The most iconic baseball card from every era in trading card history

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, we've been looking at the things which define this country (just take a look at our A250 video series here!) Naturally, some of the country's most important items are not ideas or places or statues, but printed documents. Like, for instance, the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights. Or, and go with me here, baseball cards!

Yes, those little printed pieces of cardboard with visual proof of player and sport have existed for nearly as long as the game itself. They also are a strong part of the American sporting experience: In the UK, sticker books are much more popular. And while baseball cards are becoming more popular in Japan and you can even pick up sets featuring players in the Czech Extraliga, they remain a big part of the U.S. baseball scene. There's a reason why the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a massive collection.

So, to celebrate the country's birthday, we decided to break trading cards into nine separate eras and selected one card to represent each one. Check out the video from Bob Costas at the top of the post or read on for a bit more information on the cards selected -- as well as a few which came close, but didn't quite make the grade.

TOBACCO ERA/INDUSTRIAL AMERICA (1880s – 1919): Honus Wagner T206

How could it be anything but this? This is the baseball card that everyone knows -- aided by its eye-catching price. It most recently went for over $5 million in auction.

The reason for the card's importance is twofold: First, Wagner is one of the game's all-time greats. You can make the case that "The Flying Dutchman" is still the best shortstop to ever play the game. Second, these cards were also promotional items packaged with cigarettes. Supposedly Wagner didn't approve of his name and image being used to potentially sell cigarettes to children and had his card removed from the set, ensuring that few remain today.

Unless you have a few million sitting around, you can find the card on display in a special case at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

GUM ERA/ESCAPISM & MASS ENTERTAINMENT (1920s – 1947): 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth

A truly beautiful baseball card, capturing The Babe in all his glory. Ruth played before baseball cards became the desperately desired cultural artifact they would soon become, but this was the first set to be sold with bubblegum in the set. Some people still call them "bubblegum cards" -- a reference that began here.

POST-WAR ERA/THE AMERICAN BOOM (1948 – 1959): 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle

Your best bet to get your hands on a '52 Topps Mantle? Get out the scuba gear and go diving. That's because Topps, needing to offload boxes of surplus merch, dumped the remaining cards in the Atlantic Ocean.

This 1952 set was Topps' first true baseball card set -- the previous year's were more like game cards. This one, however, was the starting point for the hobby. So, while one could easily choose the 1954 Hank Aaron or 1955 Roberto Clemente, it's hard to top Mantle both in its importance to the hobby and -- thanks to all those pieces of cardboard turning to dust below the ocean -- its rarity.

TOPPS DOMINANCE/TELEVISION AMERICA (1957 – 1980): 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan / Jerry Koosman rookie

He's one of the greatest pitchers of all-time. A fierce competitor with an even angrier fastball, Ryan's longevity and talent is unmatched in baseball's annals. Beyond this card's importance to the hobby, it's a good reminder of how we need to be patient with all rookies. Here, we have the beautiful dual-rookie card, with Mets legend Jerry Koosman beside Ryan, whose puffy hat and unlined face makes him look more like a young fan than a future Hall of Famer.

Though Ryan made his debut in 1966, it would take until '72 for him to become the legendary pitcher we remember, leading the league in strikeouts and shutouts. He wouldn't throw the first of his record-setting seven no-hitters until the next year. So, when you rip open a pack of cards and see a rookie that you think of as a bust, maybe give it a few years before you toss it away.

ROOKIE BOOM/THE RISE OF WALL STREET (1981 – 1985): 1984 Topps Don Mattingly

The '84 Don Mattingly is the perfect card for this era. Here was the start of baseball card speculation. As those fans from the 1950s realized that all those cards that were used to make motorcycle sounds in the bicycle spokes was a waste of highly desired -- and therefore highly valuable -- cardboard, this was the time when they started obsessively collecting trading cards.

At the same time, Don Mattingly broke out from the media frenzy in New York with an American League-leading .343 average, 207 hits, and 44 doubles. The next year, he won the AL MVP Award. His career -- and his baseball card -- would only continue to improve. The future was limitless.

Unfortunately for Mattingly, his body betrayed him, back injuries sapping his strength and likely keeping him from a place in Cooperstown. At the same time, all of those fans who thought his rookie card would pay for college, houses, and European vacations had to learn the hard way: Sometimes things just don't work out the way you want.

JUNK WAX ERA/BOOM & BUST (1986 – 1994): 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.

As baseball cards continued to grow, so too did the number of brands in the hobby. Enter: Upper Deck. While Topps was the old guard, the company that defined what baseball cards were, Upper Deck came in with slick cards and bright, bold photographs. But it was Griffey, the young, exciting prospect loaded with tools who came to define the brand's 1989 set and represent perhaps the rookie card.

The fact that it was given the No. 1 slot in the card set is thanks to one teenager with elite baseball knowledge. Then just 18 years old, Tom Geideman was working in the card shop where Upper Deck was first founded. Having displayed his baseball card knowledge at the shop, he was given the task of selecting the players in the first set -- including who would be No. 1.

"He was the team's No. 1 pick in 1987, but nobody really knew who Griffey was at the time," Geideman told ESPN. "But I figured all the other guys had nowhere to go but down. They were so hyped. My guess was that if Griffey played really well, he would be in the majors by August of 1989."

The rest is history.

PREMIUM INSERT ERA/SCARCITY & LUXURY ECONOMY (1995 – 2004): 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols

If Griffey was the No. 1 overall pick who lived up to his massive potential -- rewarding everyone who believed from the very beginning -- Pujols is a different story. He was a 13th-round Draft pick in 1999. He flew through the Cardinals system and made it to the Baseball America Top 100 prospects list ahead of his debut ... but even then, he wasn't the face of the future of baseball. BA put him at No. 42 -- talented, but no sure thing.

Instead, once Pujols reached the Majors, all he did was hit, eventually winning the 2001 National League Rookie of the Year Award, three NL MVP Awards and two World Series titles. So, for anyone who grabbed his 2001 Bowman Chrome and was wise enough to hold onto it, well, you made the right choice. A PSA 10 went for $168,000 in 2020.

PROSPECTING ERA/THE RISE OF ANALYTICS & SPECULATION (2005 – 2019): 2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Autograph

If Mantle was the face of the first baseball card boom, it is only fitting that Trout is the face of the era that helped bring baseball cards back. Both built their reputations as do-it-all center fielders, making jaw-dropping defensive plays before striking fear into the hearts of every pitcher who dared face them. Trout's Bowman Chrome superfractor autograph card sold for nearly $4 million in 2020. Will that number go up once he receives his call to the Hall?

MODERN CHASE ERA/DIGITAL HYPE & INSTANT CULTURE (2020 – Present): 2025 Topps Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch Autograph

Inserts, game-used equipment and uniform patches have become highly sought collectors' objects, but none could match Skenes' debut autograph patch. Rookies began wearing special MLB debut patches on Opening Day 2023, but few players combined prospect hype with big league performance quite like Skenes, who had put himself in the conversation as one of the game's very best by the end of his rookie season.

When his debut patch card came out, the hunt was similar to the search for Willy Wonka's golden ticket. The Pirates even put out an offer for anyone who found it and turned it in to the team, trading signed jerseys, experiences, and two season tickets for 30 years. Unfortunately for the team, its owner took it to auction, where it went for $1.11 million. That could look like change lost between the couch cushions if Skenes keeps pitching the way he has so far in his career.