Ed Collins was a pioneering publisher of baseball cards in the late 19th century. While baseball cards had been produced sporadically before the 1880s, it was Collins who helped popularize them and bring the hobby of collecting baseball cards to the mainstream. His company, the American Card Company, dominated the baseball card market for over a decade and produced some of the most iconic and valuable early cards that are sought after by collectors to this day.
Collins was born in Massachusetts in 1855 and started his career working for a lithography company based in Boston. In the 1880s, he saw the potential of baseball cards as a new product and in 1887 he left his job to start his own company dedicated to producing them. His timing was excellent, as baseball was growing rapidly in popularity across America in the post-Civil War era. Collins recognized that cards featuring photos of star players could appeal both to children and to the growing number of baseball fans.
The American Card Company’s first series was issued in 1887 and featured photos of star players from that season’s National League teams. Each card measured approximately 2 1/4 x 3 inches and featured a black-and-white photo of the player in uniform on the front, along with their name and team. On the back was a small biography and career stats. Some of the huge stars featured in that first set included Cap Anson, Mike “King” Kelly, and Jim O’Rourke. The cards sold for one cent each and were inserted randomly in packs of cigarettes and tobacco products, making them very accessible to the public.
Over the next decade, Collins issued over a dozen different series of baseball cards through the American Card Company, producing hundreds of individual player cards. The quality and size of the photos improved over the years. Sets from the late 1880s and early 1890s are among the most valuable to collectors today, as they captured the stars of the 19th century at the dawn of professional baseball such as Buck Ewing, Roger Connor, and Kid Nichols. In 1891, Collins also issued the first complete team sets, with cards showing each player from that season’s National League clubs.
The American Card Company had the baseball card market largely to itself in the early 1890s. Competition emerged as the decade went on. In 1894, the Mayo Cut Plug Tobacco Company began issuing colorful, illustrated cards as part of its tobacco products. Then in 1895, the Tobacco Card News Company issued sets highlighting players and teams from both major leagues of the time, the National League and upstart American Association. These new competitors cut into Collins’ market share.
Always quick to adapt, Collins responded with some of his most impressive and innovative sets in the mid-1890s. In 1894, he issued cards with color lithographs of players, a first for baseball cards. Then in 1896, he produced a hugely popular set highlighting the first modern World Series between the National League’s Baltimore Orioles and the American Association’s Brooklyn Superbas. Featuring both teams in full-color lithographs, the 1896 World Series set helped cement the World Series as a major annual sporting event.
By the late 1890s the golden age of tobacco insert cards was coming to an end. New regulations banned trading cards from being included in tobacco products due to concerns over marketing to children. This was a huge blow to Collins and the American Card Company’s business model. They tried issuing sets through other retail channels but never regained their dominance. The company stopped producing baseball cards after the turn of the century.
While short-lived, Collins’ American Card Company left an immense legacy. They essentially established the modern baseball card format that is still used over 120 years later. Their pioneering sets from the late 1880s and 1890s featured the first baseball card superstars and capture a key moment in the growth of professional baseball. Their rarity and historical significance make high-grade specimens from sets like 1887, 1888, 1889, and 1891 among the most valuable cards in the world today, often fetching six figures at auction.
Ed Collins helped start the enduring hobby of baseball card collecting. Even after over a century, the cards and players he featured remain iconic touchstones of the early professional game. His American Card Company dominated the new market he helped create and issued many of the formative issues that collectors still seek out today. Collins was a shrewd businessman who recognized opportunity in popularizing baseball through affordable, mass-produced cards. In doing so, he ensured the early stars of the national pastime would be preserved for generations of future fans.
