Sports cards were among the earliest, and remain one of the most popular, forms of collectible cards. They typically consist of a picture of a player on one side, with statistics or other information on the reverse.

The first sports cards were produced by tobacco companies and sold as inserts in packages of cigarettes. The cigarette cards depicted baseball players, since that was the only professional sport then in existence. Baseball cards are still the most widely collected form of sports card, although cards are now produced for all major American professional sports, and amateur athletes are sometimes featured as well.