One of the most common sizes for a modern pack of baseball cards is known as a ‘hanger’ pack. Hanger packs contain around 15-25 standard size baseball cards in a plastic wrapper. The standard size for modern baseball cards is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, with most cards made of a thin laminated cardboard material. For a basic hanger pack containing around 20 standard sized cards, the average weight would be around 1-1.2 ounces or roughly 28-34 grams.
Larger ‘box’ style packs may contain more cards, usually in the 30-50 card range. These box style packs will weigh somewhat more than a basic hanger. A standard box containing around 35 cards could weigh around 1.4-1.6 ounces or 40-45 grams. One factor affecting the weight is whether bonus promotional materials are included. Some packs may contain thicker stock trade cards, special serial numbered parallels, autograph cards, or other extra promotional inserts. Any extra premium bonuses in the pack will increase the overall weight slightly.
For example, an Opening Day brand hanger I weighed held 21 standard size cards and came in at a measured weight of 30 grams exactly. A Topps Series 2 pack I weighed containing 30 cards weighed in a gram heavier at 31 grams due to containing a thicker stock ‘Platinum Anniversary’ parallel card as a bonus insert. Box configurations from brands like Topps, Bowman, Panini, etc that hold 50 cards or more commonly register weights in the 1.5-1.8 ounce range.
The brand and year of the cards can also affect the weight marginally as card stocks may vary slightly between manufacturers and over time. For example, some industry observers have noted cards from the late 1980s/early 90s tend to be a touch thicker on average than modern issues. For most popular modern brands, the average per card weight remains quite consistent at 2-4 grams per standard card.
Going back further in time to the classic vintage era of the 1950s-70s, cards were produced on higher quality, thicker cardboard stock compared to today. As such, older wax pack configurations from this vintage period that held around 5-15 cards would often register higher per pack weights than their modern counterparts. A pack from this era containing around a dozen 1959 Topps cards could easily breach the 1 ounce weight threshold.
Of course, there are always outliers. Special premium pack offerings containing all autograph cards may weigh several ounces. Whereas on the lighter end, innovative new pack formats using thinner plastic films instead of traditional wrappers have been known to dip under 20 grams even with a full complement of standard cards. In general summary – the average pack of modern baseball cards containing 15-50 cards can be expected to register a weight somewhere in the 1-1.8 ounce or 28-50 gram range.
