Football Trading Cards
Football is considered the all American sport. Football trading cards emerged in 1894. The set contained 35 cards of Ivy League Players. One card failed to list the name of the player. He is believed to be from Harvard. This is one of the most sought after football trading cards. It is very valuable because of how old it is as well as the error on the card.
Today football cards are available for all your favorite teams including college football, NFL, and Arena Football. Football cards involve a million dollar industry with regard to collecting and selling of the numerous cards available. The Wonderful Book of Football Cards and Sticker Albums is a great resource for researching the cards you have as well as the cards you would like to add to your collection.
The first set of football trading cards created for the NFL were produced by Topps. However, the cards were not well distributed or produced. It was not until the NFL and the AFL merged did they have the revenue and backing to mass produce trading cards of all the teams. In 1955, Topps bought out the competitor, Bowman. They decided to add a new feature to trading cards. Rather than the traditional picture of the player on the card, they decided to do action shots. This allowed them to market several cards of the same player in different poses. The action shots were a great selling point. In 1968, Topps became the sole producer of football cards. Many other businesses were competing to produce trading cards for baseball, but no one seems interested in giving Topps any competition in the football series.
Some of the most valuable trading cards are those of players who had cards printed when they were part of the United States Football League. Many players then went to the NFL. They did not reach star status until their NFL playing. That made their USFL cards very unique and valuable. Since the league did not exist anyone, they were not considered Rookie cards.
While football trading cards have never reached the status of other types of trading cards, they continue to be collected by young and old alike. Most of us will never own those rare cards out there, but are happy to collect the cards of our favorite team.
