Baseball cards have a long history in the United States dating back to the late 1800s. While the hobby took off nationwide in the mid-20th century, certain communities like Oviedo, Florida developed especially strong local connections to baseball card collecting over the decades. Situated just north of Orlando, Oviedo emerged as a hotbed for the trading and collecting of these classic sports memorabilia items among its youth population.
Oviedo’s love affair with baseball cards can be traced back to the 1950s. As the town grew rapidly during the post-World War II era, new families were settling in the area and children were looking for inexpensive pastimes. Baseball was already a popular sport for both recreation and entertainment in Central Florida. Around this time in the early 1950s, the Topps Company began mass producing affordable packs of gum with baseball cards included. Kids in Oviedo took to the emerging hobby quickly.
Informal baseball card swapping circles sprung up at local schools and parks. Having cards of favorite hometown players from the Boston/Milwaukee Braves or New York Yankees gave young collectors a sense of connection to the major league game. The cards also depicted the entire rosters of teams, exposing children to new players and helping broaden their baseball knowledge. Neighborhood card shops in Oviedo like Bill’s Sportscards, which opened in 1956, fueled further interest in amassing complete sets.
By the 1960s, Oviedo had developed a vibrant local card collecting scene. Many of the original participants from the 1950s were still actively pursuing the hobby as teenagers. Large baseball card showcases and conventions started taking place regularly in the Orlando area, drawing crowds from all over Central Florida including busloads of enthusiasts from Oviedo. Top local collectors became well known in the region for their impressive organized collections and for tracking down elusive vintage cards.
Two brothers from Oviedo, Greg and Tommy Adams, became particularly passionate about the pastime during their youth in the 1960s. They spent countless summer afternoons searching through boxes upon boxes of donated cards at neighborhood fundraisers, hoping to find rare gems. By their high school years, the Adams brothers had painstakingly assembled complete sets from the 1950s and were starting to focus on the high-value rookie cards that were just gaining recognition. Their collecting prowess made them celebrities of sorts among other Oviedo card fans.
In the 1970s, as the baby boom generation reached young adulthood, baseball card collecting crossed over into a full-fledged speculative investment craze. The rise of large national card shows and conventions helped create a speculative market. Prices skyrocketed for iconic rookie cards of the era like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. Meanwhile, local card shops in Oviedo like Seminole Sportscards were doing booming business, catering to the demand from collectors both casual and intense. Grading services also started evaluating card condition, further standardizing the collectibles marketplace.
Two major developments in the 1980s had a significant impact on Oviedo’s baseball card subculture. First, the Beckett Price Guide was established as the definitive pricing source, bringing more transparency to the burgeoning values of vintage cards. Secondly, the brothers Greg and Tommy Adams decided to parlay their lifelong passion into a business. In 1984, they opened Classic Collectibles in downtown Oviedo, one of Central Florida’s first dedicated sports memorabilia storefronts.
Classic Collectibles quickly became a mecca for collectors across Orlando and beyond. The Adams brothers had amassed one of the most extensive inventories in the region through years of searching flea markets, estate sales and their nationwide dealer network. In addition to supplies, they offered appraisal services and hosted card shows that regularly drew over 1,000 attendees. By the late 1980s, Classic Collectibles was considered among the most successful sports collectibles shops in the entire Sunshine State.
The modern era of baseball cards has seen some ups and downs for the hobby locally. In the 1990s, there was a speculative bubble that burst when overproduction drove down card values industry-wide. Meanwhile, the internet also started competing with local brick-and-mortar shops. However, Oviedo’s roots run deep and the community continues to foster new generations of baseball card fans. Classic Collectibles remains a popular destination and card shows still attract collectors from around Central Florida. While the craze may come and go, Oviedo solidified itself as a hotbed for the baseball card tradition since the early days.