930s and 1940s. Newspapers from this period include advertisements for local shops selling boxes of cigarettes that came with baseball trading cards inserted in the packs. Brands like Topps, Bowman and Goudey produced these original tobacco cards that featured both major and minor league players. With multiple military bases located in the area as well, servicemen would often send boxes of these cards back home to young relatives and friends in San Diego, fueling the growing interest in assembling complete sets.
Into the 1950s, the penny arcade business began to boom in San Diego. Places like Pacific Beach Amusement Center had a strong baseball memorabilia presence, giving kids a fun place to trade and buy cards, bubblegum, programs and other collectibles. The ’50s also saw the birth of the modern baseball card era as Topps gained the exclusive rights to produce cards as a standalone product divorced from tobacco promotion. Their iconic designs from this decade are still considered some of the most coveted and valuable in the hobby today by both local and national collectors.
The 1960s was a transformative period for the city of San Diego in many ways. New stadiums like San Diego Stadium (now SDCCU Stadium) and Jack Murphy Stadium (now SDCCU Stadium) were built, bringing Major League Baseball to town with the arrival of the Padres franchise in 1969. This triggered an enormous surge in baseball fever across the region. Card collecting boomed in tandem with the team’s debut, as Padres rookies and stars saw their rookie cards snapped up at a record pace by excited fans.
Local card shops could barely keep products on shelves in the ’60s and ’70s to meet demand. Places like Bob’s Sports Cards in Clairemont and Stadium Sports Cards in Mission Valley were hugely popular hangouts. It wasn’t uncommon for shops to host trading card shows and conventions on weekends that would draw hundreds of collectors. San Diego also began to produce some talented card designers who got their start in the business during this golden age, like Dick Perez who worked for Topps and Fleer.
Into the 1980s and ‘90s, the card collecting scene in San Diego remained vibrant despite challenges posed by the rise of new hobbies and technologies. The opening of Hobby Stores USA in Kearny Mesa and Comic Kingdom in Mission Valley provided collectors an entertaining shopping experience complete with all the latest releases. The sports memorabilia industry also took some hits during this period. In response to concerns over gambling and the use of cards for wagering, the California legislature passed a law in 1989 banning the sale of packs of cards with more than one collectible enclosed. This shut many smaller shops down overnight.
Nevertheless, dedicated collectors kept the passion alive. The 1990s saw unprecedented interest in vintage cards from the 1950s and 1960s following a renaissance of nostalgia in popular culture. Estate sales became a favorite place for local collectors to scour for undiscovered treasures. Meanwhile, the internet was beginning to transform the hobby by making it possible to easily research, buy and sell cards online—opening up a whole new world of possibilities for collectors in San Diego and beyond.
In the 21st century, San Diego’s baseball card community has maintained its prominence on the West Coast scene. Local conventions like the San Diego Sport Collectibles Show annually draw thousands of attendees for a full weekend of buying, selling and networking. Prominent national and international dealers with brick-and-mortar presences have also set up shop locally, such as PWCC and Steel City Collectibles. Collectors now have access to virtually unlimited information and markets online as well through websites, auctions, social media, blogs and podcasts.
The San Diego Padres have further fueled interest with their exciting teams and young stars of today including Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Yu Darvish. Their modern rookies and uniforms are hotly anticipated in the current crop of Topps, Bowman and Panini cards. Vintage Padres cards remain a specialty area for collectors seeking out rare 1960s/1970s issues. But interest also extends to all of Major League Baseball history represented in the card hobby. Local shows provide a fun social experience for enthusiasts of all ages to come together around their shared passion.
Through its storied past and vibrant present scene, San Diego has cemented itself as a major baseball card collecting hub on a national scale. Multigenerational local families continue passing down the tradition, while an influx of transplants also brings new collectors into the fold. With the city’s love of America’s pastime going strong, its rich card collecting heritage will surely remain an integral part of the culture for many years to come. The unique blend of nostalgia, art, history and competition contained within a single baseball card retains immense appeal and community value in America’s Finest City.
