Baseball and football trading cards have been popular collectibles in the United States for over a century. While their origins date back even further, it was in the late 19th century that trading cards featuring professional baseball and American football players began to take off. Since then, the hobby of collecting sports cards has grown enormously in popularity.
Some of the earliest known baseball cards were included as promotional inserts in packages of cigarette brands in the 1880s. Companies like Goodwin & Company and American Tobacco Company printed small cardboard cards featuring individual baseball players on them. These so-called “cigarette cards” helped advertise both the cigarette brands and popularize professional baseball players of the time. Some of the players featured in the earliest sets included future Hall of Famers like Pud Galvin and Tim Keefe.
In 1887, a company called Old Judge created the first true mass-produced set of baseball cards as a standalone product. Known as the Old Judge baseball card set, it included cards of stars like Cap Anson and Dan Brouthers. These early baseball cards were primarily used by children as a game rather than for collecting purposes. Players would swap and trade cards in order to assemble full sets. It set the stage for what was to come in the following decades as the hobby exploded.
In the early 20th century, several companies released notable baseball card sets like T206 from American Tobacco and E90 and E92 sets from the Exhibits Company. These contained the likenesses of the top players from the deadball era and helped popularize stars like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Honus Wagner. The rarity of certain cards from these sets, especially the ultra-rare 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner card, make them some of the most valuable in the world today for collectors.
While baseball cards had been around for decades, the first true football cards did not emerge until the 1930s. In 1933, Goudey Gum Company released the first major football card set. Called Goudey Gum, it featured players from the National Football League as it was then known. Some of the stars included in this pioneering 80-card set were Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, and Bronko Nagurski. In the following years, several other companies like Play Ball and World Wide Gum produced football card sets of the era as interest in the fledgling NFL grew.
After World War 2, the baseball card hobby began to truly explode in popularity across America. More companies entered the market to take advantage, including Bowman Gum which released highly successful and iconic sets every year from 1948 to 1955. Topps Chewing Gum also began producing cards in 1951 and would come to dominate the industry for decades. Their flagship Topps baseball card sets of the 1950s contained the first cards of soon-to-be legends like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron.
In the post-war period, football card production also increased substantially. Bowman Gum issued football card sets from 1948-1949 and 1951-1955 to accompany their baseball offerings. More football-exclusive brands emerged as well, including the Play Ball company whose 1948 and 1949 sets are now highly coveted by collectors. Topps began issuing annual football card sets in 1952 which also became enormously popular with both kids opening packs and collectors decades later.
The late 1950s saw the rise of two phenomena that further cemented the sports card collecting hobby – the advent of bubble gum included with packs of cards and the introduction of the modern concept of player autographs and memorabilia cards. Bowman Gum had included gum with its cards as early as 1948 but it was Topps in the mid-1950s that really popularized the “gum and cards” model still used today. And in 1957, Topps issued the first autograph cards, containing signatures from legends like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. This kicked off a new category of collecting “hits” beyond just the base cards.
The 1960s saw sports card collecting truly explode into the mainstream. As baby boomers came of age and had more disposable income, sets from Topps and new competitors like Fleer grew massively in both size and sales. Topps produced larger football sets with color photography starting in 1964. And in 1967, Fleer shocked the industry by obtaining an NFL license and producing the first successful competing brand to Topps since the Bowman era. This began the modern era of sports card manufacturing that still thrives today.
In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, sports cards became a ubiquitous part of childhood and pre-teen culture. Virtually every pack of bubble gum contained cards and kids swapped, traded, and collected with vigor. The values of vintage cards from the 1950s-1960s also began their rise as the original collectors started amassing complete sets. And new subsets like rookie cards, inserts, and parallel/refractor variations were introduced by manufacturers to drive interest. Michael Jordan’s iconic 1984-85 Fleer rookie card set records for its era.
Today, sports cards remain hugely popular with both casual and serious collectors. While the market has seen peaks and valleys over the decades, certain vintage cards have shattered records in recent auctions. Icons like the T206 Honus Wagner, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, and 1933 Goudey Jim Thorpe consistently rank among the most valuable trading cards ever printed. Newer stars in the NBA, NFL, MLB also have rookies that command high prices. And with more people collecting than ever before, sports cards continue to be a big part of both hobby and licensed sports memorabilia industries.
Baseball and football trading cards have evolved from simple promotional inserts in the late 1800s to a full-fledged multi-billion dollar industry today. Starting as children’s toys and games, they grew into serious collecting for both enjoyment and potential future investment. And some of the earliest and rarest examples from the pioneering tobacco and gum card era remain among the most prized possessions of both casual fans and dedicated hobbyists alike. The history of sports cards is intertwined with the broader popularity of American professional baseball and football over the past century and a half.