Cardboard Gems
A Century of Baseball Cards & Their Stories. 1869–1969

Cardboard Gems is a captivating journey through the first hundred years of baseball cards…and of professional baseball itself. With dazzling pictures and intriguing stories of more than 150 selected cards, this book weaves the fabric of the ballplayers and card manufacturers that paved the way for what we now know as the baseball-card hobby: a multi-billion-dollar industry teeming with collectors whose passion is fueled by a love
of the national pastime.

All of the game’s greats are here—legends like Cap Anson, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Mickey Mantle—along with the trailblazing companies that honored them—Goodwin & Co., Allen & Ginter, Cracker Jack, Goudey, Play Ball, Bowman, and Topps. So, whether you’re a beginning collector or a hardened hobby veteran, prepare to be fascinated and delighted by this retrospective on the elite legacy of baseball cardboard.