Editing Baseball card (section)

===Pre-1900===
[[File:1871 Albert Spalding Baseball-card-Boston Red Stockings.jpg|thumb|left|170px|[[Albert Spalding]] on a 1871 [[History of the Boston Braves|Boston Red Stockings]] card]]
[[File:King Kelly 0554fu.jpg|thumb|right|150px|An 1888 "Goodwin Champions" [[cigarette card]] of [[King Kelly]], one of the earliest cards using [[chromolithography]] to create multi-colored images of players]]
During the mid-19th century in the United States, baseball and photography gained popularity. As a result, baseball clubs began to pose for group and individual pictures, much like members of other clubs and associations posed. Some of these photographs were printed onto small cards similar to modern wallet photos. The oldest known surviving card shows the [[Brooklyn Atlantics]] from around 1860.<ref name=nbc>{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/rare-pre-civil-war-baseball-card-fetches-179-250-auction-n401726 |title=Rare Pre-Civil War Baseball Card Fetches $179,250 at Auction |date=31 July 2015 |agency=[[Reuters]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ha.com/information/oldest-known-team-baseball-card-video.s |title=Oldest known team baseball card, c. 1860 Brooklyn Atlantics to be auctioned July 30, 2015 |publisher=[[Heritage Auctions]]}}</ref>

As baseball increased in popularity and became a professional sport during the late 1860s, [[trade card]]s featuring baseball players appeared. These were used by various companies to promote their business, even if the advertised products had no connection with baseball. In 1868, [[Andrew Peck (businessman)|Peck and Snyder]], a sporting goods store in New York, began producing trade cards featuring baseball teams.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.cycleback.com/1800s/trade.htm | title = Early Trade Cards – the First Baseball Cards | access-date = 2006-09-19| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060827193157/http://www.cycleback.com/1800s/trade.htm| archive-date= 27 August 2006 | url-status= live}}</ref> Peck and Snyder sold baseball equipment, and the cards were a natural advertising vehicle. The Peck and Snyder cards are sometimes considered the first baseball cards.

Typically, a trade card of the time featured an image on one side and information advertising the business on the other. Advances in color printing increased the appeal of the cards. As a result, cards began to use photographs, either in [[black-and-white]] or [[sepia tone|sepia]], or color artwork, which was not necessarily based on photographs. Some early baseball cards could be used as part of a game, which might be either a conventional [[card game]] or a [[simulation|simulated]] baseball game.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Suciu |first1=Peter |title=Collecting Military Tobacco Cards. |url=https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/collecting-military-tobacco-cards/. |website=Warfare History Network |access-date=November 4, 2024}}</ref>

By early 1886, images of baseball players were often included on [[cigarette cards]] with [[cigarette|cigarette packs]] and other tobacco products. This was partly for promotional purposes and somewhat because the card helped protect the cigarettes from damage.

As the popularity of baseball spread to other countries, so did baseball cards. By the end of the century, production had spread well beyond the Americas and into the Pacific Isles.<ref name="Fitts" /> Sets appeared in Japan as early as 1898,<ref name="Fitts">{{cite book | last = Fitts | first = Robert K. | author-link = Rob Fitts | title = An Introduction to Japanese Baseball Cards }}</ref> in Cuba as early as 1909<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.cubanbaseballcards.com/Cabanas.html | title = 1909 Cabanas | access-date = 2006-09-19| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060917183435/http://www.cubanbaseballcards.com/Cabanas.html| archive-date= 17 September 2006 | url-status= live}}</ref> and in Canada as early as 1912.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.oldcardboard.com/foreign/canada/c/c46/c46.asp?cardsetID=1004 | title= 1912 Imperial Tobacco}}</ref>