Hobby Lobby began as an art supplies store in Oklahoma City in 1972. Founded by David Green, it has since grown into one of the largest privately held arts and crafts retailers in the world. Over the past few decades, Hobby Lobby has amassed one of the largest private collections of baseball trading cards and related sports memorabilia in existence.
Baseball cards have been produced and collected by fans for over 150 years. They first emerged as a popular collectible during the late 19th century when cigarette and tobacco companies included lithographed cards featuring baseball players in their products. The Old Judge and Goodwin & Company brands issued some of the earliest major sets of baseball cards during the late 1880s. Production ramped up significantly through the early 1900s as the burgeoning tobacco industry realized cards were a popular marketing tool.
By the mid-20th century, the modern era of dedicated sports card production was underway. Companies like Topps, Fleer, and Bowman began issuing annual sets exclusively devoted to baseball players each season. This helped solidify trading cards as a mainstream hobby. Collectors would eagerly await the release of the new year’s cards to find rookie cards of up-and-coming players and chase after stars of the day.
It was during the 1950s that David Green first caught the collecting bug himself. As a young boy growing up in Oklahoma, he began amassing cards featuring the stars of that era like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron. This initial passion would eventually blossom into one of the most extensive collections in the world. By the 1990s, Hobby Lobby had been successfully operating for over 15 years and Green had identified collecting cards as a worthwhile investment opportunity as values continued rising steadily.
Hobby Lobby soon began actively pursuing acquisition of complete sets, rare individual cards, autographed memorabilia, and other related items showcasing the history of baseball. Early tobacco sets from the 1880s-1890s were of particular interest as the rarest and most valuable within the collecting community. The company earned a reputation amongst dealers as an aggressive buyer with deep pockets willing to pay top dollar for elite pieces to add to their holdings.
In subsequent years, Hobby Lobby pulled off numerous major coups. One acquisition was a near-complete run of the historic 1909-1911 T206 tobacco series, regarded by many as the most iconic set of all-time due to the dazzling color portraits and inclusion of hall of famers like Honus Wagner, Cy Young, and Ty Cobb. Another was a pristine 1968 Topps complete set containing the ultra-rare rookie card of Nolan Ryan, widely considered the single most valuable baseball card in existence today at auction prices upwards of $500,000.
By the late 1990s, Hobby Lobby had amassed one of the top five collections worldwide and the finest institutional one in America. Major holdings included prized possessions like a PSA Gem Mint T206 Wagner, virtually every key pre-war tobacco issue, and comprehensive runs of 1950s/60s/70s Topps and Fleer sets primed for growth. Each year, new acquisitions were made to strengthen identified weak areas. Behind the scenes, an entire team was devoted to cataloging, grading, storing, and displaying portions of the growing treasure trove.
The 21st century has only served to further expand the scope and prominence of Hobby Lobby’s baseball card collection. Multimillion-dollar auctions, private sales, and donations have all played a role. A serious focus has also been placed on acquiring unique, one-of-a-kind artifacts not found elsewhere such as uncut prototype sheets, test printings, autographed artwork, and other promotional materials. Some highlights from recent times include a signed Babe Ruth model bat from the 1920s and an unopened case of 1984 Fleer featuring rookie cards of Ryne Sandberg and Don Mattingly.
Today, the Hobby Lobby collection stands as one of the finest representations of the rich history of baseball card publishing ever amassed under one roof. Comprised of hundreds of thousands of individual items, it features complete or near-complete runs of the most significant sets from the 19th century origins all the way through modern productions. Such an exhaustive assemblage is truly unmatched by all but a small handful of the world’s most elite collections and institutions. For fans and historians, it functions as an unparalleled time capsule preserving the long tradition of these classic cardboard collectibles.
The collection remains actively curated within temperature-controlled vaults at Hobby Lobby headquarters. Portions are also regularly displayed at their on-site museum for public viewing and educational tours. While never put up for sale as a whole, rare items are sometimes made available to serious bidders through public auctions or private transactions. Going forward, the company seems dedicated to safeguarding these pieces of baseball history for future generations to appreciate just as founder David Green first did so many years ago as a kid with a box of cards and a dream.
