The tradition of including baseball cards with gum dates back to the late 19th century when cigarette and tobacco companies began inserting promotional cards into their products. In the 1880s, companies like Allen & Ginter and Goodwin & Company started including illustrated cards depicting famous athletes and entertainers of the time in their cigarette packs. It wasn’t until the modern baseball card era in the late 1880s that the inclusion of gum with cards truly took off.
In 1886, the American Tobacco Company began the mass production and distribution of cigarette cards depicting baseball players as a way to market its brands. Concerns were rising over the health impacts of cigarettes, especially on children. Looking for a safer promotional item, in 1888 the American Caramel Company had the idea to include illustrated baseball cards in its packages of caramels and gum. This was one of the first instances of a modern baseball card being paired specifically with chewing gum.
The combination of baseball cards and gum really caught on in the early 1900s as the baseball card collecting hobby exploded in popularity across the United States. In 1909, the American Caramel Company was acquired by Fleer, and the new company greatly expanded production and distribution of its baseball cards included with gum products. Fleer’s Goudey Gum Company brand became the dominant manufacturer of these baseball cards and gum packs through the 1930s. Their cards from 1933 are some of the most highly sought after and valuable vintage issues today due to the high quality of the printing and statistics included on the backs.
In 1938, Topps Chewing Gum entered the baseball card market and quickly became the dominant manufacturer. They introduced innovative new designs like the first modern size card and the first photo on the front. Topps held a virtual monopoly on the baseball card and gum market from the late 1950s through the 1980s. During this “Golden Age” of Topps, their iconic designs like the red, white and blue borders became synonymous with the baseball card hobby. The inclusion of a stick of gum with each pack helped fuel children’s interest in collecting.
Topps faced some new competition in the baseball card industry in the late 1980s from Fleer and Donruss. However, Topps still controlled over 80% of the market. The baseball card and gum combination remained largely unchanged through this period. That started to shift in the early 1990s as concerns grew over the marketing of gum to children. In 1991, Leaf Trading Cards became one of the first manufacturers to offer non-gum incentives like stickers and puzzles with their baseball cards instead.
This marked the beginning of the end for the classic baseball card and gum pack tradition. Facing pressure over unhealthy foods marketed to kids, Topps and other manufacturers began phasing out gum in the mid-1990s. By 2000, Topps had removed gum entirely from its baseball card packs. They instead offered other small toys and collectibles. The memory and nostalgia of ripping open that familiar blue Topps wrapper to find a stick of Bubble Yum and the next baseball card lived on for collectors and fans of a certain generation.
While the direct pairing of baseball cards and gum has faded, the legacy lives on. Classic T206 tobacco cards from 1909 that were originally included in cigarette packs remain among the most coveted in the hobby. Vintage issues from the golden era of the 1930s-1950s when Goudey, Bowman, and Topps ruled the market paired cards and gum are highly collectible today. The original Topps design aesthetic defined the look of the modern baseball card. And the simple tactile pleasure of opening a pack to mix the surprise of the next player revelation with the anticipation of a stick of gum to enjoy lingers in collectors’ memories. After over a century together, the bond between baseball cards and gum remains unbreakable, even if the direct pairing has moved on.
In recent years, some manufacturers have experimented with limited retro releases that bring back the baseball card and gum combination. In 2011, Topps released a special “Gum in Every Pack” promotion for its flagship Series 1 set that included sticks of Topps Bubble Yum. The costs and distribution challenges involved with including gum means it likely won’t fully return as the norm. Still, occasional retro packs help keep the nostalgic tradition alive for collectors. And the memory of peeling back that wrapper to mix anticipation of the card within with the promise of a stick of gum to enjoy lives on as an iconic part of the history of the baseball card collecting hobby.
