Baseball Cards: An Old Hobby
Written by MC Homer, Monday April 20 2009
When I was a kid, some 18 years ago (wow, that many already?), I would be forced into going to the store with my parents, still being a little too young to stay home alone by myself. We would get done with our shopping and be standing in line at the check out stand and sitting on the rack were boxes of baseball cards. Remember those days? Nearly every store had them, usually two or three different brands, because that's all there was back then, and they were cheap too. Now, no parent wants to spend the price of a small dinner on a pack of baseball cards, it just doesn't make any sense, not to mention today's scarcity of baseball cards.
Topps, Fleer, and Upper Deck were about the extent of your choices. Every single time I passed through the check stand, I asked if I could get a pack, or two if I wanted to push my luck. Usually I was fortunate enough to be able to grab a pack of Topps, the cheap brand, but that didn't matter to me, I was just happy with baseball cards. I could never grab the top pack though, I always had to dig to the middle of the box for that one lucky pack. I'm beginning to think my generation was the last to truly have the pleasure of experiencing the greatness of collecting these cardboard trophies.
Baseball cards can be traced back to the late 1860's, soon after baseball became a professional sport. The cards, some with individual and others with a team photo, were used by companies to promote their product, even if the company had no affiliation with the game of baseball. In 1868, Peck and Snyder are considered by some to have started actual “baseball cards” because they owned a sporting goods store, thus making the cards a natural fit to promote their business.
Cigarette packs and tobacco companies began including a baseball card with the product in 1886. Through the early 1900's, baseball cards were mostly produced by tobacco and candy companies. Bowman was the first major producer of baseball cards in 1948, followed soon after by Topps in 1952. In this '52 Topps set, is the most sought after baseball card (since it became an industry itself), a Mickey Mantle, the first ever 'Mick' printed by Topps.
After dabbling with retired players' cards, Fleer printed their first set of active players for the 1963 season. Almost 20 years later, in 1981, Donruss jumped in the game. By this time, there are millions of baseball cards in circulation and many different brands, it was about time for a price guide. Two of them spawned in 1984, tracking the ever changing values of most every baseball card. Score and Upper Deck began printing their cards in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Upper Deck, as much as I was a fan of their cards, is the reason baseball cards went to hell in a hand basket.
Upper Deck began the realm of specialty cards, even specialty packs. For the first time in history, a pack of baseball cards was ninety nine cents, and refused to stop there. Soon after, other companies followed with higher priced variations and this is where the baseball card industry began its demise. There are far too many brands and extensions of those brands, which may be good for casual collectors, but not in terms of card value. At the store, you might find four or five different packs with the same 'Upper Deck' company label on the pack, and they are not the only guilty party here. Cards can cost in upwards of $4.99 a pack, and I'm sure there is costlier brands out there.
Today, cards can come with a tiny piece of a player's jersey, a small sampling of leather from a baseball, or some other petite piece of baseball equipment on them. Cards containing errors such as spelling or statistical, and sometimes even the wrong picture, are usually worth a bit more. No baseball card, no matter what brand, how old, or what player is pictured, should be worth the $2.35 million payment on the Honus Wagner T206 card made by a tobacco company in the early 1900's. In September of 2007, the card was sold again for $2.8 million. Someone has a rough life...
When I was growing up and collecting, like every other young kid who craved these cards, I'd trade for my favorite team and players. In simpler times, you could trade one for one, but nowadays, with the values being so different, there is no more trading, just purchasing. I was never in it to get that one card worth 'x' amount of dollars. The value never mattered to me, I was not thinking about retiring off of them or selling them for untold riches. I just wanted as many Will Clark's and Ken Griffey, Jr.'s as I could get my hands on. Doubles or triples of the same card? Even better.
There used to be card shops around town you could go and grab a pack of cards or two, in any sport, now you're lucky to find only one shop, and it usually includes comics and video games. More often you'll find an exhibit in a mall that is selling higher priced cards and other expensive mementos that you only wish you could afford. The ninety-nine cent packs are gone forever. Like stamps, bottle caps, or any other hobby of yesteryear, baseball card collecting is a thing of the past. Sure, there are still a handful of kids collecting, but for the most part, it's middle aged men trying to sell their expensive collection of sports memorabilia. Maybe its a kid thing that we eventually grow out of, but it's too bad the baseball card market became so diluted. Kids today could use an innocent hobby.
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2 comments
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And I got into it as they were fading from popularity. I am very sad to see what it has become. It's like with autographs nowadays. People only want them to sell, not to put on display in their home.
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Wow.. I agree with you 10010 %. (lol).. You hit the nail on the head. Reading your story brought back many memories. Thank you!