Monthly Archives: February 2023

Card trading always had some popularity, but it has waned in the past, only to resurge this decade. Here’s why card trading has made a comeback this decade.

In the world of trading cards, some, like baseball cards, have existed longer than others. Even with this storied history, knowing how valuable a card is can be difficult. You must consider many factors that can make the card more valuable or bring its value down to the point where it’s almost worthless. Knowing if your baseball cards are worth money is tricky, but once you know what to look for, figuring out their value becomes much easier.

What Makes Cards Valuable?

Each card is different, and value is hard to know just by looking at a card. It takes a lot of industry knowledge and knowledge about the market to understand what’s valuable and what’s not. Generally, though, there are a few characteristics that help determine value. The first and most obvious trait is the quality of the card. A card fresh out of the pack should be pristine, but the longer you wait to put it in a protective sleeve, the more susceptible it is to scratches and dinged corners.

In addition

Today people share dozens of different trading card sets, whether in online forums, on school playgrounds, or anywhere in between. It’s a popular hobby, but it wasn’t always this way. The history behind collectible trading cards is rich, and many exciting twists and turns happened through the years, leading up to where trading cards are today.

Trade Cards and Cigarette Cards

Before trading cards, there were trade cards—a type of business card that became popular in Europe near the end of the seventeenth century. The cards served as a form of advertising for the business and sometimes even included maps directing the card’s owner to the business itself. Later in the U.S., around 1890, a tobacco company began printing advertisement cards and including them in cigarette packs, similar to trade cards.

Soon, the manufacturers began printing pictures on the cards with different encyclopedic topics to make the cards more enticing. Then, more and more cigarette companies