Trading cards are small cards featuring sports stars or non-sports characters. They were first produced in the early 20th century and were usually free gifts obtained by purchasing gum, cereals, or tobacco. Baseball cards remain popular, and serious collectors can pay a lot for rare or unique cards. Other sports have also produced trading cards. People can trade cards with others to get cards they don’t have, and some cards classified as new can be worth a great deal of money. Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards are used to play a game featured in the show. Collecting cards is a fun pastime described in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Trading cards are small cards, measuring 2.5 by 3.5 inches (6.35-8.89), or roughly similar in size to traditional playing cards. These cards can feature names and pictures of sports stars or they can be non-sports oriented and have pictures of things like movie or cartoon characters. Collecting, saving and sometimes playing with trading cards has been a popular pastime for many years.
The first real trading cards were produced in the early 20th century. In the late 19th century, however, some people had little cloths with baseball players’ names on them. The conversion to the creation of paper cards gradually took over and the cards were usually free gifts that could be obtained by purchasing different types of products such as gum, cereals or tobacco.
Early 20th century trading cards were usually geared towards listing the names and statistics of baseball players, and baseball cards still remain very popular. Serious collectors of trading cards can pay a lot for some of the earliest cards produced, especially since many of them contain errors. Mistakes are not considered a problem in trading cards, but rather a virtue because it makes cards rare or unique.
Gradually, the cards became the focus of sales instead of freebies. Some were still sold with thin sheets of chewing gum. The expansion in the number of baseball teams expanded the cards available, and they could also list valuable statistical information. Other sports have also produced trading cards and there are football, basketball and hockey cards, just to name a few.
As the name suggests, people can trade cards with others to get cards they don’t have. Sometimes the deals also exchange money and cards classified as new, especially if they are rare, can be worth a great deal of money. There are a number of online trading communities, giving people greater access to cards than others they may not have.
An interesting variation of the trading card was the cards produced with the popular children’s show Yu-Gi-Oh!. Kids can collect trading cards and trade them, but they also use the cards to play a game featured in the show. Winners may be able to keep one or more losers’ cards after a game, although not all games are played to “keep.”
Collecting cards can certainly be fun, and the tradition has been described ironically in the work of JK Rowling. In the Harry Potter series, children get the famous wizarding cards by purchasing Chocolate Frogs. These can then be traded to get other wizards.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
