About.com: Let's Review Their Baseball Card Timeline

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Posted By: bruce Dorskind

Baseball Card Timeline

Pre-World War II Era

1868: A New York sporting goods store called Peck and Snyder creates what most historians consider to be the first set of baseball cards. Images of baseball players were featured on the fronts of the cards, while advertisements for the company’s baseball equipment made up the backs.

1886: Another New York company - Goodwin and Co. - kicks off the era of tobacco companies by producing a baseball set distributed as pack liners with cigarettes.

1903: The E107 Breisch Williams set is produced, marking the first significant release of the 20th Century.

1909: The American Tobacco Company - a conglomerate that swallowed up many smaller companies that once printed baseball cards - creates the T206 White Border Set, one of the most famous sets of all time. The short printed Honus Wagner card is the grandfather of all valuable cards.

1914: Cracker Jack produces the first of two sets, notable for their inclusion of players from the Federal League.

1933: Boston temporarily becomes the center of the baseball card world, with Goudey Gum Co., George C. Miller Co. and Delong all producing sets.

1939: Gum Inc. - the precursor of Bowman - prints its first Play Ball sets, which feature Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
Post-World War II Era

1948: With the war over, Bowman Gum and the Leaf Candy Company each create baseball card sets.

1952: Topps prints its first baseball set, which includes the Mickey Mantle rookie card, one of the most famous cards of all time.

1956: The purchase of Bowman by Topps makes Topps the only national manufacturer of baseball cards.

1957: Topps changes the dimensions of its cards to 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches, the same size used by nearly every sports card product today.

1963: Fleer attempts to get around Topps’ exclusive rights to produce baseball cards sold with gum by creating a set featuring 66 players and sold with cookies. Legal action by Topps forces Fleer to abandon the product after just one year.

1976: The TCMA company produces its 630-card SSPC set, selling it by mail and without full baseball licensing. It too, lasts only one season before Topps files suit to have it stopped.

1980: A court ruling states that Topps’ exclusive rights apply only to baseball cards sold with gum, opening the door for competitors to finally get back in the game.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Without the following sinificant events, this "timeline" is incomplete.....

1st....1908 (or 09) should follow-up the 1903 E107 Candy set with the American Caramel (E90-1) set.
A significant milestone in the E-card era.

2nd....1934 should include the National Chicle - Diamond Star set (a spin-off from GOUDEY GUM Co.)

3rd....1949 Bowman vs Leaf litigation that prevents Leaf from issuing BB cards beyond Leaf's 1949 BB set.

4th....1951 Bowman anticipates the Mantle phenomena by issuing his 1st rookie card. Topps enters the BB
card market.

5th....1959 Fleer introduces an 80-card set depicting the Ted Williams story.

TED Z

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Posted By: mark

didn't topps print it's first TWO baseball "sets" in 1951 (without mickey mantle)?

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Right, Ted, 1908...

And Fleer signs Williams to an exclusive contract, produces an 80 card Williams set, leaving Topps with no Williams card in 1959.

Shouldn't that be 1938 for Gum Inc.'s Playballs. I know the guide says 1939, but my recollection is that some guys on here suggested it was in late 1938 when the cards came out. And the 1938 date is mentioned in an article in one of the early issues of The Sports exchange from the mid 1940s.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

some might laugh at me (and i DO NOT collect the shiny stuff), but i think we have to add Upper Deck's debut set in 1989 into this timeline. that set & company changed the face of the hobby in the '90's, and revolutionized how companies made cards going forward.

just my 2c.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

"RIGHT ON".....there ole buddy.

I still owe you my Ted Williams conversation regarding the 1959 Fleer set and a very upset Sy Berger of Topps fame.

Also, I have heard that Play Ball possibly issued their 1st BB card set sometime in 1938.

TED Z

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

Topps printed five baseball sets in 1951 actually, although they are all inter-related to a degree. I'll have an overview in the next issue of Old Cardboard on this and some other oddball Topps sets from the 50's.

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Posted By: Paul S

"And Fleer signs Williams to an exclusive contract, produces an 80 card Williams set, leaving Topps with no Williams card in 1959."

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Posted By: Richard Masson

Issued for the players on the Boston team in the National Association, many of whom came over from the 1869 Cincinatti team. These are arguably the first set of player (as opposed to team) cards picturing professional players.

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Posted By: Joe D.

1903: NY Giants appear on a Real Photo Postcard
(earliest known example of a major league team appearing on a postcard)

"This postcard is the earliest known to show a major league team. The players were photographed on the staircase of New York's famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Baseball had an image problem in the early years, as many of the players were hard-drinking rowdies. Associating the Giants with the grand Waldorf Astoria, one of the world's finest hotels, was probably an attempt to bring the club more respectability."
---Tuff Stuff's Baseball Postcard Collection - by Ron Menchine

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Posted By: peter chao

1984 Donruss was the first set that really challenged the dominance of Topps in the retail market. Not only that Donruss beat Topps to the punch with the relatively rare '84 Donruss Mattingly. This was the first time that a rookie card was hot from Day 1.

1985 marked the advent of the Chase for the Hot Rookie Card. Pete was approaching Ty Cobb's lifetime record for hits. As Pete approached the record the '63 Rose card takes off, this triggers the modern fascination for rookies of all kinds. Without this card it's possible that the 1914 Baltimore Ruth would not have become the most recent hobby hot card for vintage collectors.

Peter C.