Baseball cards.Series 1, Series 2, Update and Bowman

Who holds the MLB licence?

A US court broke Topps' exclusive rights to baseball cards in 1980, and in 1981 Fleer and Donruss entered the market. Upper Deck held an MLB licence from December 1988, and Topps became the sole holder again in January 2010. Fanatics got the licence from the players' union in 2023 and from the league in 2026, and the cards are published under the Topps name.

The base series and Heritage

Series 1 comes out in February and Series 2 some way into the season. Topps Heritage first came out in 2001 and was then based on the design of Topps' 1952 baseball cards. Update Series, Bowman and the other series are covered in the baseball guide.

Baseball cards before Topps

The sporting goods store Peck & Snyder in New York is considered the first with a series of baseball cards, when it pasted advertising on the back of team photos, among them the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869. From 1886 Goodwin & Company put photographs of baseball players in packs of Old Judge cigarettes, on pieces of cardboard meant to protect the contents, and the series is considered the first major one. The confectionery company Cracker Jack put baseball cards in its boxes in 1914 and 1915, with players from the two major leagues and from the short-lived Federal League. Goudey's Big League Chewing Gum from 1933 could not be completed from packs, because number 106 was missing, and only in 1934 did collectors who had complained receive the Napoleon Lajoie card by post.