All About Collecting Baseball and Sports Cards
More people collect baseball cards than any other type of cards,
however in recent years football cards, basketball cards, and
hockey cards have become very popular.
Each sports card collection is personal and reflects the
individuality of its owner. There is no right or wrong way to
collect sportscards. Since card collecting is a hobby, what you
collect, how much you collect, and how much time and money you
spend collecting are entirely up to you. The funds you have
available for collecting and your own personal taste should
determine how you collect. Information and ideas presented here
are intended to help you get the most enjoyment from this hobby.
It is impossible to collect every card ever produced. Therefore,
beginners as well as intermediate and advanced collectors usually
specialize in some way. One of the reasons this hobby is popular
is that individual collectors can define and tailor their
collecting methods to match their own tastes. To give you some
ideas of the various approaches to collecting, we will list some
of the more popular areas of specialization.
Many collectors select complete sets from particular years. For
example, they may concentrate on assembling complete baseball
card sets from all the years since their birth or since they
became avid sports fans. They may try to collect a card for every
baseball player during that specified period of time.
Many others wish to acquire only certain players. Usually such
players are the superstars of the sport, but occasionally
collectors will specialize in all the cards of players who
attended a particular college or came from a certain town. Some
collectors are only interested in the first cards or rookie cards
of certain players.
Another fun way to collect cards is by team. Most fans have a
favorite team, and it is natural for that loyalty to be
translated into a desire for cards of the players on that
favorite team.
Collecting baseball cards and other sportscards is a great
getaway from everyday life and is fun for the whole family.
HISTORY OF BASEBALL CARDS
Nobody is one hundred percent sure which was the very first
baseball card produced, however the hobby of collecting baseball
cards dates from the second half of the 19th century, well over
one hundred years ago. Goodwin & Co., maker of Old Judge and
Gypsy Queen cigarette brands is believed by many to be the first
company to produce baseball cards and other sports cards. The
first baseball cards were small by today’s standards, 1-1/2
inches by 2-1/2 inches, and printed on thick cardboard. The Old
Judge picture cards were issued from 1886 to 1890 and more than
2000 different baseball cards from that set have been cataloged,
not to mention the many cards made for other sports and non
sports.
Goodwin & Co. success in marketing baseball cards and other
picture cards with their cigarettes lead other tobacco companies
to issue sets of their own, and by 1909 to 1911 the American
Tobacco Company made the T-206 set with the famous Honus Wagner
card. In turn companies in other industries including candy,
caramel, and gum makers used baseball cards as premiums to sell
their products.
The Topps Company dominated the chewing gum/baseball card
industry for years until it lost an anti-monopoly lawsuit in
1980, and in 1981 Fleer and Donruss made major sets of baseball
cards. Not long after that the baseball cards became more
important than the gum and baseball cards became an industry of
it’s own. New companies like Score, Upper Deck, and Pacific
started making cards and the competition led to the high-tech
sports cards we have today with the many different brands being
made.
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