STANDARDS

Core Art Standards: VA4, VA7, VA10

CCSS: R1, R2, R10

Article Options

Presentation View
Teaching Resources

Standards

A League of Their Own

Baseball cards have gone from advertising tools to collectibles traded worldwide

December 2025
Written by Chava Pearl Lansky

Erik Pendzich/Alamy

Topps standardized baseball card design in the 1950s.

Back in 1952, a baseball card featuring Yankees player Mickey Mantle was sold as part of a pack of cards for a penny or a nickel. In 2022, the same card was sold for $12.6 million. How have baseball cards evolved from a tool to get customers to buy candy and other products to the valuable collectibles they are today? The answer might surprise you.

Baseball cards were created in the 1880s as a form of advertising. Originally, the cards were practical—they were used to stiffen soft packages. In those days, baseball cards didn’t have a standard shape or size. They were smaller than today’s cards and made out of cardboard. Their designs varied greatly. Some featured black-and-white or sepia-toned photographs, while others featured colored drawings.

Library of Congress

This card was issued in 1887 as part of the “Old Judge” series produced by Goodwin & Company.

In the 1950s, baseball cards gained popularity thanks to a chewing gum company called Topps. Marketing employee Sy Berger and graphic designer Woody Gelman reimagined baseball cards to appeal to kids—with the original goal of selling more gum. They standardized the design of the cards, making them neat, colorful, and beautiful. Each card included a photograph of the player, their signature, the team logo, and the player’s biography and statistics. The 1952 Mickey Mantle card is a prime example of this style. Today cards like these are not only collected and traded around the world but also celebrated as part of pop culture.


Fanaticscollect.com

Now Topps partners with popular artists like Takashi Murakami to create baseball cards like the 2025 example shown here.

Topps is still the leading producer of baseball cards. And it is constantly innovating. In 2020, it worked with contemporary artists to give 20 classic baseball cards an artistic makeover. In 2021, Topps celebrated its baseball card division’s 70th birthday with Project 70. The company worked with accomplished artists from around the world to create limited-edition redesigns.

Recently, Topps collaborated with famous Japanese artist Takashi Murakami to create a collection of cards celebrating Japanese members of America’s Major League Baseball teams. With bright, stylized, and modern designs, baseball cards have come a long way from their advertising roots. Now they’re art.


Article Type

Features
Text-to-Speech