Once upon a time, there was only a handful of baseball card collectors. In the 1800s and early 1900s, most cards were issued as premium items or promotional advertising to entice consumers to buy tobacco products. During that period, baseball was considered a "gentlemen's game" which was played by men in a social setting. "Base Ball Clubs" were formed, and clubs from different cities would play one another for fun and profit.

Baseball was developed from the English sports of cricket and rounders. According to legend, a West Point cadet named Abner Doubleday "invented" the sport around 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. We do know that the first organized baseball game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1847 and that the sport began to flourish during the U.S. Civil War when Union soldiers played baseball during their encampments. After the war ended in 1865, many of the soldiers took the game home with them.

In 1952, Sy Berger, a war veteran with a creative mind, developed the first modern baseball card.

Replacing "What will it be worth tomorrow? with "What is it worth to me now?"

Topps baseball cards have become an icon of popular culture of the second half of the 20th century