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Vintage Sports Memorabilia Madness
Hits the Collectibles Industry

As Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Brett Favre and others remind collectors of yesterday's heroes, vintage memorabilia madness has hit the sports collectibles industry.

Vintage memorabilia, defined as anything pre-1980 (cards, publications, autographs, etc.), has a large and growing audience. As the population ages and baby boomers acquire more wealth, the likes of Aaron, Koufax and Namath have joined Ruth, Dimaggio and Mantle in an ever-expanding vintage memorabilia marketplace.

Baseball cards in the United States have gone through numerous changes in everything from production and marketing to distribution and use. The earliest cards produced in the early 20th century were targeted primarily at adults as marketing come-ons by photographers and tobacco companies

By 1914, many cards were issued as part of games and confection companies began to distribute their own card sets. Since then, the baseball trading card market has seen its ups and down, especially during the Great Depression and the two World Wars when production slumped.

The biggest lose of interest in modern times came with the 1994 players' strike. Later with the advent and acceptance of third party baseballl card grading companies bringing greater objectivity in the grading of baseball cards (coupled with online marketing), the baseball card hobby/business continues to strengthen year after year.

More about baseball card trading and memorabilia around the Web:

Sports Memorabilia Meetup Groups

Baseball card price guide

Baseball Planet.com - Trading Post

also see in Sports -> Baseball | Fantasy Baseball