Andy is the Specialist Valuer heading up our Stamps, Cigarette Cards and Postcards department at 1818 Auctioneers. The auctions include a mix of sorter boxes, world and GB one-country collections, first day covers, postcards and trading
cards. In this article, Andy takes us through a history of trade cards.
As a hobby, card collecting probably dates to the late Victorian era, when cigarettes were wrapped in paper packets and the manufacturers would insert pieces of card to protect the contents. These quickly became pictorial cards, with sequences that formed parts of sets. They encouraged repeat purchases and secured brand loyalty as people sought the full set of cards.
These weren’t the first picture cards, however. Trade cards or trading cards were issued with non-tobacco products and their history, believe it or not, pre-dates the earliest cigarette cards. The earliest known examples date back to the late 17th Century.
It was a German scientist named Justus Liebig who perhaps inadvertently started trade card collecting off – without realising it at the time! You may know his name – not only did he discover what eventually became Marmite, but he developed the process for beef extract and founded a company called Liebig Extract of Meat Company (LEMCO), which eventually trademarked as OXO. LEMCO quickly caught on to the sales potential of cards to promote their brand and
products. From 1872 onwards, they issued no fewer than 1,800 different card series
over a 120-year period.
During the 1920s and 1930s, as with cigarette cards, the popularity of trade cards grew with firms like Fry’s and Cadbury mimicking the tobacco manufacturers by adding collectable picture cards to their products. Tea companies like Typhoo took
the same approach.
Come the 1950s, the ‘flood’ of trade cards began. This was partly due to the lifting of the paper rationing of the 1940s, but it was also thanks to the demise of cigarette cards. The British wartime government banned cigarette cards in 1940, citing them as “a waste of vital raw materials”.
Many food manufacturers issued trade cards in abundance with tea, confectionery, biscuits, ice cream and so on. Brands including Brooke Bond Tea and later PG Tips, American & British Chewing Gum Co. Ltd (A & BC Gum), Bassetts, and Kellogg’s all issued cards. To name but a few!
In the USA, a similar craze was happening. Products like Cracker Jack and those from the American Caramel Company had their own collectable cards, many of which opened the collecting market to children as well as adults. Previously, it had been adults who were targeted, with cigarette cards aimed at the male market and food trade cards at female consumers.
Over the years, trading cards have covered hundreds of topics and subjects, from television to sports, movies to art, and more. New subjects and cards are issued each year, attracting new generations of collectors.
The most money ever paid for a single trade card was in 2022, for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card. It sold for a staggering $12.6 million US dollars at auction to a private collector. Another example of the big money these cards can make also came in 2022, when a Pokémon Illustrator Pikachu card sold for a mere $5.75 million US dollars!
The Pokémon franchise is a more recent example of commercial success with trading cards. Although the cards were aimed at primary school children, they still attract people of all ages today. Pokémon cards also mark a moment of change in the evolution of trading cards—the 1990s saw games based on trading cards become a hobby.
So, what’s next for trade cards?
Well, trade cards, trading cards, and trading card games have always embraced the spirit of the times in which they thrived. Each era of cards has captured the public’s imagination and, in turn, fuelled their popularity. It will be interesting to see what that looks like for the next generation!
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