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Gary B.This is a very tough question, but I'll put in my two cents based on my general knoledge and what seems to make sense.
As stated above though, I'm sure it's always been completely economically based with whatever was working at the time. When cards worked as promotional items to incite people to buy their products, this was popular, although this has continued throughout the decades in one form or another from tobacco and candy inserts, to snack food and cereal boxes, etc., at certain times it being much more popular and prolific than others, or focusing on a different demographics. In the 20's and early 30's, strip cards were prolific because kids could go buy a strip of them for a penny without having to buy any products at all.
Card production waned significantly during major world wars for practical reasons like paper shortages, but also because people's attentions were often focused elsewhere. Often even major players put aside baseball for years at a time to participate in these wars.
Then I'm sure there must be a correlation between the advent and proliferation of television in people's homes, and the fact that the card industry seemed to expand dramatically and be much more stabilized around the beginning of the 50's. Now people who lived too far to go to ballgames in person or would only read about it in the newspaper or hear about it on the radio had moving images to go along with names, and I would imagine that sparked more interest in cards on a national level.
When the 80's came about, and Topps who had dominated the market had serious competiton from Fleer and Donruss, this again I'm sure was dictated by economics, and some legal reasons that I've heard inklings about - someone here I'm sure can explain this, however if you look at the comic book industry at the same time, the market that had been dominated by Marvel & DC exploded also into having MANY major players in the field. I guess in addition to whatever legal reasons ended the monopolies, enough interest also existed to warrant competition.
As the 80's became the 90's, the card industry went crazy with SEVERAL companies releasing MANY different issues. I have no idea why this is other than these companies must be successfull since they're staying in business. It seems to me in recent times that the price of new cards has far exceeded inflation, as I remember as a kid being able to go to the store and buy several packs at one time, getting more cards in each pack. Spending $1-$2 back in the mid-70's just cannot equate to paying $25 or so which you'd have to pay today for the same amount of cards. Occasionally I'll be tempted to buy a new pack, but who wants to pay $3 for 8 new cards? Maybe less cards are being sold at a higher price to compensate for waning interest, as our national pastime has gotten MAJOR competition from football and basketball? I really don't understand it, as once Fleer and Donruss entered the marketplace, it was just too much to keep up with for me, as I'm sure it was for many. I had enjoyed the simplicity of one issue per year, and perhaps chasing after promotional issues by other companies that would come along. Now it's pretty moot as the vintage cards are what really spark my interest.
Maybe with the advent of more high-tech cards like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh and gaming holographic cards, the card industry has adopted this super glossy metallic holographic thick cardboard/plastic look that really doesn't do too much for me. I fondly remember the days when I'd be curious to see what each new year of Topps cards would look like, some designs being more interesting than others, but always different. The cards today all look kind of the same to me. At least graphically, cards have changed over the years based on what kind of graphic arts were popular at the time.
As far as I can tell, even though there has been some relationship between the growth of baseball and the growth of baseball cards, they do seem to be on somewhat different tracks, with economics, social and cultural factors playing a larger factor that the changing face of the game.
Anyway, some random thoughts from me on the subject...