Editing Topps (section)

===Beginning and consolidation===
Topps was founded in 1938 by four brothers, Abram, Ira, Philip, and Joseph Shorin. The roots of Topps can be traced to [[American Leaf Ira, Philip, and Joseph, decided to focus on a new product but take advantage of the company's existing distribution channels. To do this, they relaunched the company as Topps, with the name meant to indicate that it would be "tops" in its field. The chosen field was the manufacture of [[chewing gum]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Jamieson |first=Dave |title=Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession |date=2010-04-01 |publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic |isbn=978-0-8021-9715-3 |pages=89– |language=en |chapter=The great changemaker |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yoW77vwAvnUC&dq=%22American+Leaf+Tobacco%22+Topps&pg=PA91}}</ref>

At the time, chewing gum was still a relative novelty sold in individual pieces. Topps's most successful early product was [[Bazooka (chewing gum)|Bazooka]] [[bubble gum]],<ref name=":1"/> which was packaged with a small comic on the wrapper. Starting in 1950, the company decided to try increasing gum sales by packaging them together with trading cards featuring [[western movie|Western]] character [[Hopalong Cassidy]] ([[William Boyd (actor)|William Boyd]]); at the time Boyd, as one of the biggest stars of early television, was featured in newspaper articles and on magazine covers, along with a significant amount of "Hoppy" merchandising. When Topps next introduced baseball cards as a product, the cards immediately became its primary emphasis.

The "father of the modern baseball card" was [[Sy Berger]].<ref name="NYT-20141214-RG">{{cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Richard |title=Sy Berger, 91, Dies; Created the Modern Baseball Trading Card
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/sports/baseball/sy-berger-91-dies-created-the-modern-baseball-trading-card.html |date=December 14, 2014 |work=[[New York Times]] |access-date=December 14, 2014 }}</ref> In the autumn of 1951, Berger, then a 28-year-old veteran of World War II, designed the 1952 Topps [[baseball card]] set with [[Woody Gelman]] on the kitchen table of his apartment on Alabama Avenue in [[Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn]].<ref>Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession, p. 90, Dave Jamieson, 2010, Atlantic Monthly Press, imprint of Grove/Atlantic Inc., New York, NY, {{ISBN|978-0-8021-1939-1}}</ref> The card design included a player's name, photo, facsimile autograph, team name and logo on the front; and the player's height, weight, bats, throws, birthplace, birthday, stats and a short biography on the back. The basic design is still in use today.  Berger would work for Topps for 50 years (1947–97) and serve as a consultant for another five, becoming a well-known figure on the baseball scene, and the face of Topps to major league baseball players, whom he signed up annually and paid in merchandise, like refrigerators and carpeting.

The Shorins, in recognition of his negotiation abilities, sent Sy to London in 1964 to negotiate the rights for Topps to produce [[Beatles]] trading cards. They also tried hockey. Arriving without an appointment, Sy succeeded by speaking in [[Yiddish]] to [[Brian Epstein]], the Beatles' manager.<ref>{{cite news |last=Olds |first=Chris |title=Former Topps Executive Sy Berger Dies at 91
|url=https://www.beckett.com/news/former-topps-executive-sy-berger-dies-at-91 |date=December 14, 2014 |work=[[Beckett Media|Beckett]] |access-date=January 13, 2020 }}</ref>

Berger hired a garbage boat to remove leftover boxes of 1952 baseball cards stored in their warehouse, and rode with them as a tugboat pulled them off the [[New Jersey]] shore. The cards were then dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.<ref name="TF20010327">{{cite news |first1=Cesar |last1=Brioso |first2=Mike |last2=Dodd |title=Topps facts |work=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/stories/2001-03-27-cards-facts.htm |date=March 27, 2001 |access-date=April 23, 2010}}</ref> The cards included Mickey Mantle's first Topps card, the most valuable card of the modern era. No one at the time, of course, knew the collector's value the cards would one day attain. On August 28, 2022, the [[Mickey Mantle]] baseball card (Topps; #311; SGC MT 9.5) was sold for $12.600 million.<ref name="NYT-20220828">{{cite news |last=Albeck-Ripka |first=Livia |title=Bammseball Card Sold for $12.6 Million, Breaking Record – The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card is the most valuable piece of sports memorabilia ever to be sold at auction. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/us/mickey-mantle-card-auction-baseball.html |date=August 28, 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=August 29, 2022 }}</ref>