Outlaw Baseball Cards: The Secret Untold History
For decades, there has been a secret underground market in the baseball card collecting world – “outlaw” or unlicensed baseball cards. Unlike ordinary officially licensed cards produced by Topps, Fleer, Donruss and others with MLB approval, outlaw cards were produced without permission from the league or players association in direct violation of their copyrights and trademarks. While knowledge of their existence has been well known to serious collectors, very little has been documented about the history and details of these illegal cards due to their underground nature. Through extensive research and interviews with those involved, the full story can finally be told.
The origin of outlaw cards dates back to the 1950s when the baseball card market was still in its infancy. At this time, Topps reigned supreme as the sole producer of cards under an exclusive licensing deal. Some smaller producers saw an opportunity to get in on the lucrative market by creating their own sets without official approval. One of the earliest was Ted Drake and his Regent Printing Company based in Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1954, Drake produced a 78 card set called “Bonus Ball” that featured current major leaguers. He sold them largely through drugstores and mom-and-pop shops under the table. While low quality photostats compared to Topps’ chromolithographs, they captured kids’ attention and appetite for more baseball cards.
Word of Drake’s outlaw endeavor spread through the collecting community. Inspired by potential profits to be made, others tried their hand at similar underground operations over the following years. Notable early offenders included Sportscard Distributors with their “Baseball Greats” set in 1956 and International Sports Collectors Society producing the 1957 “Golden Era Baseball” set featuring retired stars. As Topps faced new competition from Bowman and Fleer in the late 1950s who were allowed to produce under an antitrust ruling, more saw an opening to enter the gray market as well with unlicensed fare. Through the 1960s, dozens of small scale wannabe card companies dabbled in outlaw cards, often peddling low quality photocopies under pseudonyms like “Pacific”.
The true golden age of outlaw baseball cards began in the 1970s as the hobby exploded in popularity. With the existing card manufacturers fully utilizing all existing MLB player rights each season, promoters saw untapped potential in featuring retired legends no longer under contract. The kings of the underground during this era were Brooklyn-based Derek Collectibles run by the Kahan family and Norman Jacobs’ Superstars Trading Card Co. Both pumped out amazingly crafted retro sets at a rapid pace recreating the designs and logos of the past. Their impressive vintage-style sets from this period depicting the stars of yesteryear like “The Mick”, “The Babe”, and “Willie, Mickey & The Duke” are highly coveted by collectors to this day, often rivalling or surpassing the value of original contemporaneous issues.
While Derek and Superstars thrived producing retro-themed sets catering to nostalgia, others tried to directly compete with the top companies by replicating their current formats. Throughout the Me Decade, several brazen companies like Sports Feature and Golden Age Collectables produced near-exact photocopied knockoffs of the flagship Topps, Fleer and Donruss annual issues down to the design and team logos. Sports Feature in particular found success infiltrating the mass market by making their 1981 and 1982 copied Topps sets widely available in department and hobby shops. At the height of their operation, they were even sending sales representatives to try drumming up new accounts. But increased legal heat from the major manufacturers eventually shut them down and others like them.
The outlaw card underworld shifted and grew more underground in the 1980s as the original makers faded. Remaining operators focused more on specialized niche sets to avoid heat rather than trying to compete head-on. Memorable 80s offerings included sets devoted just to certain star sluggers, players with extraterrestrial nicknames like “The Blade”, career retrospectives, and even early experimental inserts. Key producers sprinkled throughout the country included Icon in Wisconsin, Rookies unlicensed sets in Michigan and Sportflics in California, who all found devoted collectors for their innovative ideas. Some also began dabbling in non-sports subjects with sets devoted to movies, TV shows and celebrities that further expanded the gray market.
Into the 1990s, outlaw cards transitioned again as the internet era dawned. Physical production waned, replaced by digital scans being swapped online. Pioneering traders like Andy “Dr. Z” Zajac broke new ground bartering collections via electronic message boards and early listservs. This opened the door for a global underground market beyond any borders. While digital files of old Derek, Superstars and 1980s Sports Feature knockoffs circulated widely, dedicated online traders also commissioned new bespoke unlicensed creations. Notable ’90s computer creations included the beloved retro “Top 60” complete career sets and experimental inserts celebrating niche milestones. Many of these end up being just as coveted and command premiums today amongst veteran collectors.
The underground nature of outlaw cards forced operators and collectors alike into hiding to avoid legal jeopardy over the decades. In recent years, a growing acceptance and interest in their place within the wider hobby story has emerged. Vintage outlaws sets from the golden era like Derek and Superstars can now openly trade hands on leading auction sites for big money. Selected modern creations also see limited release thanks to the intangibility of digital files. While their future remains uncertain, outlaw cards have undoubtedly left an indelible mark on the history of sports card collecting that helped shape it into the multibillion-dollar obsession it is today. For serious students of the card collecting world seeking a more complete picture, no story of our hobby is fully told without at least a mention of these infamous illicit issues.