Editing Topps (section)

==Topps baseball cards: A history==
===Entry into the baseball card market===
In 1951, Topps produced its first baseball cards in two different sets known today as ''Red Backs'' and ''Blue Backs''. Each set contained 52 cards, like a deck of [[playing card]]s, and in fact the cards could be used to play a game that would simulate the events of a baseball game. Also like playing cards, the cards had rounded corners and were blank on one side, which was colored either red or blue (hence the names given to these sets). The other side featured the portrait of a player within a baseball diamond in the center, and in opposite corners a picture of a [[baseball (ball)|baseball]] together with the event for that card, such as "[[out (baseball)|fly out]]" or "[[single (baseball)|single]]."

Topps changed its approach in 1952, this time creating a much larger (407 total) set of baseball cards and packaging them with its signature product, [[bubble gum]]. The company also decided that its playing card model was too small (2&nbsp;inches by 2-5/8&nbsp;inches) and changed the dimensions to 2-5/8&nbsp;inches by 3-3/4&nbsp;inches with square corners. The cards now had a color [[portrait]] on one side, with statistical and biographical information on the other. This set became a landmark in the baseball card industry, and today the company considers this its first true baseball card set. Many of the oil paintings for the sets were rendered by artist Gerry Dvorak, who also worked as an animator for [[Famous Studios]]. In 1957, Topps shrank the dimensions of its cards slightly, to 2-1/2&nbsp;inches by 3-1/2&nbsp;inches, setting a standard that remains the basic format for most [[sports card]]s produced in the United States.<ref name="TF20010327" /> It was at this time Topps began to use color photographs in their set.

The cards were released in several series over the course of the baseball season, a practice Topps would continue with its baseball cards until 1974. However, the last series of each year did not sell as well, as the baseball season wore on and popular attention began to turn towards [[American football]]. Thus cards from the last series are much scarcer and are typically more valuable (even commons) than earlier series of the same year. Topps was left with a substantial amount of surplus stock in 1952, which it largely disposed of by dumping many cards into the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]]. In later years, Topps either printed series in smaller quantities late in the season or destroyed excess cards. As a result, cards with higher numbers from this period are rarer than low numbers in the same set, and collectors will pay significantly higher prices for them. The last series in 1952 started with card No. 311, which is Topps's first card of [[Mickey Mantle]], and remains the most valuable Topps card ever (and, as of August 28, 2022, the [[List of most expensive sports cards|most valuable trading card of all]]). 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"/> This 1952 Topps Mantle is often mistakenly referred to as Mantle's rookie card, but that honor belongs to his [[:File:1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle.png|1951 Bowman card]] (which is worth less than the 1952 Topps card).

The combination of baseball cards and bubble gum was popular among young boys, and given the mediocre quality of the gum, the cards quickly became the primary attraction. In fact, the gum eventually became a hindrance because it tended to stain the cards, thus impairing their value to collectors who wanted to keep them in pristine condition. It (along with the traditional gray cardboard) was finally dropped from baseball card packs in 1992, although Topps began its Heritage line, which included gum, in the year 2001.

===Competition for player contracts===
During this period, baseball card manufacturers generally obtained the rights to depict players on merchandise by signing individual players to contracts for the purpose. Topps first became active in this process through an [[agent (law)|agent]] called Players Enterprises in July 1950, in preparation for its first 1951 set. The later acquisition of rights to additional players allowed Topps to release its second series.

This promptly brought Topps into furious competition with [[Bowman Gum]], another company producing baseball cards. Bowman had become the primary maker of baseball cards and driven out several competitors by signing its players to exclusive contracts. The language of these contracts focused particularly on the rights to sell cards with [[chewing gum]], which had already been established in the 1930s as a popular product to pair with baseball cards.

To avoid the language of Bowman's existing contracts, Topps sold its 1951 cards with [[caramel candy]] instead of gum. However, because Bowman had signed many players in 1950 to contracts for that year, plus a renewal [[Real option|option]] for one year, Topps included in its own contracts the rights to sell cards with gum starting in 1952 (as it ultimately did). Topps also tried to establish exclusive rights through its contracts by having players agree not to grant similar rights to others, or renew existing contracts except where specifically noted in the contract.

Bowman responded by adding chewing gum "or confections" to the exclusivity language of its 1951 contracts, and also sued Topps in [[United States district court|U.S. federal court]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/103/944/1469011/|title=Bowman Gum v. Topps Chewing Gum, 103 F. Supp. 944 (E.D.N.Y. 1952)|website=Justia Law}}</ref> The [[lawsuit]] alleged infringement on Bowman's trademarks, unfair competition, and contractual interference. The court rejected Bowman's attempt to claim a trademark on the word "baseball" in connection with the sale of gum, and disposed of the unfair competition claim because Topps had made no attempt to pass its cards off as being made by Bowman. The contract issue proved more difficult because it turned on the dates when a given player signed contracts with each company, and whether the player's contract with one company had an exception for his contract with the other.

As the contract situation was sorted out, several Topps sets during these years had a few "missing" cards, where the numbering of the set skips several numbers because they had been assigned to players whose cards could not legally be distributed. The competition, both for consumer attention and player contracts, continued until 1956, when Topps bought out Bowman. This left Topps as the predominant producer of baseball cards for the next quarter-century.

===Consolidation of a monopoly===
The next company to challenge Topps was [[Fleer]], another gum manufacturer. Fleer signed star [[Ted Williams]] to an exclusive contract in 1959 and sold a set of cards oriented around him. Williams retired the next year, so Fleer began adding around him other mostly retired players in a ''Baseball Greats'' series, which was sold with gum. Two of these sets were produced before Fleer finally tried a 67-card set of currently active players in 1963. However, Topps held onto the rights of most players and the set was not particularly successful.

Stymied, Fleer turned its efforts to supporting an administrative complaint filed by the [[Federal Trade Commission]], alleging that Topps was engaging in unfair competition through its aggregation of exclusive contracts. A hearing examiner ruled against Topps in 1965, but the Commission reversed this decision on appeal. The Commission concluded that because the contracts only covered the sale of cards with gum, competition was still possible by selling cards with other small, low-cost products. However, Fleer chose not to pursue such options and instead sold its remaining player contracts to Topps for $395,000 in 1966. The decision gave Topps an effective monopoly of the baseball card market.

That same year, however, Topps faced an attempt to undermine its position from the nascent [[trade union|players' union]], the [[Major League Baseball Players Association]]. Struggling to raise funds, the MLBPA discovered that it could generate significant income by pooling the publicity rights of its members and offering companies a group [[license]] to use their images on various products. After putting players on [[Coca-Cola]] [[bottlecap]]s for $120,000,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/editors-blog-how-marvin-miller-changed-the-baseball-card-game/|title=How Marvin Miller Changed the Baseball Card Game |last=Mueller |first=Rich| website=Sports Collectors Daily |date=November 27, 2012 |access-date=March 3, 2025}}</ref> the union concluded that the Topps contracts did not pay players adequately for their rights.

MLBPA executive director [[Marvin Miller]] then approached Joel Shorin, the president of Topps, about renegotiating these contracts. At this time, Topps had every [[Major League Baseball|major league]] player under contract, generally for five years plus renewal options, so Shorin declined. After continued discussions went nowhere, the union before the 1968 season asked its members to stop signing renewals on these contracts, and offered Fleer the exclusive rights to market cards of most players (with gum) starting in 1973. Although Fleer declined the proposal, by the end of the year Topps had agreed to double its payments to each player from $125 to $250, and also to begin paying players a percentage of Topps's overall sales.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mullin |first1=Bernard James |last2=Hardy |first2=Stephen |last3=Sutton |first3=William Anthony |title=Sport Marketing |year=2007 |edition=3rd |publisher=Human Kinetics |location=Champaign, Illinois |isbn=9780736060523 |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Lo5EFcres4C&q=marvin+miller+coca+cola+120%2C000&pg=PA197 |access-date=15 January 2020 |oclc=74941202}}</ref> The figure for individual player contracts has since increased to $500.

As a byproduct of this history, Topps continues to use individual player contracts as the basis for its baseball card sets today. This contrasts with other manufacturers, who all obtain group licenses from the MLBPA. The difference has occasionally affected whether specific players are included in particular sets. Players who decline to sign individual contracts will not have Topps cards even when the group licensing system allows other manufacturers to produce cards of the player, as happened with [[Alex Rodriguez]] early in his career. On the other hand, if a player opts out of group licensing, as [[Barry Bonds]] did in 2004, then manufacturers who depend on the MLBPA system will have no way of including him. Topps, however, can negotiate individually and was belatedly able to create a 2004 card of Bonds. In addition, Topps is the only manufacturer able to produce cards of players who worked as replacement players during the [[1994 Major League Baseball strike|1994 baseball strike]], since they are barred from union membership and participation in the group licensing program.

===The monopoly and its end===
A semblance of competition returned to the baseball card market in the 1970s when [[Kellogg's]] began producing "3-D" cards and inserting them in boxes of [[breakfast cereal]] (originally [[Corn flakes|Corn Flakes]], later [[Raisin Bran]] and other Kellogg's brands). The Kellogg's sets contained fewer cards than Topps sets, and the cards served as an incentive to buy the cereal, rather than being the intended focus of the purchase, as tended to be the case for cards distributed with smaller items like candy or gum. Topps took no action to stop them.

The Topps monopoly on baseball cards was finally broken by a lawsuit decided by federal judge [[Clarence Charles Newcomer]] in 1980, in which the judge ended [[Topps Chewing Gum]]'s exclusive right to sell [[baseball card]]s, allowing the [[Fleer Corporation]] to compete in the market.<ref name="sun-sentinel2005">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2005-08-28-0508270080-story.html|title=CLARENCE NEWCOMER, 82, LONGTIME FEDERAL JUDGE|first=Douglas Martin The New York|last=Times|website=Sun-Sentinel.com|date=August 28, 2005 }}</ref> That let Fleer and another company, [[Donruss]], enter the market in 1981. Fleer and Donruss began making large, widely distributed sets to compete directly with Topps, packaged with gum. When the ruling was overturned on appeal in August 1981, Topps appeared to have regained its monopoly, but both of its competitors instead began packaging their cards with other baseball items—logo stickers from Fleer, and cardboard puzzle pieces from Donruss.  The puzzles, created by baseball artists [[Dick Perez]] for Perez Steele, included Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and a dozen others.<ref>{{cite web
|work=AmericanMemorabilia.com
|title=Collection of Perez Steele Donruss Cards and Puzzles
|url=http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=25453
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130116201446/http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=25453
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=2013-01-16
}}</ref> Other manufacturers later followed, but Topps remains one of the leading brands in the baseball card [[hobby]]. In response to the competition, Topps began regularly issuing additional "Traded" sets featuring players who had changed teams since the main set was issued, following up on an idea it had experimented with a few years earlier.

===Topps in the modern baseball card industry===
While "Traded" or "Update" sets were originally conceived to deal with players who changed teams, they became increasingly important for another reason. In order to fill out a 132-card set (the number of cards that fit on a single sheet of the uncut cardboard used in the production process), it would contain a number of [[rookie]] players who had just reached the major leagues and not previously appeared on a card. They also included a few single cards of players who previously appeared in the regular set on a multi-player "prospects" card; one notable example is the 1982 Topps Traded [[Cal Ripken Jr.]] Since a "rookie card" is typically the most valuable for any given player, the companies now competed to be the first to produce a card of players who might be future stars. Increasingly, they also included highly touted minor league players who had yet to play in the major leagues. For example, Topps obtained a license to produce cards featuring the U.S. Olympic baseball team and thus produced the first card of [[Mark McGwire]] prior to his promotion to the major league level, and one that would become quite valuable to collectors for a time. This card from the 1984 squad appeared in Topps's regular 1985 set, but by the next Olympic cycle the team's cards had been migrated to the "Traded" set. As a further step in this race, Topps resurrected its former competitor Bowman as a subsidiary brand in 1989, with Bowman sets similarly chosen to include a lot of young players with bright prospects.

[[File:Bowman brand logo.png|thumb|right|200px|Topps reissued Bowman as a subsidiary brand in 1989.]]
Also beginning in 1989 with the entry of [[Upper Deck]] into the market, card companies began to develop higher-end cards using improved technology. Following Topps's example, other manufacturers now began to diversify their product lines into different sets, each catering to a different niche of the market. The initial Topps effort at producing a premium line of cards, in 1991, was called Stadium Club. Topps continued adding more sets and trying to distinguish them from each other, as did its competitors. The resulting glut of different baseball sets caused the MLBPA to take drastic measures as the market for them deteriorated. The union announced that for 2006, licenses would only be granted to Topps and Upper Deck, the number of different products would be limited, and players would not appear on cards before reaching the major leagues.

Although most of its products were distributed through retail stores and hobby shops, Topps also attempted to establish itself online, where a significant secondary market for sports cards was developing. Working in partnership with [[eBay]], Topps launched a new brand of sports cards called eTopps in December 2000. These cards are sold exclusively online through individual "[[Initial public offering|IPOs]]" (or, "Initial Player Offering") in which the card is offered for usually a week at the IPO price. The quantity sold depends on how many people offer to buy, but is limited to a certain maximum. After a sale, the cards are held in a climate-controlled warehouse unless the buyer requests delivery, and the cards can be traded online without changing hands except in the virtual sense.

Topps also acquired ThePit.com, a startup company that earlier in 2000 had launched a site for online stock-market style card trading. The purchase was for $5.7 million cash in August 2001 after Topps had earlier committed to invest in a round of [[venture capital financing]] for the company. This undertaking was not very successful, however, and Topps unloaded the site on Naxcom in January 2006. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but Topps charged a $3.7 million after-tax loss on its books in connection with the sale.

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|image1 = Topps wagner 2002 blue.jpg
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|footer = Two reissues of the iconic [[T206 Honus Wagner]] card by Topps, a 2002 edition featuring blue background with the legend "Topps 206" (left), and a 2019 reproduction of the 1909 original (right)
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In 2002, Topps revived the [[T206]] set originally released in 1909–11 by the [[American Tobacco Company]] under the "Topps 206" brand, with current players. That first revival included the [[T206 Honus Wagner]] iconic card, with blue background instead of the original orange.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sportscardchecklist.com/sport-baseball/year-2002/index-topps-206/trading-card-checklists-and-product-information|title=2002 topps 206 Baseball Card Checklists|website=Ultimate Cards and Coins}}</ref> A second revival would be launched in 2010.<ref name=revival>[https://www.topps.com/2020-topps-206-baseball-series-4.html Topps 206 Baseball] on Topps.com</ref>

Topps grabbed collectors' attention early in 2007 when the new card of [[New York Yankees|Yankees]]' shortstop [[Derek Jeter]] was found to have been altered to include an image of Mickey Mantle standing in the dugout and [[President of the United States|President]] [[George W. Bush]] walking through the stands.

In 2009, Topps became the first official baseball card of MLB in over thirty years. The first product to fall under the deal was the 2010 Topps Baseball Series 1. The deal gave Topps exclusivity for the use of MLB and club trademarks and logos on cards, stickers and some other products featuring major league players.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/sports/baseball/06cards.html|title=Topps Gets Exclusive Deal With Baseball, Landing a Blow to Upper Deck|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 6, 2009}}</ref> The exclusive deal was extended in 2013,<ref>{{cite web | last1=Ventre | first1=Jw | last2=Paulo | first2=Dominic | last3=Drey | first3=Frank | title=Topps locks up MLB-exclusive license through 2020 | website=Beckett News | date=2013-03-18 | url=https://www.beckett.com/news/topps-locks-up-mlb-exclusive-card-license-throuugh-2020/ | access-date=2021-04-21}}</ref> then extended again in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com:443/Daily/Issues/2018/07/12/Marketing%20and%20Sponsorship/Topps.aspx|title=Topps Extends Exclusive MLB Trading Card Deal Through '25|website=www.sportsbusinessjournal.com}}</ref> It is currently scheduled to go through at least 2025.

Again in 2020, the company released a new T206 collection divided into five different series, with the first (50 cards) being released in May 2020.<ref name=check>[https://www.beckett.com/news/2020-topps-206-baseball-cards/ 2020 TOPPS 206 BASEBALL CHECKLIST, TEAM SET LISTS AND DETAILS] by RYAN CRACKNELL at Beckett, Sep 2020</ref> The collection, named "Topps 206", include players from both, [[Major League Baseball|Major]] and [[Minor League Baseball|Minor]] League. The fifth series was released in September 2020.<ref>[https://www.cardboardconnection.com/2020-topps-206-baseball-cards 2020 Topps T206 Baseball Cards – Series 5 Checklist] on Card Board Connection</ref>

At the start of the 2023 MLB season, Fanatics, Topps, and the MLB announced that all MLB rookies would wear "MLB Debut" patches on their jerseys. The patches are worn during a player's first big league game, then removed, authenticated by MLB Authenticated Program.<ref name="sportscollectorsdaily.com">{{cite news |last=Mueller |first=Rich |date=30 March 2023 |title=Fanatics, MLB Announce Player Worn Debut Patches That Will Turn Into Rookie Cards |url=https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/fanatics-mlb-announce-player-worn-debut-patches-that-will-turn-into-rookie-cards/ |access-date=12 July 2024 |work=Sports Collectors Daily}}</ref> The patch is then included in a one-of-one Rookie Debut Patch Autograph Card, to be randomly inserted into Topps baseball card packs during the year.<ref name="sportscollectorsdaily.com" /><ref name="wgntv.com">{{cite news |last=Ong |first=Eli |date=26 March 2024 |title=Shota Imanaga to wear special patch for MLB debut with the Cubs |url=https://wgntv.com/sports/cubs/shota-imanaga-to-wear-special-patch-for-mlb-debut-with-the-cubs/ |access-date=12 July 2024 |work=WGN TV}}</ref>