Walmart and Target recently announced they would stop selling sports trading cards for the safety of their customers. Was there some terroristic bio threat to one of America's treasured childhood past times, buying collecting and trading baseball, basketball, football and hockey cards ? Had some anthrax or ricin traces been found in a pack of cards ?
No, the threat came not from overseas but from greedy speculators who are elbowing out the nation's youngsters from the Summertime tradition of collecting baseball and basketball cards. Welcome to the high stakes and big dollar world of sports memorabilia.
Wednesday's podcast on June 9th will feature The Sporting News veteran journalist Ryan Fagan to take us on a tour of another American institution which has been overrun by adults and taken from our kids.
In the late 1950s early '60s a pack of baseball cards was bundled up with bubble gum in bright colored grease proof paper for 10 cents. That pack now costs up to $5 or $6 if you can find them.
Baseball cards really exploded in popularity in the early 1940s and we haven’t looked back since.
So make sure to listen to Wednesday’s podcast when Ryan will walk us through the wild and wacky world of sports cards.
