The earliest recognizable baseball cards date back to the late 1800s, during the sport’s formative years. While today’s flashy trading cards feature elaborate graphics and stats, the oldest baseball cards were quite basic – featuring simple black and white images on small pieces of thick paper or cardboard. Yet they remain prized collectibles that provide a window into the early evolution of professional baseball.
Some consider the oldest baseball cards to be the Goodwin Champions cigarette cards from 1888, featuring 29 ballplayers in black and white lithographs. Each card measures approximately 2 inches by 3 inches. These were actually promotional cards inserted into tobacco products rather than sold as candy included baseball cards. The oldest known baseball cards sold solely as packs for collecting purposes date to the late 1880s, starting with the Old Judge cigarette cards issued between 1887-1890 by the American Tobacco Company.
Old Judge cards measured a bit larger than Goodwin Champions at around 21⁄2 inches by 4 inches. They portrayed individual ballplayers from the National League and American Association in small head shots. Visually, they set the standard layout still seen on many modern baseball cards with the player’s photo on one side and stats/details on the reverse. Though the images are crude by today’s standards, they captured the likenesses of stars like Mike “King” Kelly and Cap Anson. Only about 50 of the estimated 600 total Old Judge baseball cards produced are known to still exist today in collectible condition.
In 1889, several candy companies began inserting baseball cards as incentives to help sell their products, especially during the baseball season. Allen & Ginter was a prominent candy maker that included baseball cards as premiums in their products beginning that year. Their cards were slightly larger than Old Judge issues at approximately 3 inches by 5 inches. The A&G set is considered the largest and most significant of the 1880s/1890s era, containing an estimated 524 total baseball cards across its initial run.
They depicted a who’s who of the day including icons like Kelly, Anson, Roger Connor and Cy Young. Notable for collectors, the backs of A&G cards included advertisements for the company’s other products like cigarettes. Production of new A&G cards ceased around 1893 as the brand began to struggle financially, but their cards remain among the most in-demand of all-time in the hobby. Only about 100 mint condition examples are known to exist today from their initial production run. Several reproductions and counterfeits also emerged over the decades to muddy authenticity waters.
The popularity of baseball card inserts in tobacco and candy items grew substantially in the 1890s. In 1891, another seminal set emerged from the American Tobacco Company called Mayo Cut Plug. Measuring approximately 21⁄2 by 4 inches, the Mayo cards promoted both the tobacco product and baseball with colorful lithographs of individual players and teams. Their visual quality marked an improvement over earlier issues. Around 100 different subjects were part of the estimated 500 card checklist which featured uniform designs and ballparks not seen elsewhere. Mayo Cut Plug cards can be distinguished by an ornate floral border framing each image. Only a small fraction of the total print run are known to have survived in pristine condition to the present.
In 1892, Goodwin & Company resumed their use of baseball promotion cards with a new set inserted into bags and boxes of Orbit brand tobacco. Called Goodwin Champions Series 1, the cards were approximately 3 inches square and included a second series issued in 1898 after a brief hiatus in production.
Visuals remained basic but began incorporating team logos more prominently. By the mid-1890s, baseball card collecting was in full swing among both children and adults. Candy manufacturers took note and expanded their use of premium cards dramatically. Perhaps the most storied and iconic of the decade was the 1894-1896 series produced by the Franklin Manufacturing Company known as the “Dinosaur Back” set.
Incorporating about 350 known individual cards over the multiple year run, Franklin cards measured a hefty 31⁄4 by 5 inches and included a unique feature – the reverse of each card contained an illustration of a specific dinosaur, often matched oddly with no relation to the ballplayer on the front. The visual concept proved a huge hit with kids and adults alike. Today extremely high grades of Dinosaur Back cards can fetch six figures at auction due to their quirky novelty and baseball historical significance.
Through the early 1900s, the format of baseball cards inserted freely as premiums in tobacco and candy items continued to gain widespread popularity across America. Sets were produced by countless manufacturers, though most runs tended to be short-lived or regional in distribution. Some notable early 1900s issues included Little Sunflower cigarettes (1902), Lou Jacobs Big 5 (1905), and G.B.D./American Caramel (1913-1915). In many cases, visual quality and specific details included continued improving. By the time of the modern T206 White Border tobacco era of 1909-1911, baseball cards had truly emerged as a national pastime embedded within American culture. Their earliest specimens from over a century ago remain symbols of both the baseball industry’s roots and the larger hobby’s origins.
While primitive by today’s technology-enhanced standards, the earliest surviving baseball cards from the late 1880s and 1890s laid crucial groundwork as promotional novelties that helped spread the growth of professional baseball nationwide. Key sets like Goodwin Champions, Old Judge, Allen & Ginter, Mayo Cut Plug and Dinosaur Back remain iconic in the collector world due to both the prominence of depicted stars and their tremendous rarity in top grades over 130 years after production. They offer a valuable historical lens into the infancy of baseball fandom and desire for collecting that has driven the industry’s immense success into the modern age.
