What is a sports card?

[thisbaseballcardlife]

Define it.

1948-55 Bowman sets are sports cards.
1951-59 Topps sets are sports cards.
The 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set is full of sports cards.

What about food and beverage cards? Are they "cards"?
Kahns Wieners, Morrel Meats, Hires Root Beer, Swift Meats, Rodeo Meats, Red Man tobacco, Johnston Cookies Braves, etc.

What about the ones that have blank backs like the 1959 Bazooka set?
Does a "card" have to have something written on the back of it to be considered a card?

Does a "card" have to be within a certain size?

Wilson Franks and Red Hearts have backs with stats, seems like a sports card to me.

The "Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards" book has 288 separate listings of 1950s sets/items.

I'm just a collector trying to figure things out.

Any help would be appreciated...

- Mike S.

[G1911]

A card is a piece of cardboard with writing, a picture, or both upon it. A trading card, a postcard, a business card, a calling card, etc.

A trading card is a card, predominantly with a focus on a picture of something, that is intended to be collected.

A sports card is a trading card that features a sport being played, an athlete, or a team logo, or some similar picture relevant to a sport.

[raulus]

Didn’t we just discuss this very question like 3 months ago?

I think the answer boils down to just how expansive you want to be. Are you a narrow card definition guy? Or a broad card definition guy?

I started my collecting approach with a narrow mindset. I’ve come around to a more expansive mindset.

[G1911]

Didn’t we just discuss this very question like 3 months ago?

Are graded cards cool?

I hate graded cards.

What T206 portrait do you like best?

How do I make money?

Please tell me spending my savings account on baseball cards will make me rich.

1952 Topps posts in the pre-war section.

What's a card anyway?

I am angry that person/organization X did Y because I did Z!

Hello fellow junkies, do you think baseball cards will increase in value? Affirm me!

What big name players should I buy to make more money?

Is this obvious reprint authentic?

Pickup thread - show your new purchases that will end up on the BST or for sale within 60 days.

^ This is 90% of our threads ;). Without them, it's a handful of dead research threads, the print variants megathread, and we'd have nothing else!

[JollyElm]

Look at them the way most people (botanists aside) define vegetables. The word 'veggies' covers everything and simply refers to the various parts of a plant that we consume - leaves, roots, stalks, flowers, bulbs, etc. Some are even legumes, for cripes sake (wait, is that word supposed to be a possessive "cripe's"?). The word 'cards' refers to everything that is printed (small enough) on sturdier material and made for the purpose of being collected by people. That's what it is to me.