Trading card
Small cards collected as hobby or used in games.
A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card which usually contains an image of a person, place or thing (fictional or real) along with a short description and other text. They can be collected as a hobby, and some are used to play games. Trading cards are or were often included with certain retail products such as cigarettes, bubblegum, and packs of tea. Multiple different cards within the same category are typically issued, which can be collected and traded to create complete sets. Trading cards are particularly associated with sports, but can cover numerous other topics such as cartoons, comic book characters, television series and film stills. In the 1990s, cards designed specifically for playing games became popular enough to develop into a distinct category, collectible card games.
- origins
- Trade cards, ancestors of cigarette and food cards, appeared in the 1880s
- first_baseball_cards
- Late 1860s by a sporting goods company
- key_company
- Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. (later The Topps Company, Inc.)
- market_size_2013
- Digital collectible card games estimated at $1.3B
- modern_market_value
- Global sports trading card market valued at $44 billion
Lore & Background
Trade cards are the ancestors of cigarette and food cards. Some of the earliest prizes found in retail products were cigarette cards; trade cards were designed to advertise products that were inserted into paper packs of cigarettes as stiffeners to protect the contents. Allen and Ginter in the U.S. & H.O. World War II put an end to cigarette card production due to limited paper resources, and after the war collectors took to collecting tea cards in the UK and bubble gum cards in the US. The first baseball cards were trade cards printed in the late 1860s by a sporting goods company. Most baseball cards around the beginning of the 20th century came in candy and tobacco products. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. In the 1990s, cards designed for playing games became a distinct category.
Reader's Guide
Trading cards have evolved from 19th-century cigarette stiffeners into a global collectible and gaming phenomenon. Their significance lies in their dual role as both memorabilia and game pieces. The development of the Internet has given rise to various online communities through which members can trade collectible cards. Cards are often bought and sold via eBay and other online retail sources. The value of a trading card depends on a combination of the card's condition, the subject's popularity, and the scarcity of the card. In some cases, especially with older cards that preceded the advent of card collecting as a widespread hobby, they have become collector's items of considerable value. In recent years, many sports cards have not necessarily appreciated as much in value due to overproduction, although some manufacturers have used limited editions and smaller print runs to boost value. Trading cards do not have an absolute monetary value; cards are only worth as much as a collector is willing to pay. Valued at $44 billion today, the global sports trading card market is expected to surge. The legacy of trading cards includes their influence on modern collectible card games and digital collectibles, as well as their role in preserving cultural and sports history through artwork and statistics.
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