Baseball Cards in Johnson City, TN: A Rich History
Johnson City, Tennessee has a long and rich history with baseball cards that stretches back over a century. As one of the earliest cities in the region, Johnson City saw the emergence of baseball card collecting as both a popular pastime and lucrative business. To this day, the city remains a hotbed of activity centered around these iconic pieces of sports memorabilia.
The earliest known baseball cards to circulate in Johnson City date back to the late 1880s, during the infancy of the mass-produced baseball card era. In 1887, a local tobacconist named J.S. Cigar Company began including small lithographed cards in their tobacco products, featuring players from the National League and American Association. These primitive forerunners to modern baseball cards caught on quickly with local youth. By the 1890s, many Johnson City shops were stocking regional tobacco brands that included early baseball cards in their packs and tins.
As the baseball card boom accelerated nationwide in the early 20th century, Johnson City became a local hub of the burgeoning hobby and memorabilia marketplace. In 1909, a young entrepreneur named Harry’s Cigar Shop became one of the first businesses in the region dedicated entirely to the sale of baseball cards and related merchandise like scorecards and team photos. Harry’s helped popularize card collecting as both an affordable pastime for children and a speculative venture for grown men hoping to find rare cards to resell. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, dozens of other shops in Johnson City followed Harry’s lead in catering to the rising tide of card collectors.
Johnson City’s central location also made it a natural trading post where collectors from throughout Northeast Tennessee could meet regularly to buy, sell and swap duplicate cards. In the 1920s, the city’s first organized baseball card shows and conventions began attracting hundreds of enthusiasts from as far away as Virginia and North Carolina. Legendary early dealers like “Card King” Charlie Miller cut their teeth at these Johnson City events, helping lay the groundwork for today’s multimillion-dollar sports memorabilia industry.
As baseball card sets and inserts grew more complex through the middle decades of the 20th century, Johnson City remained on the cutting edge. In the 1950s, local shops eagerly stocked the new photographic cards from Topps and Bowman that featured full-color player images. Teenagers flocked to Johnson City’s drugstores, which hosted lively card trading sessions in their soda fountains. And in the 1960s, collectors rushed to find coveted rookie cards of future Hall of Famers like Roberto Clemente and Reggie Jackson in the wave of new dime boxes.
Johnson City also nurtured some of the earliest superstar collectors. As a child in the 1930s, lifelong hobbyist Wayne “Goose” Goslin would make the 30-mile trek from his hometown of Unicoi, Tennessee every weekend to scour the shops along Johnson City’s “card row” on Main Street. Later, as a successful MLB outfielder, Goslin’s legendary collection featured some of the rarest pre-war tobacco era gems. Today, his vintage card holdings are valued in the millions.
In the 1970s, Johnson City saw the rise of the first dedicated sports card store when Ernie’s Cards opened its doors. Under Ernie Martin’s guidance, the shop became a mecca for collectors, stocking complete sets, singles, and supplies for organizing and protecting valuable collections. Ernie’s also hosted the region’s first major card shows and conventions that attracted national attention. By the 1980s, over a dozen card shops lined Johnson City’s downtown as the city cemented its status as a hub for the booming modern collecting scene.
Today, despite the rise of online sales, Johnson City remains a vibrant marketplace for baseball cards. Local shops like Ernie’s Cards (still in operation after 50 years) and Showcase Cards cater to collectors of all eras and budgets on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the biannual Johnson City Sports Card and Memorabilia Show consistently draws thousands of attendees from across the Southeast in search of deals and one-of-a-kind finds.
From its earliest roots in the late 19th century tobacco era through today’s high-dollar vintage and rookie card auctions, Johnson City, Tennessee has played a central role in the colorful history of baseball cards in America. The memorabilia marketplace that first took shape along the city’s “Main Street Card Row” in the early 20th century still thrives today, cementing Johnson City as a true epicenter of the baseball card collecting world.