Card collecting would simply not exist as we know it today if it wasn’t for Jefferson Burdick.
That’s not hyperbole — to call him the godfather of the hobby is a veritable understatement.
Burdick's impact is unparalleled. His isn’t merely the story of a big-shot collector who impressed based purely upon his inventory of cards, rather, it’s that of an academic of sorts, ruthlessly dedicated to the documentation, preservation and research of cards.
In fact, he literally wrote the book on card collecting — the “American Card Catalog“ — that laid the groundwork for the modern-day hobbyist.
The book’s first edition, released in 1939, has become a collector's item of its own, with Robert Edward Auctions selling a rare copy this week. Only 500 of the first-edition copies were ever printed.
In 2014, REA sold another first-edition copy for $5,629.
REA President Brian Dwyer calls it “the Rosetta Stone” for collectors.
Burdick’s historic collection even resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, sharing real estate with the likes of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Egyptian tombs.
A distinction which was once unthinkable, thanks to Burdick, has become a fixture of the museum. Today, it’s simply another exhibition telling the story of art from the past century.
“Generally people who are interested in graphic design history and illustration history are intrigued by the cards, because they are a major part of that history,” said Allison Rudnick, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But to understand Burdick and his place in hobby lore, as well as the sustained relevance of his work, it’s first crucial to understand the man himself.
"His life's work"
Born near Syracuse, New York, in 1900, Burdick’s collecting journey began with cigarette cards when he was around 10 years old.
“Practically every small boy saved these kinds of cards. We made our dads use certain brands whether they liked them or not,” Burdick said in a 1955 profile in the Syracuse Herald-Journal headlined “Syracuse’s ‘Mr. Card Collector’ Is Expert’s Expert on Old Hobby.”
Soon, Burdick’s hobby grew into an obsession, expanding from cards to basically paper of all sorts, from postcards to advertising inserts. Despite his breadth, he would always be known first and foremost for his card collecting, and specifically baseball cards.
For Burdick, who developed chronic arthritis in his early 30s, severely restricting his movement, he recommitted himself to his childhood love with even more intensity.
“All he was interested in was his cards,” a friend of his recalled to John Thorn, the official historian for Major League Baseball. “That was his life’s work.”
As New York Times reporter Ken Belson wrote in 2012, “He found solace in the thousands of cards he bought, often for pennies, and he reveled in the stories they told.”
A longtime fixture in the community and a frequent corresponder with fellow collectors, Burdick was known for his generosity in sharing his cards and his willingness to engage in trades.
The Met’s assistant curator of drawings and prints department told Thorn that Burdick was “a collector’s collector” and his pursuit was not because of “value but because of his interest in history.”
One possibly apocryphal account details a correspondence between Burdick and fellow collector John D. Wagner, first published in the 1986 "The Card Collectors Bulletin,” that provides an insight into the purity of the collecting world at the time.
The article recounts Wagner owning two copies of the iconic T206 Honus Wagner card. He sent the first to Burdick, saying "I was confident that I would find another ... so I sent it to Jeff because he couldn't seem to find one." Burdick replied with $25 in payment, which Wagner refused. After Burdick’s insistence, as well as a second returned check, Wagner finally kept a third payment, though he didn’t deposit it for six months.
Remarkably, his suspicions might have been proven correct: "I found another Wagner in a bookstore in New York City. I paid a penny for it!"
A recently discovered T206 Honus Wagner SGC 5, previously owned by John D. Wagner, was given a $25 million estimate by Goldin Auctions’ Ken Goldin.
Burdick’s decision to publish the first “American Card Catalog” in 1939 transformed his passion onto the page, a moment which would come to define the future of the hobby for decades.
The catalog pioneered a new system for classifying cards, using letters and numbers (does T206 ring a bell?) to make sense of the mess of opaque and understudied releases from the prior decades.
In addition to the organizational component, Burdick also provided a price guide. The first issue listed the T206 Honus Wagner card at $50. That’s around $1,135 in 2024 dollars.
"Miniature pieces of art"
While clearly a labor of love, it was far from a frivolous endeavor.
“This is somebody that decided that they would take it upon themselves to make heads or tails of everything that is out there,” Dwyer said. “It’s among the most important things in the hobby, from a scholarly perspective.”
In a world chock full of mysteries and confusion relating to everything from the release dates of certain sets to the origins of error cards, Burdick offered a helping hand — one which collectors continue to accept today.
Not only does the research carry forward today in its relevance, but his love for collecting remains relatable to many.
“A card collection is a magic carpet that takes you away from work-a-day cares to havens of relaxing quietude where you can relive the pleasures and adventures of a past day — brought to life in vivid picture and prose,” Burdick wrote the same year he published the catalog.
Burdick was a firm believer, not only in the ability for cards to provide one solace and community, but as a vital piece of cultural history.
“I've always viewed baseball cards and collecting and the hobby overall as being very much part of the fabric of America,” Dwyer said. “I’ve always viewed cards as miniature pieces of art.”
Burdick wrote in 1948 that his cards were “a national collection belonging to everybody.”
That sentiment was exemplified when he began sending his collection to the the Met in 1948: “Eventually, it will comprise one of the largest reference collections in the country.”
“[H]e relocated to a rented room in a Lower Manhattan hotel in the late 1950s,” the museum explained in one of its essays on the collection. “Which put him closer to the Museum. There, at a desk in the Department of Prints, where he became a fixture and was often visited by friends and admirers, he adhered cards to album pages.”
Of course, the museum was not typically home to card collections and the notion raised more than a few eyebrows.
A reporter in the Democrat and Chronicle in 1967 would later write, “The Metropolitan Museum of Art, that house of treasures where visitors may roam among Egyptian tombs and masterpieces by Rembrandt, also keeps a fine collection of North American bubble gum wrappers. They may be seen by appointment only. If they were put on open display, a conscientious porter would be likely to sweep them into a dustpan as litter, and they would be lost to posterity.”
Luckily, A. Hyatt Mayor, the Met’s curator of prints and photographs at the time, was more open-minded.
There was a catch, however. The museum would only accept the donation if Burdick organized the collection (more than 300,000 strong) himself. It took 15 years.
For his life’s work? Not an issue.
“Some ask how anyone becomes interested in cards. You don’t become interested — collectors are born that way,” Burdick once said in the Syracuse Herald-Journal. “Card collecting is primarily an inherited love of pictures.”
By 1963, his work was done. In an account from Mayor, which is still widely cited today, Burdick is said to have “pasted down his last card … put on his coat, and declared, 'I shan’t be back.' He checked himself into a hospital the next day and died there on March 13, aged 63.”
That’s not quite the case, according to Rudnick, who says the story is false: “By the way, he didn't die the day after … it’s a legendary story that’s been perpetuated.”
He also might not have completed each album by himself. Rudnick, who has become so intimate with the material she can make out distinctive styles, says he likely was responsible for just the first few dozen.
Regardless of how the details truly went down, it would take around three decades until the museum exhibited the collection in the early ‘90s. These days, especially with the recent influx of interest in card collecting, it’s a hit. Rudnick says she has noticed an uptick in interest ranging from casual visitors to scholars in the past few years.
Still, it’s not expected by most. “I meet so many people who have been coming to the Met their entire lives and are shocked to hear that we have baseball cards,” Rudnick said.
Long are the days when Burdick’s life work was pushed aside. Instead, it’s now a constantly-rotating exhibition showcasing fractions of the massive trove at a time.
“I feel very grateful to Burdick for choosing the Met for the collection, because, in my opinion, this is where this kind of material belongs,” Rudnick said. “In an institution that will save it and preserve it and care for it.”
The collection is only around 10% baseball cards, with other ephemera making up the remaining inventory. But it’s the baseball cards, and more specifically, the T206 Honus Wagner (which Burdick named), which still remains the most scintillating attraction. When Burdick was placing his cards into the albums, it’s clear he felt the same way.
In the album hosting the Wagner, amid a grid of other cards, he left a space — almost like a frame, according to Rudnick. “He framed the Honus Wagner card. … My hope is that when people come to see the Honus Wagner card, it's not just the Honus Wagner card, it's Jefferson Burdick's Honus Wagner card. It's not about the monetary value of the card. It's about the historical weight.”
A purist through and through, nothing portrays his impact and worldview better than his tombstone, which reads: “One of the greatest card collectors of all times.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.