All Star Baseball - Cards

Cards

During most of its history ASB has had annual updates of its boxed board game with new players and updated stats. During some eras Cadaco-Ellis has also sold older cards by mail, and in recent years the cards have become popular on ebay.

As part of the special 2003 commemorative version, Cadaco also issued separate individually packaged sets of player cards for an All-Star Player Pack, the 2003 Ultimate Series (New York Yankees vs. Florida Marlins) and the 2003 Fantasy Series (Boston Red Sox vs. Chicago Cubs). These held action photos to further identify them as being collectible baseball cards.

There is a significant collectors market for older cards, which are broken down into several eras (all years are approximate) as printing technology evolved:

• 1941-1958—Black and white cards printed on heavy cardboard, with die-cut center opening so the card can be put on a cardboard block to hold it steady beneath the spinner on the game board. Most if not all years' cards in this era have solid dark green backs.
• 1959-1962—Old time players' cards are printed in red instead of black. The cardboard is lighter weight.
• 1962-1967—Current players are on multicolored cards with blue-gray backgrounds and with key colors indicating American or National League. Old time players' cards have red backgrounds. Wooden baserunner pegs were also replaced with plastic pegs at this time.
• 1968-1988—The game board is redesigned and the cardboard block to hold the cards beneath the spinner is replaced with a plastic holder on which the spinner rests; the card is inserted in the top of the holder and is centered beneath the spinner. This eliminated the need for the die-cut hole in the middle of the card, making them less likely to tear. Some die-hard players, accustomed to holding the cards through the center hole, manually cut holes in the new cards.
• 1989-1991, 1993, 2003-2004—Player photographs are added to the cards, in part to try to increase their collector value.