Bought and traded by the youth of America who wanted to see their favorite players and exchange the cards with other young fans, baseball cards were a symbol of bubble gum hero worship and youthful innocence during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century. Serious collectibles only since about 1975, baseball card collecting has turned into a multimillion-dollar business, a transformation to commercial and financial enterprise.

The first baseball cards were a far cry from the high-tech, colorful prints of today. The Old Judge Company issued the first series of cards in 1887. They were distributed in cigarette packages and consisted of player photographs mounted on stiff cardboard. Those "Old Judges," produced until 1890, are treasured parts of many current collections. Included in those sets was one of the most valuable cards in the history of collecting—the Honus Wagner baseball card. According to legend, Wagner, a nonsmoker, was...