Trading Card

Trading Card is also known as collectible card. These are normally made up of cardboard or very thick paper. The trading cards usually come with various types of images and a short description about the image. Sometimes statistical figures are also provided with the write ups.

History of Trading Cards

The emergence of Trading Cards can be traced between 1887 to 1901. At that time, little pieces of cloth were marked with names of prominent baseball players and these were in circulation as trading cards. These original trading cards have are now considered as antique pieces and have gained the cult status.

Their present day value can go up to around US$800.Printed baseball cards on cardboard originated in between 1902 and 1935. At that time production of these cards did not follow any standardized procedure.

In the post 1936 era, trading card producers had maintained a particular get up for these cards. Earlier, these trading cards were offered with various other products and were not considered as individual products.
Later these cards gained the status of individual products and became very popular. The popularity of these cards is also related to the method of transaction of these cards and the recent IT revolution has made it possible to transact trading cards online. This has also added to the popularity of the cards.

More on Trading Cards

Trading Card is a collectible item. The variety in trading card originates from the variety in its content and differences in its printing material. Trading cards are normally related with sports and the baseball trading cards have gained considerable popularity. Apart from the sports trading cards, there are non-sports trading cards that are also popular among the customers.

These cards generally feature the following items:

• Cartoon Characters
• Movie Stills
• Characters from Comic Book
• Television Series Characteristics

Trading cards are also used as playing cards. People play different games by using these trading cards. The 1990's saw a major increase in interest in these trends.

Value determination of Trading Cards

The value of trading cards is determined by a number of factors like:

• Popularity index of the card's content
• Condition of the concerned trading card
• Rarity quotient of the trading card
• Antique value of the trading card