Tag Archives: brick

BASEBALL CARDS OF BRICK

Leave a reply

Baseball cards have long captured the nostalgia of the national pastime for generations of fans. Beginning in the late 19th century as a promotional invention to sell cigarettes and bubble gum, cardboard trading cards featuring images and stats of players became hugely popular collectibles. Now, a modern twist on this tradition is sparking new interest – baseball cards made of actual brick.

The concept was created in 2018 by Red Brick Cards, a startup based in Milwaukee, WI. Founder Ryan Johnson was inspired by his love of both baseball and architecture, and wanted to fuse these passions into a one-of-a-kind collectible. Each “card” is a real brick that has been individually laser-etched and hand-painted with vivid artwork depicting legendary players. Johnson sources used bricks from old buildings being demolished locally, giving the cards an authentic historic feel along with recycling the materials.

The intricate etching and painting process can take over two hours to complete per card. High-resolution photos are digitally screened onto the brick surface at a micro level using a 40-watt CO2 laser. This creates extremely fine etched lines that are barely perceptible to the naked eye. The details are then hand-painted layer by layer using acrylic paints and tiny brushes. Numbers, letters, faces and uniforms are all meticulously rendered to look just like a traditional cardboard card. Special protective clear coats are applied to guard the fragile artwork.

Once finished, each one-of-a-kind brick card showcases a retro baseball design reminiscent of the tobacco era classics from the late 1800s through the 1950s. Most feature legendary all-time greats like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Stats, seasons and career highlights are summarized on the back of the brick just as on old cardboard issues. Serial numbers and holograms help authenticate each piece. They are encased in acrylic displays for safe handling and presentation.

Since launching in 2018, Red Brick Cards has grown into one of the most unique sports collectible companies. Notable players, executives and Hall of Famers have joined as partners and had their own custom brick cards created. Sets highlighting historic Negro League stars and iconic franchises have also been released to great acclaim. While prices for common parallel issues start around $50, rare autographed “game-used” bricks signed by the depicted stars can fetch thousands. Still, the majority of cards remain highly affordable for most casual collectors.

Part of the appeal stems from brick cards providing a tangible, lasting keepsake compared to flimsy cardboard. They are sturdy enough to withstand the test of time like the players and ballparks honored. Seasoned enthusiasts also appreciate that each card uses an actual physical fragment of history. Every brick was once part of an old building and now lives on through immortalizing a baseball legend. Some collectors have even incorporated brick cards decoratively into mancaves and rec rooms dedicating shrines to their favorite teams.

Red Brick Cards has been praised for its ingenuity in merging nostalgia with sustainability. By repurposing salvaged bricks that would otherwise be discarded as demolition waste, the company diverts materials from landfills. It has also partnered with several youth baseball organizations to teach bricklaying and art skills using its techniques. Johnson eventually plans to expand into other sports like football, hockey and soccer using a similar process with their retired stars as subjects. With innovations like baseball cards of brick, nostalgia for the past finds clever new ways to connect to collectors both old and new.

BASEBALL CARDS BRICK NJ

Leave a reply

Baseball cards have been an integral part of American culture since the late 19th century. While the hobby grew to nationwide popularity, certain regions developed their own unique histories with these collectible cards. Brick, New Jersey is one such community that saw the rise of a vibrant local baseball card scene throughout the 20th century.

Located along the Jersey Shore in Ocean County, Brick experienced tremendous growth beginning in the post-World War II era. The town’s population exploded as thousands of families moved to newly constructed suburban developments. Among the children who now called Brick home, baseball cards were an immediate hit. Local variety and candy stores quickly stocked boxes of packs knowing they would fly off the shelves.

By the 1950s, the hobby had taken hold in Brick. Kids could often be found trading and discussing their newest acquisitions in neighborhood sandlots and playgrounds. Some enterprising young collectors even began their own “card shops” operating out of their family’s garage or basement. These unofficial businesses allowed locals to buy, sell, and trade with each other. Word of mouth advertising was enough to keep supply and demand balanced in the tight-knit community.

As they got older, many Brick residents maintained their love of the cardboard pastime. Several local card collectors from this era remember how they would scour town on release days, hoping to find the few unopened boxes that stores managed to obtain. Competition was fierce, as the most desirable rookie cards or limited print runs could literally sell out within hours. For those unable to purchase packs, trading remained the preferred method of acquiring new additions to one’s collection.

Into the 1960s and 1970s, card collecting in Brick remained a popular hobby. Local card shows first emerged during this period, giving collectors a chance to meet face-to-face. Held in school cafeterias or church halls on weekends, these early conventions allowed for trading on a larger scale than neighborhood interactions alone. Vendors also started to take notice of Brick’s collector base, often reserving a table to sell boxes and higher-end individual cards. The town’s shows became regular stops on the circuit for both buyers and sellers.

As the decades progressed, two local businesses in particular cemented their place in Brick’s baseball card scene. Established in the 1970s, Frank’s Sport Cards was an early pioneer. Operating out of a small storefront, Frank’s offered supplies, packs, and a knowledgeable staff to help growing the numbers of adult collectors. In the 1980s, Showcase Cards emerged and quickly became the premier destination for anyone seeking the latest releases or chase cards. Under new ownership in later years, Showcase continued catering to both casual and dedicated hobbyists.

Into the modern era of the 1990s and 2000s, the rise of the internet posed new challenges to brick-and-mortar card shops. Both Frank’s and Showcase successfully made the transition by utilizing online sales alongside their physical locations. Meanwhile, local card shows only increased in size and frequency. Events like the annual Brick Card Show, held each fall at the town’s convention center, regularly attracted hundreds of vendors and thousands of attendees. For many, these expos remain a highlight of the hobby calendar even today.

Throughout its history, baseball card collecting provided Brick residents with a shared pastime that connected generations. Whether buying packs as kids, trading in youth leagues, or pursuing high-end collections as adults, the cardboard treasures linked community members through their passion. While the industry has seen ups and downs, baseball cards remain an integral part of the town’s cultural fabric. Places like Frank’s and Showcase ensure Brick’s legacy as a hotbed for the hobby lives on.

BASEBALL CARDS AND JEWELRY BRICK TOWNSHIP PHOTOS

Leave a reply

Baseball cards have long been a popular collectible item among sports fans across America. Originally included as an insert or promotional item in packages of chewing gum in the late 19th century, baseball cards grew to become a beloved pastime for children and adults alike to assemble complete sets showcasing their favorite players and teams. Over the decades, some of the earliest and most rare baseball cards have become extremely valuable, with mint condition cards from the 1910s and 1920s sometimes fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

While the collecting of baseball cards remains a popular hobby today in the digital age, the secondary market for vintage cards reached new heights in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Fueled partly by the rising prices of real estate and other investments during this time period, many adults who collected cards as kids started taking the hobby more seriously and were willing to spend significant money tracking down rare cards to add to their collections. This surge in demand helped skyrocket the values of iconic cards like the 1909-1911 T206 Honus Wagner, widely considered the “Mona Lisa” of baseball cards due to its rarity and subject matter.

Around this same time, sports card and memorabilia shops began popping up in shopping malls and downtown areas to cater to this growing collector base. One such retailer was Mike’s Cards, which opened its doors in 1989 in the central New Jersey town of Brick Township, located just over the border from Staten Island, New York. Brick Township was the ideal location for such a store, as the surrounding communities were home to many sports fans and former card collectors looking to relive their childhood hobby. Mike’s Cards became a popular destination where people could browse inventory, discuss player stats and trade rumors, and occasionally find rare cards to add to their collections.

While running his thriving sports memorabilia business in Brick Township, owner Mike Ferraro also became an avid collector himself, amassing a huge holding of vintage baseball cards which became almost as renowned as some museum collections. Ferraro was particularly interested in high-grade examples from the earliest decades of the 20th century. Some highlights of his personal collection included a PSA-graded Mickey Mantle rookie card from 1952 in gem mint condition, a rare 1913 Baltimore News Babe Ruth card, and arguably his most prized possession – a T206 Honus Wagner card he purchased in the late 1980s for over $100,000, a small fortune at that time.

Ferraro’s collection became locally famous in its own right, and he occasionally showed pieces at card shows, museums, and his own store to help educate the public about the history of the hobby. In the early 1990s, a photographer named Robert Jones from nearby Neptune Township approached Ferraro about doing a photo shoot of some of the crown jewels from his collection. Ferraro agreed, and Jones spent a Sunday afternoon in Ferraro’s home meticulously photographing treasures like the Mantle, Ruth, and Wagner cards against a simple black backdrop to really make the vintage imagery pop.

The photos Jones took that day in Ferraro’s house went on to gain their own fame within the baseball card and sports memorabilia community. Black and white images of the historic cards were printed up and sold as high-quality prints by Jones, with a portion of proceeds benefiting local Little League programs. Many of the photos also found their way into magazines like Beckett, Sports Collectors Digest, and other hobby publications of the era. Today, the photos are still regarded by many collectors and experts as capturing the essence of some the most iconic baseball cards ever made. While the cards themselves have all been sold off over the years, the photos live on as a snapshot of a pivotal time for the hobby.

Ferraro’s store, Mike’s Cards, remained a popular fixture in Brick Township through the late 1990s before he made the difficult decision to close up shop as the sports memorabilia market began to cool off from its speculative highs of the early 90s. Many longtime customers were sad to see the store shuttered after over a decade of business. However, Ferraro’s impact on the area lives on, as does the photography of Robert Jones which helped spread awareness of this famous baseball card collection from New Jersey. Today, photos of Ferraro proudly displaying his prized cards in his Brick Township home in the early 90s continue to circulate among veteran collectors, serving as a reminder of the golden age when the hobby seemed to reach new heights on a regular basis.

While current card values have pulled back from the unsustainable levels of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the allure of vintage baseball memorabilia remains as strong as ever. New generations are always discovering the cards of childhood legends like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner for the first time. This ensures the collectibles will retain their significance both financially and culturally for decades to come. The photographs capturing Mike Ferraro’s famous collection from his store in Brick Township all those years ago are a testament to both the history and enduring appeal of the hobby. They provide a unique window into a special time when one local shop owner’s passion helped spread appreciation for these treasured pieces of American sports history.

BASEBALL CARDS AND JEWELRY OF BRICK

Leave a reply

Baseball cards and brick jewelry: An unlikely pairing that has generated interest

At first glance, baseball cards and brick jewelry may seem like two entirely unrelated items that would never intersect. Baseball cards are a traditional American collectible closely associated with the national pastime of baseball, while brick is perhaps best known as a basic building material. In recent years some creative artisans and collectors have found inspiration at the intersection of these two unlikely materials.

The earliest examples of brick jewelry date back several decades. In the 1970s, when interest in do-it-yourself crafts was growing, a small number of artists began experimenting with using broken or discarded bricks in jewelry designs. One of the pioneers was a craftsman named Robert Mason, who lived in a small town in Ohio. Looking for a unique medium to work with, Mason began cutting and grinding discarded bricks into beads, pendants, and other jewelry components. His rustic, earthy designs stood out among the more traditional jewelry materials of the time like silver, gold, and gemstones.

Word of Mason’s brick jewelry slowly spread through craft fairs and art shows. A few other artisans were intrigued by the concept and began experimenting with bricks in their own designs during the 1980s. Brick jewelry never caught on widely and remained a very niche interest among artistic circles. Most jewelers continued to favor traditional precious metals and stones. The bricks used were often broken fragments scavenged from construction sites or old buildings being demolished. Working with whole bricks required specialized equipment for cutting and grinding that was expensive and impractical for small-scale artisans.

In the 1990s, as interest in nostalgia and vintage collectibles grew, some brick jewelry artists began incorporating other retro items into their designs. One such artist was a woman named Martha Stewart, who lived in a small town in Illinois. Stewart had been crafting brick jewelry for over a decade when she came up with the idea to embed vintage baseball cards into pendants made of cut and polished brick fragments. Her earliest baseball card and brick jewelry pieces used weathered cards from the 1950s and 1960s that she purchased in bulk from local collectors.

Stewart cut windows into flat brick fragments using a wet saw and carefully glued the cards into the openings so they were visible but protected. She then strung the pendants onto leather or twine cords. Her rustic baseball card and brick jewelry pieces proved very popular at local craft fairs and art shows. Other brick jewelry artists began experimenting with the same concept. Soon, baseball card shows and conventions also provided a venue to sell this new niche product.

As interest grew, more artisans began specializing solely in baseball card and brick jewelry rather than brick jewelry in general. New equipment like tile cutters and diamond abrasive blades made it possible to work with whole bricks rather than just fragments. Sourcing vintage cards in better condition also became a priority. Top players, rare rookie cards, and cards featuring iconic baseball images became the most popular to feature. Attention to detail, like carefully trimming cards to fit openings and sealing them for protection, elevated the designs.

By the 2000s, online selling platforms allowed baseball card and brick jewelry to find buyers well beyond local craft shows. Etsy and eBay became prime outlets for artisans to market their unique pieces globally. Nostalgia for baseball’s golden era, when the cards were originally collected, helped drive interest. Affluent collectors seeking distinctive vintage-inspired gifts and jewelry appreciated the handcrafted nature and creative blending of two divergent materials in each piece.

Several brick jewelry artists have risen to prominence for their refined baseball card and brick designs over the past decade. Notable artisans like Megan Miller of Kansas, Bethany Cooper of Maine, and Tyler Reed of Colorado are able to sustain brick jewelry as a full-time career thanks to a dedicated customer base. They source top condition vintage cards to feature and employ the highest quality materials and production techniques. Intricate designs that showcase multiple cards in a single piece or incorporate additional elements like gemstones have become popular. Prices range from several hundred dollars for basic pendants up to thousands for elaborate commissioned works of art.

While still remaining a very niche interest, baseball card and brick jewelry has grown into a recognized art form over the past 50 years. The blending of nostalgia, craftsmanship, and two seemingly disparate materials continues to appeal to collectors seeking unique vintage-inspired gifts and jewelry. With the continued growth of online selling, brick jewelry artists are now shipping their pieces globally rather than relying solely on local craft show circuits. With talented artisans constantly refining their skills and pushing creative boundaries, baseball card and brick jewelry appears poised to remain a specialty collectible for years to come.