Sports-card collecting has come a long way from the tiny painted portraits tucked into cigarette packs around the turn of the 19th Century.

The hobby has always had its collectors, but most cards were the amusements of youngsters and were played with and traded, even clipped to bicycle spokes with a clothespin to create a sound effect. Needless to say, such hard use often ruined the condition of the cards, which created a market for vintage cards in good condition.

Gum companies began using cards as a lure to entice people to buy their product, and sports stars remained the most popular subjects, though movie stars, plants, animals, and even warfare were depicted in sets.

Baseball dominated the sports market, with heroes like Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams creating demand in the 1950s. However, the cards of Hall of Famers like Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner became investment items, with one Wagner card fetching $2.8 million at auction last year.

The legend surrounding the Wagner card is that he objected to the use of his image in promoting tobacco use, so it was pulled from production after only a couple of hundred were made. Now, only nine are known to survive.

As the hobby became more sophisticated, the rookie card, or first card made of a player, gained additional value and became the one most collectors sought. Older sets often contained hundreds of players, including rarer cards of bench-warmers that often gained value that was even greater than those of the more mass-produced star cards.

Football cards gained prominence in the 1950s and 1960s as the NFL matured and stars such as Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown gained popularity. It’s hard to believe now, given the worldwide popularity of the NBA, but few basketball card sets were produced until the late 1960s, and the hobby has scarce offerings from the 1980s, when Michael Jordan burst onto the scene and revived the sport. Now Jordan’s cards are among the most popular and valuable, joining the ranks of players who stay in the spotlight even after their retirement or death.

The hobby exploded in the 1990s, mostly driven by the popularity of Upper Deck, a company that began printing high-quality cards in 1989, starting its first set with a popular rookie card of Ken Griffey, Jr. The old pasteboard-style cards with dull finishes quickly faded from popularity, and by the early 1990’s, the packs no longer included gum because collectors complained that it damaged the cards.

The hobby soon rocketed into “fad” status, with packs for sale at every convenience store and supermarket while price guides tracked monthly changes in value. A slump at the plate could send a star’s stock sinking, while a hot performance by a rookie would send collectors scrambling to squirrel away stacks of that player’s cards in anticipation of future profits.

The fad led to overproduction that ultimately diminished the value of many cards of the era, though vintage cards remained desirable both for collectors and investors. Manufacturers responded to slumping sales by creating rare insert cards that created a lottery-like feeling to opening a new pack. These “chase cards” are still a mainstay of the hobby, though the product has evolved to include a more intimate connection with the players.

Modern cards often feature a certified autograph or even a piece of embedded and game-used jersey. They are numbered so the owner knows how many were produced and their relative scarcity and value, with “limited edition” being a watchword for many collectors. While the hobby may have grown up, it is still enjoyed by children around the world, with cards depicting comic books, rock stars, popular movies, NASCAR, golfers, soccer players, and even politicians.

A variety of cards will be sold and exhibited at the High Country Sports Show, coming to the National Guard Armory in Boone on Aug. 29. More details are at www.hauntedcomputer.com/BooneSportsShow.htm.