Paul Rouse: Everyone a winner when GAA stars become a collector's item
There are things in the GAA that are unique and things that become unique by the way they happen in the GAA.
One of those things relates to trading cards. There is nothing new about such cards. For example, the idea of trading cards first emerged in late 19th-century America. The tobacco company Allen and Ginter put baseball players and boxers and actresses on cards and put those cards into packs of cigarettes. Celebrity sold, even then, and so successful was the gambit that it was immediately followed by other companies. The idea spread from America to Europe and soon hurlers and footballers found their photos emblazoned on cards which were pushed into the packets of cigarettes sold in Ireland.
