What happened to baseball cards in the 1920's?

[oldeboo]

Interesting topic and there are many possible explanations...

My main theory revolves around microeconomics and the evolution of baseball cards.

An example I think of from the 1920s is the W575-1 family of cards. You have similar cards produced with merely different backs. Why? Well, I'd assume cost. The cards weren't the primary product, but distributed in the hopes of boosting sales and gaining repeat customers hunting cards. Why didn't all of the W575-1 advertisers make their own unique cards? Probably cost. Let us just say that a piece of candy was selling for 5 cents. Let's assume that with all of your costs it took 2 cents to produce that candy and the cards cost 1 cent. That leaves you with a profit of 2 cents. (just throwing numbers out there) Was it worth it? Should you make your own unique cards for 2 cents? Or not offer them at all? I'm sure many companies during that time period were contemplating those questions.

When you look at some of the earlier tobacco cards, then compare them to say, the later 1933 Goudey cards, it was there for the taking. I'm sure cards similar to the Goudey cards could have been produced and popularized in the 1920s, but they just weren't. It's a whole other topic, however I think there are some parallels to the Goudey cards. 1933 seems to be the most popular set, and it was produced in one of the worst years of the depression. The 1934 set again was pretty popular, but after that I'd say there was a decline. The larger economy was slowly recovering, so that's not a huge excuse in my opinion, so again it comes down to the microeconomics of the Goudey company getting players on their cards with their own troubles and profitability issues. Then of course comes WWII. For having such a wildly popular set in 1933, they just never figured it out for the long haul.

1949 Leaf cards again were rather popular, yet they didn't stick around and produce cards year after year after year. Why? These early heavy players in the card industry just had a hard time making it work while focusing on their primary products. I think some of these cards from the 1930s and 1940s help to explain what was going on with cards in the 1920s.