Baseball Cards Timeline
By: Dan and Greg Power
For more than 150 years, Americans have been playing baseball and collecting picture cards of players and teams. Collecting these artifacts has been as popular as the game of baseball itself. Fans of the game gained information about the players and their performance. Collectors can relive the glory and events and recall the players and their heroics.
Origins -- (1840s-1867)
Prior to modern printing techniques, baseball-theme picture cards called 'cabinet cards' or 'carte de viste" were distributed. A photograph of a baseball player, team or theme was pasted on a cardboard backing.
Commercial Cards -- (starting late 1860s-1890s)
In the late 1860's a sporting good company called Peck and Snyder printed baseball cards and used them as advertisements. On one side was pictured a famous baseball team and on the back was an advertisement.
Tobacco Cards -- (starting mid 1880s-1900)
Goodwin & Co., a tobacco company in New York, issued the Old Judge cards, a small picture card that was inserted into packs of Old Judge brand tobacco. Goodwin & Co. produced these cards both as a 'stiffener' for their cigarette packs and to boost sales.
Allen & Ginter, Buchner & Co, and Mayo & Co., and Kimball produced quality cards and inserted them into their tobacco packs. Some cards, like Yum Yum tobacco, S.H. Hess and Four Base Hits, are very rare and quite expensive.
Golden Age of Baseball Cards -- (starting 1909-1932)
The period from 1909-15 is regarded by many as the golden age of baseball cards. Popular issues from this era include the T206 White Borders produced from 1909 to 1911 and sold in various brands of cigarettes. This set includes the "king of baseball cards", -- the T206 Honus Wagner. In 1914 and 1915, cards were found in boxes of Cracker Jack. During the 1920s, cards would be found in American Caramel Company products as well as with ice cream.
Honus Wagner is considered by many as baseball's greatest all-around player. The Pittsburgh Pirates' shortstop was a great hitter, a brilliant base-runner and a flawless fielder. In his first season in the major leagues in 1897 he hit .344 and had together 17 consecutive .300 seasons. He was the NL batting champion for seven of those 17 seasons with a lifetime average of .329. Check www.honuswagner.com.
Silver Age of Baseball Cards -- (starting 1933-1941)
The Goudey Gum company of Boston revived baseball cards. The Goudey cards, especially from 1933, 34 and 38, are among the most popular cards ever produced. Other gum companies produced popular cards including the 1934 Batter Up die cards made by the National Chicle Company, and 1933 Delong issued by the Delong Gum Company. From 1939 to 1941, Gum Inc, produced the Play Ball cards including popular cards of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. This era ended in 1941 when paper became scarce because of World War II.
Topps Age of Baseball Cards -- (starting 1952-1980)
In the early 1950's Topps Chewing Gum Company of New York City started producing cards. Their first major issue in 1952 is regarded as one of the greatest sets of all time. The 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle is the most expensive card in the Post-War era. In 1956 Topps bought Bowman Gum. The history of baseball cards from 1956 to 1980 is the history of Topps.
Mickey Mantle played shortstop in the minor leagues, but with the New York Yankees he played right field. He moved to center field in 1952, replacing Joe DiMaggio, who retired at the end of the 1951 season after one year playing alongside Mantle in the Yankees outfield. He played center field until 1967, when he was moved to first base. Among Mantle's many accomplishments are all-time World Series records for home runs (18), runs scored (42), and runs batted in (40). Check en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mantle.
Modern Age of Baseball Cards -- (starting 1981-current)
In 1980 a court ruled against Topps and ended its monopoly as a card producer. The court ruled that other companies could produce baseball cards, but they weren't allowed to package their cards with gum. In 1981, Fleer and Donruss started producing baseball cards. By 1990 the card market was overwhelmed with too much and too many card products.
Baseball Card Collecting
Jefferson Burdick has been referred to as the "father of baseball card collecting". Burdick began many of the designations that are commonly used in basebal card collecting: "N" for nineteenth-century tobacco, "T" for twentieth-century tobacco, "E" for early candy cards, "R" for gum cards, and so on. T206, now the universal name for the 523-card white-bordered set issued by the numerous subsidiaries of the American Tobacco Company from 1909 through 1911, was the catalog number Burdick used for that set.
References
Rudd, D. E., A Brief History of Baseball Cards.
Stufflestreet, Chris , A Somewhat thorough history of baseball cards.
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