The Beginning of trading cards

Nowadays, trading cards, collectible cards and all other cards are huge business with millions of dollars behind it. It doesn`t matter if it is a sport card, movie card or just a card released to promote something. Some are valued few cents, other can reach up millions for a single card.

Have You ever wondered how it began?

Well... this is a short story about it.

Some say, that it all started somewhere around 1880 when John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter set up a company named... yes, you are right: Allen & Ginter. I will not focus on its history as a tobacco company obviously (nowadays its not politically correct to talk about cigs;), but Allen & Ginter had a very interesting idea of how to develop marketing of their products. Cigarette manufacturers were using paper cards putted inside cig packs to prevent cigarettes from being squeezed. They created and introduced cigarette card for collecting and trading purposes. Now the trade mark of Allen & Ginter is used by some other company... ;) 

However, a bit earlier, in 1866 Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods was created by Andrew Peck and Irving Snyder. They started with tennis shoes and skates.

That time, baseball was gathering more and more people who, after the Civil War, were just hungry for a bit of normality, joy, and fun with others. Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods “smelled” the deal and… as a result in 1869 they presented a first baseball team photo card of the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

And now, we reach the point where a single card is sold for $5mln. Collecting trading cards became the real business, where its much more than just building Your personal collection of Your favorite player – it’s the investment for the future, gambling, adrenaline…

Lot of companies now are using the popularity trading cards. Not only sport is under their interest obviously. Now You can collect movie trading cards, trading cards connected with comic world (e.g. Marvel) and trading card games 😊 – which brings much more fun than just collecting. 

First ever trading card game is considered to be Magic: The Gathering, introduced on 5 August 1993, Created by Professor Richard Garfield and published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. 

And the trading card game, that made people go wild??? Yes, you are right – Pokemon. But this is a story for another post 😊 no worries, we will take care of it. Meanwhile, enjoy the world of trading cards, collect, invest,

Well… geeks rule the world. And its fun to be geek 😊

Sources:
* https://peckandsnyder.com/pages/about-us
* https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/peck-and-snyder-the-company/
* https://pl.wikipedia.org 😊
* https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-modern-trading-card-game