Baseball card collecting has been around since the 1800's, and millions of young and old enthusiasts collect baseball cards. Serious involvement shown by some enthusiasts who invest a lot of money and some even pursue a career in baseball cards. Baseball cards are sold for as little as 10 cents while a few cards are traded for as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Baseball became an increasingly popular sport in the USA after the Civil War. In those days when there were no modern printing techniques, a type of baseball card was made out of photos of baseball players or teams pasted on a small piece of square cardboard.

Peck & Snyder, a sporting good company, first printed baseball cards in the late 1860's. These baseball cards carried advertisements of their products and were given away like flyers for free. The popular hobby of the 1870