A Brief History of the Trading Card Hobby

     I am in the trading card business because I love it!! It's the perfect hobby in my opinion. Trading cards educate and entertain in many ways. Trading cards cover nearly every subject under the sun. Sports, automobiles, motorcycles, TV shows, movies, history, art, and many more subjects are represented on trading cards. No matter what your interest, there is probably a trading card concerning your interest. My interests are varied, and my collection reflects that fact. I have Victorian era trade cards (more on these in a minute), tobacco cards, sports cards, KISS, M*A*S*H, The Munsters, McCale's Navy, The Beatles, and many more subjects. My collection is eclectic indeed.

One of my favorite trade cards

     One of my main interests is history, and the history of trading cards greatly interests me. With advances in the printing process came the advent of trading cards. Merchants began using printed cards to advertise their goods and services. As color printing became more readily available, advertisers began to have their advertising cards printed in color. Printing's capabilities triggered advertisers imagination, and by the 1880's beautiful "trade cards" were being collected by many households. From the 1880's to the early 1900's was the heyday of trade card collecting, and as far as this historian is concerned the birth of our present-day hobby. Advertisers vied for the attention of the masses by trying to outdo one another, with one beautiful trade card after another as the result. People began to avidly collect the beautiful cards, and many households had their own album in which they pasted their cards.

Three of my favorite trading cards - Pete Maravich, McCale's Navy, and the great Frank Frazetta

     Meanwhile, the trading card concept was also adopted by Allen and Ginter, a cigarette manufacturer. Beginning in 1875, Allen and Ginter began using trading cards for a dual purpose. They were used, of course, to advertise cigarettes, but they also served a mechanical purpose, providing a stiffener to help protect the fragile product. Soon after other cigarette manufacturers began including trading cards as well. Cigarette cards originated in the U.S., but Britain, Germany, and others soon followed suit.
     Brand name manufacturers realized the advertising value of these collectible cards, and companies began to print very nice cards to attract collectors, and in turn attract business. In 1950, when Topps decided to try to increase sales by including trading cards, depicting western hero Hopalong Cassidy along with their bubble gum, a new era in card collecting began. In 1952, Topps included a set of baseball cards with their gum, and the rest, as all of us collectors know, is history.
     Many other products included trading cards in their packaging, including cereal, bread, candy, and much more. Trading cards have been used as promotional items by many different companies.
     This has been a very short history of the birth of the trading card collecting hobby. Here are a few links for more detailed accounts:

The Trade Card Place

 Victorian Trade Cards

History of Topps Trading Cards

Allen and Ginter Tobacco Cards

Information courtesy of Frank Eachus of Frank Eachus Publishing

Publishers of 

Tattoo Art Trading Cards 

Houdini: The World's First Superhero 

and the soon to be released Side Show Trading Cards

For more on Frank Eachus Publishing click HERE