Baseball cards have a long history in Miami dating back to the early 20th century. Some of the earliest baseball cards produced featured players from Miami’s minor league teams in the early 1900s. While the city didn’t get a Major League Baseball franchise until the Marlins debuted in 1993, baseball cards were a popular collectible for decades among Miami’s baseball fans.
The city’s history with baseball cards closely mirrors the growth and evolution of the hobby nationwide. In the early decades of the 1900s, tobacco companies like American Tobacco and Goodwin & Company began inserting baseball cards into cigarette packs as a marketing gimmick. These vintage “tobacco era” cards from the late 1800s and very early 1900s are among the most valuable and sought after today. While it’s unlikely many of these ultra-rare cards made their way to South Florida in the early days, the concept of collecting and trading baseball cards took root in Miami just as it did elsewhere.
As the tobacco companies’ baseball card inserts grew more common in the first half of the 20th century, kids in Miami were able to assemble collections featuring both local minor league stars and major leaguers from other cities. The booming postwar economy of the late 1940s and 1950s saw baseball card collecting explode in popularity across America. In Miami, kids could be found trading, storing, and admiring their cardboard collections in much the same way as their peers nationwide.
Topps Chewing Gum, which had overtaken the baseball card market from the tobacco companies by the mid-1950s, ensured Miami kids had access to the same annual baseball sets as anyone else. Local shops stocked fresh packs of Topps cards each spring, allowing collectors to snap up the new releases and scan them for any Marlins players. The rise of color photography on cards in the late 1950s only added to the allure and kept interest in Miami as high as anywhere.
The city’s minor league teams, including the Miami Marlins (no relation to the current MLB club) of the International League and Florida International League, also pumped out regional sets featuring solely their players through much of the mid-20th century. These localized issues provided an additional layer of relevance for Miami collectors hunting cards of players they could also see live in local minor league ballparks.
The 1960s saw card collecting in Miami truly explode alongside the hobby’s golden age nationally. The city was growing rapidly and thriving economically in these years. With more discretionary income and leisure time than ever, children in Miami fully embraced the baseball card trend. Local card shops did a booming business and could barely keep popular new releases from Topps, Fleer, and other manufacturers on shelves. Regional minor league issues also remained a staple for collectors wanting a Miami connection to their collections.
The rise of aggressive card speculating in the late 1960s also took root in Miami. Savvy investors looked to assemble complete vintage and modern sets to hold and resell years later at higher prices. The emerging collector’s market provided opportunities for profit that appealed greatly to entrepreneurial Miami residents. Shows featuring tables of vendors selling and trading cards became a common sight across South Florida in these “speculator boom” years.
When the Florida Marlins finally arrived in Miami as an expansion team in 1993, local interest in collecting baseball cards reached new heights. Kids and adults alike rushed to stockpile rookie cards of the team’s inaugural year players like Gary Sheffield, Devon White, and Jeff Conine. Stores struggled to keep up with demand for Marlins cards inserts in new sets. Meanwhile, the vintage minor league issues from Miami’s past took on increased nostalgia and value as well.
In the decades since, Miami has remained one of the top American cities for baseball card collecting and speculation. The growth of online selling and PSA/BGS grading has integrated South Florida further than ever into national and global hobby economics. Local card shows still thrive with vendors moving high-dollar vintage and modern cardboard. As long as baseball remains popular in Miami, cards will stay an essential piece of connecting residents to the region’s rich baseball memories and culture.