Baseball cards first made their mark in the late 1800s and early 1900s, primarily as tobacco card inserts. After a brief respite of sorts during World War I, the 1920s and 1930s saw the creation of even more sets. But by the 1940s, the collecting world was again on a bit of a hiatus. The 1930s brought about the gum card boom and, by that time, cards had really shifted from … [Read more...]
1940 Play Ball is a Slice of Baseball History
Talk to dealers and collectors and the one word that keeps surfacing about the 1940 Play Ball Baseball set is ‘underrated’. Our Vintage Set of the Week is a 240-card whopper, overflowing with stars of the day and stars of the past. Play Ball made its debut with the 1939 set, another black and white issue that used what were for the time, clear photos of contemporary … [Read more...]
1941 Play Ball Set Actually Spanned Two Years
Seventy-one years ago this week, America was waking up to a new reality. Thousands of men were dead in the South Pacific and the war the country had managed to avoid for several years had come to us. It would be a difficult four years. The 1941 Play Ball set brought color to baseball cards and the heroes of the game never seemed as real as they did when kids across the … [Read more...]
Early Baseball Card Gum Company Wrappers
Occasionally, we try to go back into the hobby's past to give new life to articles that were once printed in some of the hobby's print publications, most of which disappeared long ago. This story originally appeared in The Trader Speaks, a popular outlet that was available by subscription from he late 1960s to early 1980s. by Bud Tompkins Since my involvement in … [Read more...]