The tradition of including gum or small toys with baseball trading cards originated in the late 1800s when American tobacco companies like American Tobacco Company and Good & Plenty began inserting non-sports related cards as promotional incentives in their tobacco products. This helped boost sales of their chewing gum and cigarettes. In the 1930s, baseball cards fully emerged as the dominant sport included in packs of gum and candy as interest in the national pastime rose significantly during the Great Depression era. Some of the most iconic early brands that produced baseball cards with gum included Goudey Gum Company, Bazooka Bubble Gum, Topps Chewing Gum, and Bowman Gum. These companies ruled the baseball card market for decades as kids eagerly sought out the latest cardboard collectibles to snack on gum and trade with friends.

Starting in the 1970s, mounting health concerns were raised over directly associating tobacco and confectionery marketing aimed at children. As the dangers of cigarettes became more widely known and tobacco advertising to minors was restricted or banned, baseball card manufacturers started exploring alternative distribution methods. In 1981, Topps Chewing Gum, long the dominant force in the baseball card industry, removed gum from its card packages for the first time while still producing cards under the “Topps” brand name. They instead opted to sell unsealed wax packs of cards without confections, signaling a transition toward marketing directly to baseball card collectors rather than as an adjunct to candy purchases.

Other gum and candy manufacturers followed Topps’ lead in short order. Bazooka Bubble Gum ended its iconic run producing baseball cards in 1982. The company felt increasing pressure to dissociate from directly marketing to kids given health criticisms over sugary snacks. Bowman Gum ceased its baseball card line in late 1982 as well citing pressure from advocates for limiting junk food advertising to youth. This left Topps as essentially the sole surviving brand, though they no longer included any gum or incentives besides the cards themselves.

In the following years, several regional and independent baseball card companies attempted to fill the void left by Topps, Bowman, and Bazooka discontinuing their product lines. brands like Fleer and Donruss launched in 1981 and 1982 respectively. They struggled to gain widespread marketplace recognition competing against the longtime incumbent Topps brand without major gum company backing and distribution channels. Topps’ dominance was further solidified when Donruss and Fleer signed exclusive licensing deals with Major League Baseball in 1987, leaving Topps as the sole brand producing cards endorsed by MLB itself.

This gave Topps an insurmountable advantage over would-be challengers and cemented their monopoly over the modern baseball card era into the 1990s and beyond without direct competition. As the collectibles culture around baseball cards exploded in popularity beyond an ancillary market for candy purchases, Topps transitioned fully into being a memorabilia and collectibles company, focusing on specialized releases, inserts, and parallel sets aimed at veteran hobbyists rather than casual bubble gum customers.

Changing social attitudes around junk food and tobacco marketing to children prompted the end of including confectioneries like gum with baseball card packages in the early 1980s as manufacturers bowed to public pressure. This transition also coincided with baseball cards becoming fully established as serious memorabilia collectibles apart from their inception as promotional sweets incentives over a century ago. While many still nostalgically recall trading cards with sticks of bubble gum, the direct pairing of the two became outdated and fell by the wayside as America’s pastimes evolved through the late 20th century.