Oldest commercially produced baseball card?

[oldjudge]

First, being a professional is no criteria for a baseball card. However, yes. The 1863 Grand Match souvenir tickets paid the players whose images appeared on the tickets.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

First, being a professional is no criteria for a baseball card. However, yes. The 1863 Grand Match souvenir tickets paid the players whose images appeared on the tickets.

ok, another vote for a ticket being a baseball card.....and who makes any of us the ultimate person to say what a pro or a card is? Just as you think the Red Stocking schedule cards are schedules I think the tickets are tickets. But again, I think it's semantics..and it's all ok with me.

[bgar3]

Are there individual cdv's of 1869 Cincinnati players in uniform known to exist?

[E93]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Jim--there are several definitions that could be used to denote the first baseball card, and by neither would I consider Peck and Snyder to be it. By the broad definition I think Rob was right and the 1863 Grand Match souvenir tickets are the first. By a more conventional card definition, I think that the 1886 issues are the first. This would include New York Kalamazoo Bats and N167s.

Hi Jay,
I agree with you regarding conventional card definitions. That is why I argued that N167s are the only ones that need no further explanation or defense with regard to actually being a card rather than something else.

I would also argue, as I did in my Old Cardboard article on the set that the most reasonable date of issue for the N167 set is 1885, thus pre-dating even KBats.
JimB

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

We now have an Atlantics trade card in the current REA with a 126 Nassau Street address clearly visible on the reverse. This says that the trade card was issued post 1870, not in 1868. It is an image of the 1868 team that was issued later.

The 1871 NY Clipper Ad makes more sense now - rather than advertising current teams and 'leftovers', it was possibly advertising current teams, and some 'great' teams of the past;i.e-possibly issuing them for the first time, or they were issued sporadically over a 2-3 year period.