Many collectors select complete sets from particular years. For example, they may concentrate on assembling complete baseball card sets from all the years since their birth or since they became avid sports fans. They may try to collect a card for every player during that specified period of time. Many others wish to acquire only certain players. Usually such players are the superstars of the sport, but occasionally collectors will specialize in all the cards of players who attended a particular college or came from a certain town.
Some collectors are only interested in the first cards or rookie cards of certain players.
Another fun way to collect cards is by team. Most fans have a favorite team, and it is natural for that loyalty to be translated into a desire for cards of the players on that favorite team. Collecting baseball cards and other sportscards is a great getaway from everyday life and is fun for the whole family. Nobody is one hundred percent sure which was the very first baseball card produced, however the hobby of collecting baseball cards dates from the second half of the 19th century, well over one hundred years ago. The Old Judge picture cards were issued from 1886 to 1890 and more than 2000 different baseball cards from that set have been cataloged, not to mention the many cards made for other sports and non sports.