Trading Cards for Grown-ups Day – April 8, 2024

History of Trading Cards for Grown-ups Day

Original trade cards were used to stiffen the packaging of cigarettes, and they were advertising cards. In the 1860s, baseball cards were printed and usually sold in packets of candy or other tobacco products. In the 1870s and early 1900s, the introduction of “color lithography” or multi-color printing led to the increase in the popularity of trade cards. They were inserted into product packaging as a prize and were generally not related to the product but were vibrant and in full color, which attracted people, and they started to collect them and would often trade them to obtain a complete and received their name.

In the 1930s, biographies started to be printed on baseball cards, and they came with packs of bubble gum. In 1950, Topps Chewing Gum began inserting trading cards into their packaging which depicted TV and movie stars, football players, and big game hunters. In 1952, Topps also started to produce sports trading cards, which included player biography, records, and other statistics.

By the 1980s, sports cards began to be viewed as valuable collectibles, and the monetary worth of earlier cards began to increase. In the 1990s, trading card games were introduced. In 1993, Wizards of the Coast released the first trading card game called Magic: The Gathering. Pokemon! Cards introduced in Japan in 1996 and in the U.S. in 1998 have soared in popularity and are in-demand trading cards.