[drc]

It's true that a lot of the labels and definitions we use today are things we made up and used retroactively. And rose is still a rose as Romeo said to Richard III.

Having said that, I firmly don't believe any CDV with a baseball player on it counts as a baseball card. Just remember that baseball card is short for baseball trading card. It doesn't mean anything that is a physical card with a baseball graphic on it. Nor is any physical card a trading card.

But many 1800s CDVs of Queen Victoria, Abe Lincoln and such were sold to the general public as as collectibles-- and if someone wants to call those trading cards, I'd probably go along with that.

With many early sport and non-sport items, there are things you just don't know-- such as why and for whom it was made. Was a particular CDV of Robert E. Lee by a famous studio made for his personal use or intended to be sold/distributed to the general public? Sometimes you simply don't know.