Trading Cards

Football memorabelia, with or without the chewy

The history of Australian Football dates back to the mid 1800's. Of course it wasn't until the break-away VFL was formed in 1897 that things really began to get serious. Around this time the first footy cards started to appear. At first the cards were found only in cigarette packs. Standard cigarettes have the honour of producing the very first run of cards to feature an Essendon player back in 1904. That's 100 years of Essendon footballers on what we now call trading cards.

Very little changed over the years. Although cigarette manufactures stopped putting cards with their products, other companies took over. Kornies (breakfast ceral), Argus (newspaper), Coles (supermarket) and Mobil (petrol station) all produced cards that featured the VFL's best players.

The first major change occurred when Scanlens produced a short series of cards in 1963, this time with a stick of gum. These 1963 Scanlens cards are very rare, with only three Essendon players featured in the set that also included Ted Whitten.

Kids traded cards in the schoolyard for the next 30 years, always chewing the pink gum that came with the packs, the white powder used to stop the gum from sticking to the first card often wiped on their pants legs.

The next great change would be when Select took over as producer of cards in 1993. Instead of just running out the same old ideas, Select followed what was happening to sports cards in the USA and decided to follow suit. Rare cards and redemption cards were introduced, including cards signed by the players and limited to small runs. Suddenly collecting footy cards was a big-time game.

These days it's hard to tell what is worth more, a 1963 Ted Whitten card might bring more than $600, but a James Hird Captains card from 2001 will bring at least $1,000. The new cards being bought because they are definately limited in number, but the older cards are becoming more and more difficult to track down in decent condition. The tide may be turning and soon some of the early cards may jump in value quiet a lot.

All original images on this site remain the property of Danny Bishop and cannot be used without prior approval. Any tradmarks remain the property of their respective owners. It doesn't look like the AFL have the best interests of fans at heart, so make sure you're a member of your club so you can have a say. Go Bombers. ©2004-2005.