Baseball cards have a long history in Metairie, Louisiana dating back to the early 1900s. Some of the earliest documented baseball cards found in the Metairie area date back to 1909-1911 and feature players from that era before World War I. As baseball grew in popularity across America in the decades that followed, so too did the collecting and trading of baseball cards among young fans in Metairie and the surrounding New Orleans suburbs.
In the post-World War II era of the late 1940s and 1950s, baseball card collecting really took off in Metairie. This coincided with the peak years of production for the iconic 1952 Topps and 1954 Topps baseball sets that featured the likes of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and other stars of that “Golden Age” of the game. Many former residents of Metairie from that time period fondly recall spending their allowance money on wax packs of cards at local pharmacies, corner stores, and candy shops hoping to collect their favorite players.
It was also common for kids to trade duplicates with their friends on the playground or at school, constantly trying to complete their sets. Some enterprising young collectors would even sell extras or rare cards to help fund their habit. This helped foster a real sense of community around the hobby in neighborhoods all across Metairie. Several long-time businesses like Bourgeois Meat Market and Metairie Drug Store were popular spots for kids to purchase cards throughout the 1950s-60s.
As the 1960s rolled around, the city of Metairie was growing significantly both in terms of population as well as economically. This corresponded with new baseball card products like Topps’ high-gloss photos and the rival Bowman set that heated up the collecting scene. Teenagers and pre-teens in Metairie became even more avid in their quest to amass complete rainbow foil or parallel sets featuring the likes of Sandy Koufax, Willie McCovey, and Tom Seaver.
By the 1970s, card shops had started to pop up to cater specifically to the growing collector base. Possibly the earliest dedicated sports card store in Metairie was Ernie’s Sportscards, which opened in 1972 and became a vital hub for the local hobby scene for decades. Around this same time period, the rise of specialty magazines like Sports Collector’s Digest helped expose collectors to the growing secondary market of want lists, trades, and sales via mail order.
Into the late 1970s and 1980s, the “junk wax” era saw production values and print runs skyrocket on many new baseball card issues. While this made individual cards less scarce, it also made the hobby more affordable and accessible to young collectors just getting started. Stores like Ernie’s, Bourgeois Meat Market, and later Sportscards Plus were always well stocked with the newest cardboard for fans of all ages in Metairie.
The early 1990s represented perhaps the peak of modern baseball card mania, with ultra-high end licensed products from Upper Deck and Score generating tremendous excitement. It also marked the start of a downturn. The market was saturated with product and print runs were simply too large to maintain scarcity or value long term. This led to a shakeout in the industry after the mid-90s that caused many smaller card shops to close.
Still, dedicated havens remained like Bourgeois and Sportscards Plus to serve the local Metairie collecting community. In the 2000s, the rise of eBay opened up a whole new avenue for collectors of all ages to buy, sell, and trade cards online. Sites like Sportscards Realm and Sports Card Forum also proliferated the growing digital hobby space. Today, while brick-and-mortar outlets are fewer, the passion remains for collectors in Metairie and beyond to build sets and reconnect with memories of America’s pastime through cardboard treasures new and old.
Baseball cards have been a constant throughout the history of Metairie, Louisiana – reflecting the growth of the sport nationwide as well as the city’s own development over the last century. From corner stores to dedicated shops, these cardboard collectibles have fostered community and shared nostalgia among generations of fans. And they will surely continue to do so for many more to come.