Baseball is perhaps the oldest sport in the history of the United States and the hobby of collecting baseball cards is nearly as old as the game itself. Baseball cards were the result of the increasing popularity of the game and photography. History has it that members of various baseball clubs posed for photographs and these photographs were used to create the first set of baseball cards. The first set of baseball cards that people collected were called the Peck and Snyder baseball card collection. This company basically sold baseball equipment and used these cards to promote their products.

It was only in the late 19th century that tobacco companies and candy producers entered the field of manufacturing baseball cards to promote their products. Companies like the American Tobacco Company, Imperial Tobacco Company and the American Caramel Company started producing baseball cards to promote their products and used baseball cards as a vehicle to promote their tobacco products. The famous Honus Wagner Card is a product of this era produced by the American Tobacco Company. This card would add prestige to any baseball card collection. Then came the confectionaries like O-Pee Chee and Goudey Gum Co., who extensively used baseball cards to promote their products. These were the days when people visited their local candy store or grocer shop to buy gum, candy or tobacco products, just so that they could rip open the packs to see the cards they got. Children of this era spent their pocket money buying baseball cards to play and to trade.

The innocent hobby of yesteryear has now grown into a full blown industry with big players manufacturing cards of baseball players. What used to be an exchange between two children, has now become a full fledged trade, with the stakes getting bigger and higher.

Companies like

• Upper Deck
• Fleer
• Topps

have changed the way collectors look at the hobby of baseball card collecting.

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