Tickets collection

By the time the first professional baseball game was played, tickets were a commonplace concept with the term dating back to the sixteenth century. In 1858, The National Association of Base Ball Players was organized and the first admission fee of 50 cents was charged for an All-Star game between Brooklyn and New York.

Since the earliest days, tickets have had different levels based on seat location. More recently, teams will vary ticket prices according to opponent, date, and time of the game. (Haupert, Michael)

Baseball tickets come in a large variety of shapes and sizes and have expanded beyond the game itself. Tickets from the early 1900s were simple, including basic information about that ticket's game day. As decades passed, they became larger and will often have bold colors. Tickets like the Brooklyn Dodgers' ticket for Opening Day of 1940, which was a die-cut ball and glove linked by a rain check, are considered "artwork" in the collector's world.

Tickets and ticket stubs have long been seen as a memory to be cherished and saved. It is difficult to pin down when the collection of tickets began but over the years many became highly collectible and sought after such as Roger Maris' 61st home run game, Jackie Robinson games, or a future Hall of Famer's final game. "In 1970 the Dodgers offered free tickets for their 1,000th game in L.A. to any fan who could produce a stub from the team's first game there, in '58. "Who keeps tickets?" asked Claire, who then worked in the team's p.r. office. As it turned out, more than 500 people had." (Rushin, Steve)

In addition to game day tickets, there are also commemorative tickets printed to document an event such as a pitcher's perfect game or a player's 500th home run. Others may have images of former players if they are being inducted into a Hall of Fame. Another oddity is the phantom ticket which were printed for a game or set of games that were never played. Tickets from 2020 are one of the biggest examples of these types of tickets.

Electronic tickets, or "eTickets" as they are sometimes called, were first created around 1994 by the airline industry. They are often sent as PDFs or another downloadable format that can be received via email or through a mobile app. Electronic tickets allow organizers to avoid the cost of producing and distributing physical tickets. These digital tickets appear to have started in the mid-2000s for sporting events. The onset of electronic tickets is the death of the paper ticket. "If you're 10 now, you've never seen a ticket, so at 50 you won't say you wish you had them," says Gary Piattoni, who likens hard tickets to the tin toys popular at the turn of the 20th century: no longer desired as collectibles as their devotees die off. By 2100, no one alive will know why they're saying, when declining an invitation: I'll take a rain check." (Rushin, Steve) In place of these tickets, some fans are finding unique ways to create a game keepsake including digital surrogates and tattoos.

Haupert, Michael J. "The Economic History of Major League Baseball." EHnet, edited by Robert Whaples. December 3, 2007. http://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-history-of-major-league-baseball/.

Rushin, Steve. "The Death of Paper Tickets and the Memories They've Left Us." Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated, September 12, 2019. https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/09/12/baseball-tickets-los-angeles-dodgers-opening-day.