Man Utd football trading cards

Sold in packets of six for a halfpenny, Baines’ cards came in various shapes and covered both professional clubs, like Newton Heath, and amateur local teams. To entice young collectors, Baines organised regular competitions and rewarded those who managed to assemble full sets with a free football jersey. Unlike modern collectors, who tend to build their collections via card swapping, their Victorian counterparts exchanged cards through games; one of the reasons why good-condition examples of Baines’ cards are very rare today.

The Baines monopoly didn’t last long, as fellow Bradford businessman WN Sharpe introduced his ‘Play Up’ cards to the thriving trading cards market. By the early twentieth century, many companies recognised the cards as a huge marketing opportunity and began producing their own sets. From cigarette and soap manufacturers to newspapers and magazines, football cards became an important sales strategy for many businesses. To keep collectors engaged, the design of the cards gradually moved away from one side of illustrations and began to include useful football tips and players’ profiles on the back.