Topps: The Odd One Out?
By Tracy Hackler
11/11/2009 3:41:18 PM
Topps is out of football! Topps is out of football? Topps is out of football.
Wow! I didn’t see that coming. Topps without a football license? That just seems . . . odd. After all,the New York-based trading card giant has produced at least one football product a year since 1955. For those counting at home, that’s 55 consecutive seasons.
Look, it’s all the rage these days for licensing entities to trim manufacturers from the mix in the name of bettering a battered business (see the NHL and Upper Deck, MLB Properties and Topps, the NBA and Panini, the CLC and UD, etc.); and the fact that Players Inc was planning to reduce the number of football players had been rumored for months. So the finality of that Monday-afternoon announcement surprised no one.
It was the cut player’s identity that seemed so shocking.
Personally, I figured Upper Deck the most likely to be eliminated based on nothing more than trending momentum that saw the company lose the NBA and MLB Properties but counter with the CLC exclusive in the first eight months of 2009. Now,suddenly Topps appears vulnerable after losing the NBA and the NFL in 2009 and entering 2010 with baseball and the UFC.
There are bound to be any number of meaningful reasons why Players Inc executed this particular move. Soon enough, whenever officials from all sides of the issue start talking, we’ll begin to figure them out.
For now, all we have to go on are the readily available rumors, hearsay and speculation making the rounds . . .
-- Could it be that Players Inc felt Topps would be too focused on baseball in 2010 to devote the desired amount of resources to football?
-- Or that Players Inc felt the internationally founded Panini America and the marketing-savvy Upper Deck gave the football category a better chance to grow? Some say Topps didn’t help its case by ruffling corporate feathers earlier this season with a popular Magic release that allegedly attempted to evade NFL Properties licensing requirements.
-- Or, just maybe, this is merely a counter punch in the continuing and fierce rivalry between industry heavyweights Topps and Upper Deck. Perhaps, as the theory goes, Topps did everything in its power to squeeze UD out of the MLB Properties picture; UD simply returned the favor with Players Inc.
-- Collectors in favor of Topps’ gridiron dismissal – by all accounts a very vocal, very small minority – point to supposed substandard product quality and persistent redemption card issues.
Again, that’s speculation, but let’s be honest: If we deleted manufacturers for an occasional dud product or redemption cards, we wouldn’t have any trading cards left to collect.
To be sure, there are far more questions than answers at this point.
Credit Players Inc for making what, on the surface, appears to be the boldest possible move in removing Topps from the mix (and for also for keeping it quiet for as long as it did; that’s an unheard of accomplishment in this industry).
In the coming days, it is hoped that folks in the know can touch on some of these issues and detail not only why Topps was pulled from the game, but, more importantly, what go-forward plans are in store to meaningfully address the ultimate objective: Bettering a battered business.
| Posted
11/11/2009 4:29:19 PM |
naturalbornkiller
Total Posts:
202
Member Since: 6/4/1997
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i hope topps does not get a hockey deal, when they did have one they put a little (if any effort ) into the cards (90-04ish) i can not recall any hot topps cards durning that period
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| Posted
11/11/2009 5:47:32 PM |
HeritageKing
Total Posts:
204
Member Since: 9/3/1999
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An entire write up and the only thing positive said about Upper Deck was that they are
market savvy? They are?
...and Panini, becuse they are "international"
LMAO, is this what the NFL based their decisions on, or did they go the more analytical
way and throw darts at a dartboard? This decision is a joke. The NFL has done NOTHING
to research their decision, not even Tracy Hackler, who follows this hobby as a job can make
sense of it.
Kevin
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| Posted
11/11/2009 6:58:43 PM |
pbean
Total Posts:
567
Member Since: 8/12/2009
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The sad part for me is that Topps is as much a part of NFL history as the great players that played the game.
Where else can you relive that favorite season, remember that favorite player, or team gone by.
Topps has allowed us to keep those memories from our childhood through those little pieces of printed cardboard lining our sock drawers.
While some manufacturers went under and others came on board, Topps was still the standard of the industry in many of our minds. One set that we were proud to build with our children, the same way our fathers built them with us.
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Looking for 2009 Topps Mayo Lions and Bucs
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| Posted
11/11/2009 8:49:01 PM |
Tracy Hackler
Total Posts:
328
Member Since: 9/24/1998
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Just remember that NFL Properties has yet to chime in on its plans for 2010. In theory, it's possible that Topps could attempt to land individual agreements with a host of players and essentially do in 2010 what it did with Topps Magic in 2009 -- player-focused but with no NFL or college logos.
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Tracy Hackler
Publisher
Beckett Media
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| Posted
11/12/2009 8:00:38 AM |
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HeritageKing
Total Posts:
204
Member Since: 9/3/1999
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Topps magic had college logos on them and was one of the better sets of the year. One
product a year isn't going to keep card shops running. Terrible move for the NFL, they
only had to talk to maybe 3 or 4 collectors to find that out.
Kevin
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| Posted
11/12/2009 8:57:59 AM |
Rob137
Total Posts:
1
Member Since: 12/31/2003
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Unbelievable. The money in football cards resides with the vintage collectors, whom collect Topps '51 to present. Now, our collections will end in 2009- similar to how serious stamp collectors stopped collecting modern issues.
Good luck to the players association in getting on ongoing revenue stream from the kids who by the current day stuff. Evidently, they have never attended a card show.
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| Posted
11/12/2009 9:14:50 AM |
Billy Rock
Total Posts:
1
Member Since: 5/20/2009
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Hey everyone!$0$0$0$0First time commenting on here, long time reader, lol! Well, here we go again! When will this exclusive madness end? I don't know about you (the collector's out there) but we (all) as a collective entity, pun intended, make our voices heard year in and year out with the amount of product we buy because of what kind of product's (that's plural folk's) is available to us, period! No product's mean NO COLLECTOR'S, PERIOD! Collector 'Pbean' said it all to well about how awesome it was to build sets with our fathers, and the means to carry on that tradition is what made the turning of the leaves and that first frost so special at the time of year too. No one is listening to the collectors anymore, just the investors, and that is a sad day in our hobby! Where have all the football cards gone?? If you build it, they will come!! All really cool metaphors, but seriously, we should all just ask the NFL... but I have a feeling they aren't sure either. $0$0$0$0$0Respectfully, BillyRock$0$0$0$0I collect everything Derek Jeter & Yankees by the way, and I am an Fan of Football, I don't really collect a certain team or player, I just love the cards!$0$0
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| Posted
11/12/2009 5:40:01 PM |
kshorton
Total Posts:
57
Member Since: 11/5/2008
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Topps. Topps is sports cards. Topps for me, was really all I ever needed. In 1971 when I was 6, I received my first pack. I got a Bart Starr. At the time, I knew nothing of sports or sports cards, nothing. I got this card, the guy's name was Bart Starr. The coolness of that name started it all for me. From then on, sports cards were cool, and Topps has been the company, and always will be, that counts.
My heart broke when the company was sold a few years back. Game.... over. Bart Starr has gone away.
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| Posted
11/12/2009 5:40:10 PM |
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kshorton
Total Posts:
57
Member Since: 11/5/2008
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Topps. Topps is sports cards. Topps for me, was really all I ever needed. In 1971 when I was 6, I received my first pack. I got a Bart Starr. At the time, I knew nothing of sports or sports cards, nothing. I got this card, the guy's name was Bart Starr. The coolness of that name started it all for me. From then on, sports cards were cool, and Topps has been the company, and always will be, that counts.
My heart broke when the company was sold a few years back. Game.... over. Bart Starr has gone away.
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| Posted
11/14/2009 9:43:23 AM |
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82060
Total Posts:
2
Member Since: 5/10/2003
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Since you are the so called #1 authority on collecting. Why do'nt you take a poll to see how the COLLECTORS feel about the NFLPLAYRS INC. dession on not renewing TOPPS Football contract.May be we as COLLECTORS can let the NFL Players know what we want ! This dession is just insane. I have collect Upper Deck and Panini/ Score/Donrus/Playoff cards in the past and STOPED because as a COLLECTOR I thought there cards were to gimicky. I am along time Football Card COLLECTOR and have SETS from the early 50s to present. So as COLLECTORS lets have are voices heard! Lets STOP this maddness NOW! Topps Football cards are as much apart of the history of the NFL and it's Players as anything. So as COLLECTORS lets unite and let the NFL and its Players know were we want to spend our hard earned MONEY!
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| Posted
11/15/2009 12:42:33 AM |
phillykid1961
Total Posts:
1
Member Since: 5/23/2006
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thats messed up. does that mean that bowman won`t be putting out anymore nfl cards aslo?
since their cards are the same as topps nfl cards.after all they are made by topps
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| Posted
11/15/2009 9:43:33 AM |
sascards67
Total Posts:
2
Member Since: 3/27/2009
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I remember buying my first pack of cards in 1974 when I was 7. I had to figure out who Myron Pottios was but I was hooked from then on.
I collected just about everything at one point. I stopped collecting hockey because Upper Deck just recycles the same thing over and over (they picked that up from Fleer). I'm quitting on basketball because I have not been impressed with the Panini offering so far. I guess I'll be left with baseball.
The thought of no Topps Chrome next year makes me just want to give up on the NFL. Maybe we should boycott watching and going to games for the rest of the year and maybe they'll get the message.
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| Posted
11/16/2009 9:21:02 PM |
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JimmyStar
Total Posts:
4
Member Since: 8/15/2006
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Like somebody else said here earlier, this is also my first time I have ever commented here, and I am doing so now, because this is something I, like many others here feel very strongly about. Topps is the only product I collect, because it is the only product with such a long run. I am a New Orleans Saints fan, and with the exception of the Saints' first year, 1967, (of which I do have the Philadelphia gum Saints' Set) I can basically collect just about every year the Saints have been playing of Topps cards. Granted, some of the designs, especially in recent years don't look like they have put much effort into them, but the NFL should take other means of letting them know they need to make more of an effort to make a quality product, instead of putting cards that look just like the Baseball set, although this years' Topps Football set looks like a total rip-off (at least the front of the card designs do) of Fleers' 1989 Football set.
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| Posted
11/19/2009 5:11:24 PM |
DJDAVYB
Total Posts:
7
Member Since: 5/20/2000
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This is getting utterly ridiculous! Cutting Topps now from Football! Come on! Topps has been my number football product EVERY YEAR since I started collecting 20 years ago!! And TOPPS is suppose to be kid orientated! How are they going to do that now without a Football license! Sure they'll have baseball............but oh wait.......................THEY'LL GET CUT FROM THAT TOO! And then what! All these commercials and KID ORIENTATED gatherings in the shops and all are going to be for a waste of time and money! Let alone all the disappointed kids next year that can't get a TOPPS FOOTBALL card! I'm 53 and when I was a kid that's ALL I collected whats TOPPS! Now I have to go to a Panini Brand? A player in the game that I don't know and now don't care to at all! Thanks to the NFL's Players Inc or whatever the hell that is for pulling TOPPS out of the Football Game! Thanks! THANKS ALOT!!
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DJDAVYB
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| Posted
11/22/2009 9:49:00 PM |
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steveaczech
Total Posts:
154
Member Since: 12/1/2003
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In my opinion, and obviously we all have them on here, its a personal choice of who & what you collect. With that being said, these various entities (that supposedly have our interests at heart....and not their DEEP pockets) have stepped in and started "limiting" who has what specific rights in the various sports. From what I've seen so far from a certain unnamed international company, that was given exclusive upcoming NBA rights & has been printing ever so fluidly NFL cards, is a lot of cards that dont seem too different (and yes....there are some differences in some specific areas) from each other. So....if the NFL liscensing & NBA liscensing had a product pool/mix in mind that would benefit the kids (so Ive heard in passing in several articles so far), I would think that its just more mixed up than before these AWESOME decisions were made.
If it were suppose to be about choices of the end-use consumer (yes....we collectors); then there would be liscenses in all four sports-to the 3 to 5 main manufacturers and limitations put on how many products each could make. But....I guess making it a non-democtatic process was the intentions all along !!
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| Posted
1/30/2010 9:30:15 AM |
chibearsboy
Total Posts:
112
Member Since: 11/30/2008
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i want to puke. first panini then this?!? topps may have had problems but it's an american icon. i will never buy a box of cards again unless they are of 2007.that is the only modern year i will do from now on.i wanted to try something new this year(2010) but not now.i dont buy from monopolys. no competition means no money from this country boy. besides,why would buy a junk product with more redemptions than commons?!? i will take a box of 2007 leaf certified please.or donruss classics. 1 good thing is that it narrows my list down alot. i feel sorry for the people that will buy the trash that will be coming out now! shame on you guys.
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sir walter is my guy for life ~~~ please check "my trade interests" for the sets i'm working on now.i will trade/buy for any of the cards in these sets!http://i877.photobucket.com/albums/ab337/sto66/2007%20LEAF%20%20NFL%20PRIME/011-1.jpg
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