Sport Trading Cards

The first baseball cards were trade cards printed in the late 1860s by a sporting goods company, around the time baseball became a professional sport. Most of the baseball cards around the beginning of the 20th century came in candy and tobacco products. It was during this era that the most valuable baseball card ever printed was produced - the infamous T206 tobacco card featuring Honus Wagner. The T206 Set, distributed by the American Tobacco Company in 1909, is considered by collectors to be the most popular set of all time. In 1933, Goudey Gum Company of Boston issued baseball cards with players biographies on the backs and was the first to put baseball cards in bubble gum. The 1933 Goudey set remains one of the most popular and affordable vintage sets to this day. Bowman Gum began issuing baseball cards in 1948, and these are considered the start of the modern card era. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., (now the Topps Company, Inc.) began inserting trading cards into bubble gum packs in 1950, its first baseball trading card set in 1951, and the first modern style card with complete playing record and statistics on the back in 1952. Topps quickly began to dominate the market after they bought out Bowman, their chief competitor, in1956. Other Topps competitors included Fleer (1923 to 2005), Upper Deck (1988 to present), O-Pee-Chee (1934 to 1996), Donruss (1954 to 2009). Topps and Fleer had a 30 year legal battle over Topps attempted monopoly of the issuance of baseball cards in chewing gum packs. On this page we include antique, vintage, and modern sport trading cards. These may have been sold separately or included as premiums with gum, tobacco, or other goods.