Trading cards have been circulating since the 1880s. It has evolved through the years in size, shapes and make. Originally, trading cards became popular because of baseball fans. These cards have been collected by people of all ages.

The value of a trading card depends on the image printed (if it is a popular player or team), the rarity of the piece and the condition when it is being sold. A single card can cost from a penny to really outrageous prices. The most expensive baseball trading card amounted more than $2,800,000, a huge sum of money for something made of cardboard or thick paper. The Honus Wagner T206 PSA 8 is considered the holy grail of the card community.

Trading cards of earlier times were made and distributed by tobacco and candy companies. They came inside packs tobaccos and were basically meant as “collectibles” for advertising the products. Today, trading cards are made by modern marvels and are printed in numerous designs and sizes. They are now a product on their own and are manufactured in more quantities than they were before.

To give you a picture of how these collectible items are made, here is a step-by-step procedure as revealed to the fans of these trading cards.

1. What is to be printed on the trading card takes time and goes through rigorous process. Whether the image will be in portrait or in landscape, an individual player or a whole team, this is carefully selected. The image and texts on the back are then laid out and a printing plate is made. 
2. These designs are then printed in huge quantities using state of the art printers. They are printed on large sheets of cardboard within an offset lithography press. 
3. After printing, the large sheets of thick paper go through a conveyor belt where they are slit and cut down into specified sizes. The cards from the same sheet are stacked on top of each other. 
4. The cards then go through another conveyor belt where at the end of the line, able hands check if they are cut into similar sizes. A group of workers examine the quality of the printed cards before they head to the next machine. 
5. After they are grouped into the number that each pack should contain, the cards go through a machine where they are collated and wrapped. The packs are then assembled to boxes, sealed, and shipped nationwide for all baseball trading card collectors to enjoy. 

If you are buying these cards for your collection and wish that it will be worth a ton of money in the coming years, it is a necessity that your cards are safely packed that they can endure the test of time. Before, shoe boxes were the popular homes of these collectibles. Now, there are a lot of ways to store your precious collection. There are archive-quality albums, plastic boxes, card sheets, and numerous other supplies to take care of your trading cards. Storing individual cards in bag sealers is also one of the safest and most practical ways.

Maria Dublin provides guest blogging assistance for PlexPack – a company that manufactures sealing and shrink packaging systems. Visit PlexPack.com for a free quote on your flexible packaging needs today.