The sports and trading card hobby has experienced hundreds of changes and innovations since the earliest issues arrived in the 1800s.
And though Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin recently placed his company’s introduction of the Rookie Debut Patch Autograph card at the top of that hierarchy, there are a number of innovations that have arguments for changing the course of collecting.
Here are five sports card innovations that cllct believes reshaped the hobby for good.
1. Pack-inserted autographs
Autograph chasing has long been part of the hobby, but Upper Deck changed collecting entirely when it delivered the first pack-inserted autographs in 1990.
Just a year after revolutionizing the hobby with the first premium baseball card product in 1989, Upper Deck’s “Find the Reggie” campaign saw the company place 2,500 autographed Reggie Jackson cards into 1990 Upper Deck Baseball High Series packs.
Those first pack-inserted Reggie Jackson autographs are credited by many as the hobby’s first “chase” cards, and decades later, pack-pulled autographs are often key parts of many of the most important products.
In the ultra-modern era of collecting, on-card autographs are among the most coveted chases while sticker autographs, which are signed in bulk and placed on the card at a later date, are popular but less desirable.
2. Game-used memorabilia
Though the Rookie Debut Patch has a good argument as one of the hobby’s greatest innovations, it’s hard to ignore the earliest iterations of memorabilia and jersey cards that came before it.
Press Pass started the game-used memorabilia trend — or in this case, race-used — when it included race-used NASCAR tires in the 1996 Press Pass Burning Rubber set. Upper Deck then introduced game-used jerseys into cards with 1996-97 Upper Deck Hockey, and the hobby has been chasing swatches of fabric ever since.
Where the Rookie Debut Patch does deserve credit is how it links the card’s patch to a specific moment in time. The ultra-modern era of collecting has been plagued by ambiguous language to describe memorabilia, with descriptions ranging from game-used and player-worn to the dreaded “not associated with any player, team or event” language.
Collectors want to know when and where the patches were worn, and no program has done a better job at connecting a card to a moment than the RDPA.
3. Refractors and parallels
Considered one of the most influential and important sets of all time, 1993 Topps Finest Baseball arrived as an ultra-premium product with chromium stock and the hobby’s first refractors.
Featuring a rainbow-like finish, refractors easily stand out compared to their base counterparts, and are now among the most important chases in the hobby.
The success of 1993 Finest not only led to expanded chrome offerings across various manufacturers, the introduction of the refractor laid the foundation for the “rainbow” chase.
Though Topps’ basic “Refractor” and Panini America’s “Silver Prizm” are highly coveted, the ultra-modern era of collecting now features hundreds of different refractors and parallel variations that range from popular colors such as Red, Green, Blue, Black and Gold to geometric patterns such as Prism, RayWave, X-Fractor, Mojo, Shock and Cracked Ice.
There are even animal-themed parallels such as Zebra, Tiger, Snakeskin and Elephant.
For some hobbyists, collecting the entire “rainbow” of parallels for a player or team is a key part of the experience. The concept of “color-matching,” which pairs the colors on a team’s jersey with the color of a parallel, has also become extremely popular during the era.
4. Super short-printed inserts
Depending on one’s preferred definition, insert cards can be dated back to some of the hobby’s most influential early sets. There’s little doubt interest exploded in the 1990s, however, and the hobby hasn’t been the same since.
Featuring their own themes and designs separate from the base set, insert cards have become some of the most coveted chases in recent decades — super short-printed inserts can even eclipse key rookie cards on the secondary market.
Originating in the '90s, inserts such as Precious Metal Gems, Scoring Kings, Jambalaya and Big Man on Court have resonated with collectors years later.
Today, the ultra-modern era of collecting has been dominated by inserts such as Kaboom, Color Blast, Downtown and Stained Glass.
5. Print-to-demand
The current marketplace for print-to-demand cards was first introduced with Panini Instant and Topps NOW in 2016, and though it took years to catch on, the concept has carved out a significant place in the hobby during the ultra-modern era.
Hoping to capture important moments as they happen, the Instant and NOW programs design cards that are available a la carte during a limited release window. Collectors can purchase as many cards as they desire, and the companies print the cards needed to fulfill all orders.
Interest in print-to-demand cards was relatively light to start, but has since exploded as Panini has included more autographs and parallels, and Topps has added random chases that can be included with orders of the base card.
The print-to-demand market experienced its biggest moment when Topps released a NOW card celebrating Team USA’s gold medal in the 2024 Olympic Games. Topps added a number of 1/1 chase cards to the drop, including a triple autograph of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.
The chase for the triple autograph resulted in collectors purchasing 588,035 base cards — a then-record for the NOW program. The triple autograph remains one of the most important cards that has yet to surface publicly.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.