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In the Big Inning: 1869-1900 (Part I)
5 April 2007
America’s sports cards have been around for more than a century. In fact, the typical baseball, basketball, football, and hockey cards - measuring 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ with action photos, player biographies, and career statistics - didn’t appear until the 1950s. This was a time when collecting sports cards was a simple pastime for most school-aged boys.
Back then, the cards came in 1- and 2-cent packs of chewing gum. They were often bought from the local soda shop or drug store. Kids would chew the splintering, sugar wafers while attaching the bland cards to their bicycle spokes or used as target practice for B. B. guns. Though most ended their short lives in similar situations, only the “best” cards, depicting big name baseball or football players, were given better appreciation. But, even these cards were dealt a spot in the trash can when all possible fun was rendered.
Bubble-gum cards, as they were called, were soon being traded according to the worth of the player featured on each card. Think of it as a predawn method for grading your fantasy baseball roster. The more popular the player, the more “valuable” the card. One Mickey Mantle, for example, was worth three Yogi Berra’s. Monetary value was never an issue. Collectors will likely never see that type of hobby again . . .
During the late 1970s, collecting sports cards in the United States became a way for baby-boomers to connect with their children. Dad, who threw out his collection when he went to college, was also interested in the fact that cards were now being traded for cash! As a result, attention was focused on the buying and selling value of cards as opposed to simple trading. And, as more and more kids connected with their dads, prices for the previously popular player cards begin to rise. Such interest quickly turned the hobbying into an industry. Some cards were selling for as high as several hundred dollars.
Before I go into the financial aspects of card collecting, and particularly the hobby as it stood during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I think its important for you to understand the culture of sports cards. The next post will continue with “In the Big Inning: 1869-1900″, but will start with revealing the earliest of all cards . . .
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