Welcome to a Century of Collecting! A Brief History of Sports Card Collecting. Sports card collecting/trading has occurred since 1894, when the very first Mayo Card Collection, highlighting 35 of the top Ivy League College players, was issued. During the 1920’s, the practice of inserting “picture cards” into packs of gum manufactured by Fleer and Topps enabled these once bubble-gum producers to help battle slumping sales, especially during the economic downturn of the Great Depression. The 1930’s saw the first multi-sport card collection, including Red Grange, Knute Rockne and the famous Jim Thorpe. However, the true launch of commercial card-collecting occurred in the late 1940’s and 1950’s when Bowman, Leaf, and Topps issued football card sets to accompany their gum. Boys everywhere clothes-pinned baseball and football cards to their bicycle wheel spokes to create a little “sonic” excitement. Ultimately, the 1970’s and 1980’s hailed the “Golden Age” of sports card collecting, basking in the particularly strong afterglow of America’s favorite pastime, baseball. Baseball, Football and Hockey cards began to be more actively traded with a fiscal bottom line in mind. At the time, great opportunity was deemed to be inextricably linked to sports card collecting, especially in light of the limited numbers of cards produced, and the inevitable poor treatment of a majority of these cards by the youth that possessed them. Ultimately the bubble gum disappeared as serious collectors focused on the value of the cards tainted by the gum’s white packaging powder. Then came the sobering Baseball strike of 1994…the result of which was a nation-wide, in-depth scrutiny of the nature, values, and bank ledgers of professional sports teams and the owners, managers, players and fans associated with them. Where did all our unassuming heroes go? Card collectors took a step back. Today, many of these heroes can be found within the collections on our site. And, new heroes emerge every year on our Authentic Rookie cards--- rekindling our love of the game and of the realization of dreams.