The tradition of including baseball cards with gum is an integral part of the history and collecting of baseball cards. In the late 19th century, cigarettes and trade cards were popular collectibles that laid the groundwork for what would become modern sports cards. In 1894, American Tobacco Company began inserting trade cards into cigarette packs, beginning the tradition of including non-sports related collectibles inside tobacco products.
It was not until the 1930s that popular American brands Franklin Mint and Goudey Gum Company began inserting sports cards, primarily featuring Major League Baseball players, inside packs of chewing gum. Their release in 1933 is considered the beginning of modern sports cards collecting. The1933 Goudey Baseball Cards set included only 161 cards, making complete sets highly desirable among collectors today. They featured iconic stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx among the original “ballplayers gum cards.”
The inclusion of gum served both a marketing and collecting purpose for card companies. It helped introduce kids to new gum brands while giving them an incentive collect and trade the enclosed baseball cards. For card manufacturers, it provided major brand exposure at retail while making the cards themselves more enticing purchases for children. The gum also helped keep the cards in better condition by preventing messy fingers during trade sessions in schoolyards and parks.
Several gum brands released highly collectible and valuable baseball card sets in the 1930s such as Goudey (1933-1941), Play Ball (1939), and War Time Rations (1944). It was Topps who would come to dominate the baseball cards market for decades starting in 1951 with their first full set. Topps signed exclusive deals with both MLB and the players union allowing them to be the sole issuer of new baseball cards each year starting in the 1950s.
Through the 1930s to 1950s, cards included with bubblegum were typically sold for 1-5 cents per pack. They became a popular and affordable way for kids to collect their favorite players each year. As Topps took control of the baseball card market, they established the production model of including 5-10 cards in wax-wrapped packs of gum that remains mostly unchanged today. The Topps design became iconic for generations, featuring a simple 1-card wrapper containing both gum and the enclosed player cards.
The inclusion of gum with baseball cards certainly helped drive Topps’ dominance and establish them as the most valuable vintage sets for collectors today. High-grade examples of the early Topps issues from the 1950s in particular command some of the highest prices in the hobby, as these sets helped kick off the golden age of baseball card collecting among the baby boomer generation. While prices have fluctuated over the years, complete sets from 1952, 1954 and 1957 Topps in near-mint to mint condition can fetch over $10,000 today due to their scarcity and nostalgic appeal.
Individual “gum cards” have also shattered records at auction. In 2021, a pristine 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card graded mint condition by PSA sold for $5.2 million, setting the new record for most expensive trading card ever sold. Such sky-high values demonstrate just how iconic these early Topps issues including the scarce high-grade examples have become as premium vintage sports collectibles after decades being cherished.
As the decades went on, the baseball card and bubblegum partnership helped fuel unprecedented growth in the industry. By the 1980s, over 500 million cards were being printed annually by main issuer Topps. The glut of production and less gum consumption saw certain brands begin exploring other incentives besides gum to package cards. By the late 1980s, brands like Donruss and Fleer had transitioned away completely from using gum, instead inserting premium cards, stickers or other non-food prizes in sealed plastic packages or resealable cello bags.
While no longer the primary inclusion, gum has still retained some nostalgic appeal in modern baseball cards releases. Topps for example continued including a few cards and stick of gum in foil-wrapped packs through the 1990s before shifting to cello-wrapped “wax” packs minus gum entirely. Brands like Topps, Leaf, and Donruss have since released throwback “gum packs” at anniversaries recreating the classic designs. Also, modern brands like Inception focus specifically on building sets to resemble the original pre-1980s gum packed issues right down to including sticker bubblegum inside.
So while the heyday of chewing gum tightly linked to baseball cards collecting has passed, the symbiotic connection between the two helped fuel unprecedented growth and popularity for both industries during their peak era of the 1930s through 1980s. The tradition of including cards with confections popularized the baseball card hobby and gave rise to our most iconic and valuable vintage issues still coveted by collectors worldwide today. The idea of surprise incentives included with a child’s favorite sports stars paved the way for today’s modern trading card landscape.
