Non-Sports Trading Cards

Written by Scott in Featured,Non-Sports Trading Cards

Non-sports trading cards focus on topics such as animals, cars and other vehicles, famous people, fantasy, games, history, humor, movies, music, nature, planes, science fiction, space, television, war, and any other trading cards that aren’t focused on a specific sport.

Please join me for a few minutes and learn more about non-sports trading cards, their history, values, and more.

History of Non-Sports Trading Cards

Since the late 19th century, manufacturers have been issuing these cards all over the world, and continue producing cards today. In the past, packs of bubble gum or cigarettes used to come with non-sports trading cards.

Cigarette cards that were issued more than a hundred years ago in packages of cigarettes featured a wide range of non-sports subjects, such as exotic animals, famous places, and people from the world of entertainment.

Although cigarette makers stopped issuing them, non-sports cards became quite popular and by the 1950, they were selling in large numbers. Until almost 1990, non-sports trading cards were sold with a piece of bubblegum, but that went away. Today, “bubblegum cards” are not as readily available.

Between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s, Topps Company introduced a new concept of non-sports trading cards by issuing Wacky Packages sticker cards, which were product label parody cards. Over the past fifty years, historical trading cards and media-based cards, especially those based on TV series, have proven quite popular. The most popular of these non-sports trading cards have been based on films and TV series like Disney, Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek trading cards, and others. Comic book trading cards have been equally popular, especially Marvel cards and DC cards. Some great examples of these are Superman Cards and Batman Cards.

In recent years, the latest phenomenon of collectible card games has also become a part of the non-sports trading cards category. This includes the Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and other CCG sets. While many feel this should be a separate category (game play trading cards), sites like eBay still include them in the non-sports category.

Non-sports trading cards as an investment

While some view collecting non-sports cards as risky, if you know what you’re doing, you can make a nice profit.

It’s important to understand that the intrinsic value of non-sports trading cards is never guaranteed, which means that their values can fluctuate, depending on how enthusiastic collectors and the general public are about them.
Therefore, if you want to collect non-sports trading cards, you should start by determining what cards you would like to collect, and then consider how valuable your collection could be. There are certain factors that can be considered in order to choose non-sports trading cards that will probably increase in value in the future. These include the artistry, the condition, the nostalgia, the popularity, the rarity, and the theme of the cards.

Purism & Vintage Cards

It is a misconception that only vintage sports trading cards have intrinsic value and should be collected, which is referred to as purism. However, the fact of the matter is that as a budding card collector, you should choose to collect whatever non-sports trading cards that you like.

For a more attractive investment potential, you can also consider collecting cards produced prior to 1980, which are known as vintage cards. There are a limited number of autographed non-sports cards out there.

Popular Non-Sports Trading Card Sets

If you’re looking  for a more detailed list, you search non-sports cards by year by clicking here.

Here are some of the more popular non-sports sets throughout history. These sets are traded more often, which provides a better investment opportunity. It’s also a lot easier to put these sets together.

What Next?

Regardless of the investment potential, collecting non-sports trading cards can prove to be a fun and enjoyable hobby, and the more you collect, the more proud you will feel about your card collection.

Prefer to learn about sports cards? Take a look at these possible collectible investments.

If you have any questions about non-sports trading cards, please feel free to reach out to me anytime.

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