The 1886 N172 Old Judge tobacco cards, issued by the American Tobacco Company as promotional items inserted into packages of Old Judge smoking tobacco, are considered the first baseball cards ever made. While they were not specifically labeled as baseball cards, they featured authentic photographs of professional ballplayers from that era.
Previous to 1886, there were some tobacco cards produced depicting baseball players in lithographed form rather than actual photos, but the Old Judge cards were indeed the first to truly capture and distribute images of the stars of the national pastime for collectors and card enthusiasts. They helped fuel the growth of baseball fandom by allowing people to put faces to the names they were hearing about.
The 1886 set featured a total of 54 different cards, with 31 of them showing photos of popular professional ballplayers from the time period. Some of the iconic names included were pitcher Old Hoss Radbourn, third baseman Jerry Denny, and outfielder Tim Keefe. The rest of the cards featured various non-sports celebrities from the day like actress Lillian Russell or composer Antonin Dvorak.
Interestingly, the backs of all the cards were blank. Information like statistics, teams, or bios of the people pictured were left off. This type of card stock was still in its experimental stage and there was not yet an established format for how to present details on the backs. So the cards served more as simple pictures without text.
The photos themselves were produced in a process called photoengraving which gave them a unique etched or linoleumed style. They were quite small, measuring only 1 5/8 inches tall by 2 1/2 inches wide. But considering they were the first cards ever to capture true photos of professional athletes, they were revolutionary for their time and would influence the entire sports card industry going forward.
Not many of the 1886 Old Judge cards have survived in pristine condition to modern day. This is largely due to how widely they were mass produced and distributed as merely promotional pack-in items rather than prized collectibles. Still, the surviving pop have become hugely valuable pieces of sports memorabilia.
In 1980, the hobby’s first million-dollar card was an 1886 Old Judge Old Hoss Radbourn that sold for $110,000. In 2000, a rare proof sheet containing the uncut prototype photos used to make the cards was sold at auction for over $500,000. And in 2016, a single 1886 Old Judge Tim Keefe card achieved the highest price ever paid for a sports card at auction, selling for an astounding $3.12 million to Card Collector magazine publisher Don Rutledge.
While baseball cards had been produced before 1886 featuring lithographed ballplayers, the Old Judge tobacco inserts undeniably launched the entire sports card collecting industry as we know it today by being the very first to capture genuine photos of famous professional ballplayers as promotional incentives. They helped spread interest in the growing sport by giving fans real faces to put with the players they were hearing about.
For being such a pioneering release over 135 years ago, the surviving 1886 Old Judge cards have achieved incredible valuation as some of the rarest and most prized possessions in the entire collectibles marketplace, fetching prices in the multiple millions. They kicked off a legacy that has grown into a multibillion-dollar business while also preserving memories of the earliest stars in baseball’s storied history. Without question, they hold a hallowed place as the true first baseball cards ever made.