Baseball Trading Cards

Baseball trading cards are credited with being the first subject for such cards. Today there are more than eight million trading cards on the market in a wide range of subjects. Baseball cards were originally designed to be mementos of the games. In the 1860’s baseball cards were printed up to use as advertisements for games. On the front of the card was a picture of a team or a player. On the back was an advertisement by one of the team sponsors.

The baseball cards sold well and were very profitable. Soon other subjects were added to trading cards including presidents, animals, and comics. Many of these earlier baseball cards have been damaged because the collecting of the cards turned many to placing them into scrapbooks to keep them from being damaged.

Tobacco companies offered trading cards with the purchase of their products in the early 1900’s. The government broke up the tobacco monopoly, and the various companies were scrambling to find ways to sell their product over the competitions. As a result the period from 1909 to 1915 resulted in the highest quality baseball cards being produced. Many of them are worth thousands of dollars

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