The Dead Years (1890-1908), What Happened?

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I am curious as to what happened between the years of 1890-1908? THere were so few card issued in that period after surge from 1887-89 and a rebirth in 1909. Was the economy bad? Did something happen in baseball?

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Posted By: Gary B.

"By the late 1890's, many of these tobacco companies combined to make a single company called the American Tobacco Company. Since there was no more serious competition, making insert cards was unnecessary as a promotional tool. From this time to early in the 20th Century, few baseball cards were made... In the early 1900's the U.S. government successfully sued to break up the American Tobacco Company monopoly. With the splintering of this group into smaller independent companies, cards once again became a viable way to promote tobacco products."


Since I have zero personal knowledge on the question, David's seems to make sense.

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Posted By: Pcelli60

My question is, how was the popularity of the game in this era?

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Posted By: Todd Schultz

I've seen that line about the tobacco trust monopoly before, and think that it's either an oversimplification and/or just partially accurate. First, it seems that there were several other types of cards/silks/pins/inserts in tobacco products throughout the 1890-1908 era. If you didn't need to hype your product with "prizes" then why have these?

Second, the American Tobacco Company was not ordered to be dissolved until 1911, yet the ATC brands were issuing t206 beforehand. I suppose some could argue that T206 was issued in response to the antitrust steps that were taken in 1907--the beginning of the end for ATC- to show that the brands were competing against each other, but if so, that seems a little weak to me.

Baseball was not unpopular throughout this era, although it had its moments of disrepute. The American League would not have been formed had there not been demand for the game. Perhaps the paucity of cards during this period is explained in part by the costs of obtaining the players' permission to use their likenesses?

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Posted By: warshawlaw

if it isn't on cards, it doesn't exist

Actually, there are a number of explanations, including the antitrust one. It appears that explanation is at least partially correct vis a vis the tobacco card issuers, who went through surges of competition and non-competition throughout the period. The timing is certainly suspicious; given the government case was working through the courts, we may owe the sudden surge in T card production to an effort to make the defense look good through manifestations of competition. We thus may have lawyers to thank for our cards; don't bash us anymore, we do have some use

There were also some horrible economic swings during the era, which may have contributed to the lack of cards. The theory or promoting into a recession did not gain popular currency in the business establishment until the creation of mass media after WWII.

It also appears to me that there simply wasn't much of an appetite in non-tobacco circles for using ballplayers as promotional tools. It seems to have taken the other sundry manufacturers until the early part of the 20th century to figure out that ball players (or boxers) could help them flog their wares.

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Posted By: Anonymous

I strongly suspect the incredible pennant races of 1908, which caused a great surge in attendance, played a role in the return of the tobacco cards.

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Posted By: Paul

I recall from my high school history class that there was an economic downturn -- I think in the 1890s -- that was second only to the Great Depression. JP Morgan bailed out the country by loaning a fortune to the federal government. If I haven't completely misstated history, that may help explain it. Of course, during the actual Great Depression, tons of cards were issued.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

favorite sets were printed: Mayo, E107, Fan Craze.