{"product_id":"million-dollar-hobby-a-history-of-sports-cards-in-america-9798295864032","title":"Million Dollar Hobby: A History of Sports Cards in America","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe definitive history of how sports cards became a multi-million-dollar industry. From cigarette packs in 1880 to the $12.6 million Mickey Mantle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn August 2022, a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle sold at auction for $12.6 million. Three years earlier, the same card would have sold for a fraction of that. Three years later, another card would break the record again. How did a small rectangle of printed cardboard, originally inserted into cigarette pouches in the 1880s as packing material, become one of the most unlikely asset classes in the American economy?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMILLION DOLLAR HOBBY is the complete story of America's most unlikely billion-dollar industry. Spanning nearly a century and a half, it traces the full arc of sports cards in America: from tobacco company giveaways to a children's pastime to a serious alternative investment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside, you'll meet: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Brooklyn gum company that cornered the baseball card market for twenty-five years\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Ohio statistics professor who built the price guide that turned cards into investments\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe California printing salesman who slipped a hologram into a 1989 Upper Deck rookie pack and started an arms race\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe hobby shop owners who survived the 1994 baseball strike\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe pandemic-era YouTube breakers whose livestreamed box openings became a billion-dollar phenomenon\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe federal prosecutors now pursuing the largest fraud cases in hobby history\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe congressman who, in December 2025, asked the FTC to investigate the monopoly that now controls American sports card production\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book about cigarettes and gum, about children and speculators, about cardboard and billions. It's about the T206 Honus Wagner, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan, the 2003 LeBron James Exquisite. It's about why people collect, why they keep collecting through every crash, and how something as humble as printed cardboard became one of America's most surprising stores of value.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor collectors, investors, sports historians, business readers, and anyone who has ever held a baseball card and wondered how it got there.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Epic Journey Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/29\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798295864032\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 364\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.07lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d","brand":"Jackson Toy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52750310539445,"sku":"9798295864032","price":22.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/million-dollar-hobby-a-history-of-sports-cards-in-america-9798295864032","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}