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113-455: The American Card Catalog: The Standard Guide on All Collected Cards and Their Values is a reference book for American trading cards produced before 1951, compiled by Jefferson Burdick . Some collectors regard the book as the most important in the history of collectible cards. First published in 1939 as The United States Card Collectors Catalog , subsequent editions of the ACC came in 1946 (when it

226-422: A Mickey Mantle baseball card ( Topps ; #311; SGC MT 9.5) was sold for $ 12.600 million. Sets of cards are issued with each season for major professional sports. Since companies typically must pay players for the right to use their images, the vast majority of sports cards feature professional athletes. Amateurs appear only rarely, usually on cards produced or authorized by the institution they compete for, such as

339-462: A Walking Dead trading card app. Following the success of their assortment of digital trading card apps, they once again expanded their marketplace for digital collectors a few years later, releasing a Marvel trading card app in the spring of 2019 and their Disney trading card app in November of that same year. In March 2020, Topps announced a collaboration with WAX.io to make their cards tradable on

452-629: A college . Many older sports cards (pre-1980) command a high price today; this is because they are hard to find, especially in good quality condition. This happened because many children used to place their cards in bicycle spokes, where the cards were easily damaged. Rookie cards of Hall of Fame sports stars can command thousands of dollars if they have been relatively well-preserved. In the 1980s, sports cards started to get produced in higher numbers, and collectors started to keep their cards in better condition as they became increasingly aware of their potential investment value. This trend continued well into

565-450: 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

678-438: 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

791-487: 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

904-574: A European division, which is based in Milton Keynes , UK. From this office products are launched across Europe, including Spain, France, Germany, Norway, and Italy. This division also co-ordinates products launches across the many other international markets including the Far East, Australia, and South Africa. In 1994 Merlin acquired the Premier League license allowing the company to exclusively publish

1017-422: A PSA 10, meaning this large population drives down the value of each card. Popularity of trading cards is determined by the subject represented on the card, their real life accomplishments, and short term news coverage as well as the specifics of the card. While vintage cards are truly a scarce commodity, modern-day manufacturers have to artificially add value to their products in order to make them scarce. This

1130-472: A brand of sports cards, called etopps . These cards were sold exclusively online through individual IPO's (initial player offering) in which the card is offered for usually a week at the IPO price. That same year, Tokenzone launched a digital collectibles platform that was used by media companies to distribute content in the form of digital trading cards. The quantity sold depended on how many people offered to buy but

1243-519: 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

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1356-505: A collector is willing to pay. Valued at $ 44 billion today, the global sports trading card market is expected to surge to approximately $ 100 billion by 2027. Card condition is one aspect of trading cards that determine the value of a card. There are four areas of interest in determining a card's condition. Centering, corners, edges and surface are taken into consideration, for imperfections, such as color spots and blurred images, and wear, such as creases, scratches and tears, when determining

1469-561: A company called Playoff started obtaining autographs on stickers that are stuck on the cards instead of them actually signing the cards. There is strong opposition against these types of autographs because the players never even saw the cards that the stickers were affixed to. The first association football (or "soccer") cards were produced in 1898 by the Marcus & Company Tobacco in Manchester, England . The set consisted of over 100 cards and

1582-544: 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 ,

1695-530: A dozen others. 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. 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

1808-427: A lot of young players with bright prospects. 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,

1921-401: 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 inches by 2-5/8 inches) and changed the dimensions to 2-5/8 inches by 3-3/4 inches with square corners. The cards now had a color portrait on one side, with statistical and biographical information on

2034-444: A person famous for using that card. The value of an autographed card has been debated, often depending on who has autographed it or the scarcity of the autograph. In some cases, an autograph can be seen as damage to the card, or graffiti . It is often said that when playing a CCG, the best way to obtain the cards you desire is not via booster packs, but by buying the individual singles you need for your deck. Purchasing booster packs

2147-414: A personal collection. Ordinary collectible cards serve little function beyond memorabilia , but CCGs are also used in game tournaments . Generally, collectible card games (CCG) fetch initial higher prices than trading cards because of the dual nature of being both a game and a collectible . Prices will fluctuate for CCGs as cards become legal or illegal to play in certain game formats. The value of

2260-609: A plant in Duryea, Pennsylvania , in 1965 (the Duryea plant closed in 1997). Corporate offices remained at 254 36th Street in Brooklyn, a location in the waterfront district by the Gowanus Expressway . In 1994, the headquarters relocated to One Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan . After being privately held for several decades, Topps offered stock to the public for the first time in 1972 with

2373-590: A player's jersey worn in a real professional game; other memorabilia cards include pieces of bats, balls, hats, helmets, and floors. Authenticated autographs are also popular, as are "serially numbered" cards, which are produced in much smaller amounts than regular "base set cards". Autographs obtained by card manufacturers have become the most collected baseball cards in the hobby's history. This started in 1990 in baseball when Upper Deck randomly inserted autographs of Reggie Jackson into boxes. They are commonly referred to as "Certified Autographed Inserts" or "CAI's". Both

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2486-575: A series of trading card collections, including Dinosaurs, James Bond - 007, Celebs, Gum Ball 3000, European Football Stars and NBA . In 2011, mytcg Technologies launched a platform that enabled content holders to host their content on. On July 1, 2011, Wildcat Intellectual Property Holdings filed a lawsuit against 12 defendants, including Topps, Panini, Sony , Electronic Arts , Konami , Pokémon , Zynga and Nintendo , for allegedly infringing Wildcat's "Electronic Trading Card" patent. In 2012, Topps also launched their first phone application. Topps Bunt

2599-541: 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

2712-619: A sporting theme appeared in 1896, a cricket series by W.D. & H.O. Wills of 50 cricketers. The tobacco companies soon realised that sports cards were a great way to obtain brand loyalty. In 1896 the first association football set, "Footballers & Club Colours", was published by Marcus & Company, a small firm in Manchester . Other football sets issued at that time were "Footballers & Club Colours" (Kinner, 1898); "Footballers" (J. F. Bell, 1902); "Footballers" (F. J. Smith, 1902) and "Footballers" (Percy E. Cadle, 1904). The first stage in

2825-884: A standout item: the Chris John Autographed Card 1/1 Red Foil. Notably, this card achieved a groundbreaking sale at an auction, fetching IDR 6,900,000 and attaining the distinction of being the most valuable Indonesian Trading Card at that time. Cricket cards usually feature one or more players or a cricket-related theme. One of the first cricket collections was released by tobacco company W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1896. Other companies that released cricket collections were Australian Sniders & Abrahams in 1905, and Capstan (a Wills brand) in 1909–10. Alexander Boguslavsky Ltd. also released an illustrated sports collection (that included cricket) in 1925. In modern times, cricket cards have been produced by Futera (1993–98) and Topps . Panini released collections of some of

2938-414: 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

3051-589: A trading card depends on a combination of the card's condition, the subject's popularity and the scarcity of the card. In some cases, especially with older cards that preceded the advent of card collecting as a widespread hobby , they have become collectors' items of considerable value. In recent years, many sports cards have not necessarily appreciated as much in value due to overproduction, although some manufacturers have used limited editions and smaller print runs to boost value. Trading cards, however, do not have an absolute monetary value. Cards are only worth as much as

3164-420: A trading card's value. Cards are considered poor to pristine based on their condition, or in some cases rated 1 through 10. A card in pristine condition, for example, will generally be valued higher than a card in poor condition. Major card grading companies which provide these ratings on a scale of 1-10 include PSA, Beckett, and SGC. They provide individual grades for the centering, corners, edges, and surface of

3277-653: Is a generic term for a trading card with a sports-related subject, as opposed to non-sports trading cards that deal with other topics. Sports cards were among the earliest forms of collectibles . They typically consist of a picture of a player on one side, with statistics or other information on the reverse. Cards have been produced featuring most major sports, especially those played in North America , including, but not limited to, American football , association football (soccer), baseball , basketball , boxing , golf , ice hockey , racing and tennis . The first set with

3390-422: Is a list of card classifications in which baseball cards are found. Two examples of each type have been listed. Trading card Trading cards are traditionally associated with sports ( baseball cards are particularly common) but can also include subjects such as Pokémon and other non-sports trading cards . These often feature cartoons , comic book characters, television series and film stills. In

3503-415: Is accomplished by including serial-numbered parallel sets, cards with game-worn memorabilia and more. Time can also make cards more scarce due to the fact that cards may be lost or destroyed. Some singles have been autographed by someone related to the card. The person who autographed the card may be depicted, or their artwork is visible on the card. Cards may also be autographed by the card designer or by

The American Card Catalog - Misplaced Pages Continue

3616-469: Is illustrated for both vintage and modern cards, such as an 1894 American Tobacco Company card featuring Essendon player Will Crebbin which sold for $ 10,110 in 2018 and a 2004 Select AFL Conquest Triple Brownlow Medallist signature card featuring Nathan Buckley , Adam Goodes and Mark Ricciuto which was valued at $ 3,000 in 2018. Baseball cards will usually feature one or more baseball players or other baseball-related sports figures. The front of

3729-400: Is often mistakenly referred to as Mantle's rookie card, but that honor belongs to his 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

3842-581: Is often seen as a form of gambling , since you do not know which cards you will receive until after your purchase. Even though the price for an individual card may be more than the price of booster pack, you will likely save money in the long run, as opposed to randomly getting one from a booster pack. Trading card catalogs are available both online and offline for enthusiast. They are mainly used as an educational tool and to identify cards. Online catalogs also contain additional resources for collection management and communication between collectors. Sports card

3955-410: Is set for February 2023 and will feature art work from original race posters from 1923 to current day. 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 cards , 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,

4068-480: The 1994 baseball strike , since they are barred from union membership and participation in the group licensing program. 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 , later Raisin Bran and other Kellogg's brands). The Kellogg's sets contained fewer cards than Topps sets, and

4181-682: The Fleer Corporation to compete in the market. 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

4294-485: The NBA , NCAA , Olympic basketball , WNBA , WBL , or some other basketball-related theme. The first basketball cards were produced in 1910, in a series cataloged as "College Athlete Felts B-33". The complete series included ten different sports, with only 30 cards being associated with basketball. The cards were issued as a cigarette redemption premium by Egyptiene Cigarettes. The number of cigarette packages needed to redeem for

4407-456: The blockchain . As of December 2020, Topps has only made Garbage Pail Kids cards available to traders via blockchain but they have announced Alien Quadrilogy collectibles will be coming soon. In April 2021, Topps announced plans to go public via a merger with Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II , a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) . Michael Eisner's firm The Tornante Company planned to roll its stake into

4520-508: The "World Champions" series, among other sportsmen. After the World War II , other companies took over the manufacturing of boxing cards, such as Leaf (1948), Topps (1951) and Donruss . More recently, Upper Deck released several boxing series. In March 2023, Indonesian trading card manufacturer, FanGir, released their debut "Legacy" collection that featured Indonesian Boxing Legends Chris John and Daud Yordan. The collection includes

4633-506: The 1910s, all in full color). In the 1930s, the Australian division of British Godfrey Phillips Co. released a set of football cards. By the same time, Hoadleys, a local confectionery company, released a set of illustrated cards. Another confectionery company, Clarke-Ellis, also released its own set of cards. Other companies that launched cards sets in the 1930s were Pals Periodical, Plaistowe & Co., Carreras (two illustrated sets in 1933,

The American Card Catalog - Misplaced Pages Continue

4746-843: The 1951 Bowman Baseball set. On August 28, 2022, a Mickey Mantle baseball card ( Topps ; #311; SGC MT 9.5) was sold for $ 12.600 million. Topps purchased their chief competitor, Bowman Gum, in 1956. Topps was the leader in the trading card industry from 1956 to 1980, not only in sports cards but in entertainment cards as well. Many of the top selling non-sports cards were produced by Topps, including Wacky Packages (1967, 1973–1977), Star Wars (beginning in 1977) and Garbage Pail Kids (beginning in 1985). In 1991, Topps ceased packaging gum with their baseball cards, making many collectors happy that their cards could no longer be damaged by gum stains The following year, in 1992, Topps ceased using heavily waxed paper to wrap their packs of cards and began using cellophane plastic exclusively, thus eliminating

4859-494: The 1952 Topps baseball card set with Woody Gelman on the kitchen table of his apartment on Alabama Avenue in Brooklyn . 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

4972-462: The 1970s and 1980s.” Panini begins assembling World Cup squads for their sticker album a few months before they are officially announced by each nation, which means surprise call ups often don’t feature in their album. A notable example of this was 17-year-old Brazilian striker Ronaldo who was called up for the Brazil squad for the 1994 FIFA World Cup . Panini’s football trading card game Adrenalyn XL

5085-593: The 1990s, cards designed specifically for playing games became popular enough to develop into a distinct category, collectible card games . These games are mostly fantasy -based gameplay . Fantasy art cards are a subgenre of trading cards that focus on the artwork . Trade cards are the ancestors of cigarette and food (bubble gum) cards. Some of the earliest prizes found in retail products were cigarette cards — trading cards were designed to advertise products (not to be confused with trading cards) that were inserted into paper packs of cigarettes as stiffeners to protect

5198-400: The 1990s. This practice caused many of the cards manufactured during this era to stay low in value, due to their high numbers. The proliferation of cards saturated the market, and by the late 1990s, card companies began to produce scarcer versions of cards to keep many collectors interested. The latest trends in the hobby have been "game used memorabilia" cards, which usually feature a piece of

5311-458: The 2003/04 to 2006/07 seasons. Match Attax , the official Premier League trading card game, was the biggest selling boys’ collectible in the UK three years running. Being sold across the globe in a number of countries, the collection also holds the title of the biggest selling sports collectible in the world. It is estimated that around 1.5 million children collect it in the UK alone. Following on from

5424-564: The Beatles' manager. 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. 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

5537-455: 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

5650-454: The Merlin brand until 2008 as it was easily recognized by consumers. Topps Europe Limited continues to produce a wide and varied range of sports and entertainment collectibles across Europe. Its range of products now includes stickers, albums, cards and binders, magazines, stationery, and temporary tattoos. Topps Europe Ltd. has continued to launch hugely successful products across Europe. Some of

5763-511: The Shorin brothers’ father, Morris Shorin, in 1908. American Leaf Tobacco encountered difficulties during World War I, as it was cut off from Turkish supplies of tobacco, and later as a result of the Great Depression . Shorin's sons, Abram, 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

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5876-698: The Topps Bunt baseball card mobile app. After releasing Bunt in 2013 and finding success with it, they expanded their sports card market into other apps including the Kick soccer app in August 2014, Huddle Football app in April 2016, and Skate hockey app in 2017. Along with sports cards, Topps also expanded its marketplace for collectors of digital goods to include non-sports cards on mobile devices. In March 2015, they released their Star Wars Card Trader app, and in May 2016 they released

5989-512: The UK and bubble gum cards in the US. The first baseball cards were trade cards printed in the late 1860s by a sporting goods company, around the time baseball became a professional sport. Most of the baseball cards around the beginning of the 20th century came in candy and tobacco products. It was during this era that the most valuable baseball card ever printed, the T206 tobacco card featuring Honus Wagner ,

6102-611: The acquisition of Premier League trading cards rights, in the spring of 2008 Topps acquired the exclusive rights to the DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga GmbH for trading cards and stickers until the Bundesliga Season 2010/11. Bundesliga Match Attax was launched in January 2009 and is now available in over 40,000 stockists. The collection is the first of its kind in Germany and has become one of the biggest selling collections in

6215-540: The assistance of investment banking firm White, Weld & Co. The company returned to private ownership when it was acquired in a leveraged buyout led by Forstmann Little & Company in 1984. The new ownership group again made Topps into a publicly traded company in 1987, now renamed to The Topps Company, Inc. In this incarnation, the company was reincorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law for legal reasons, but company headquarters remained in New York. Management

6328-585: The athlete's and card company's reputations are on the line if they do not personally sign these cards. This has created the most authentic autographs in existence. These cards all have some form of printed statements that the autographs are authentic, this way, no matter who owns the autograph there is no question of its authenticity. CAI's have branched out into autographs of famous actors, musicians, Presidents, and even Albert Einstein. Mostly these autographs are cut from flat items such as postcards, index cards, and plain paper. Then they are pasted onto cards. In 2001,

6441-551: The baseball card market. That same year, however, Topps faced an attempt to undermine its position from the nascent 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 bottlecaps for $ 120,000,

6554-523: The basic format for most sports cards produced in the United States. 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

6667-428: The brand names Allen & Ginter and Bowman . In the 2010s, Topps was the only baseball card manufacturer with a license with Major League Baseball . Following the loss of that license to Fanatics, Inc. in 2022, Fanatics acquired Topps in the same year. Topps was founded in 1938 by four brothers, Abram, Ira, Philip, and Joseph Shorin. The roots of Topps can be traced to American Leaf Tobacco , incorporated by

6780-428: 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

6893-399: The card to eventually combine for one final grade. Older cards are generally more sensitive to wear and tear, meaning a '7' might lessen the value of a card printed in 2018, but could significantly increase the value of a card from 1950. While the grade has a major impact on the card's value, the population does as well. For example, there are over 20,000 Luka Doncic 2018 Base Prizm Cards graded

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7006-533: The card typically displays an image of the player with identifying information, including, but not limited to, the player's name and team affiliation. The reverse of most modern cards displays statistics and/or biographical information. Cards are most often found in the United States ; however, they are also common in countries such as Canada , Cuba , and Japan , where baseball is a popular sport and there are professional leagues. The earliest baseball cards were in

7119-404: 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 together with the event for that card, such as " fly out " or " single ." Topps changed its approach in 1952, this time creating

7232-456: 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 cards , allowing

7345-529: 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. The company began its existence as Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., a partnership between the four Shorin brothers. It later incorporated under New York law in 1947. The entire company originally operated at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn , but production facilities were moved to

7458-437: 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. During this period, baseball card manufacturers generally obtained the rights to depict players on merchandise by signing individual players to contracts for

7571-533: 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 . At the time, chewing gum was still a relative novelty sold in individual pieces. Topps's most successful early product was Bazooka bubble gum , 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 character Hopalong Cassidy ( William Boyd ); at

7684-538: The contents. Allen and Ginter in the U.S. in 1886, and British company W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1888, were the first tobacco companies to print advertisements. A couple of years later, lithograph pictures on the cards with an encyclopedic variety of topics from nature to war to sports — subjects that appealed to men who smoked - began to surface as well. By 1900, there were thousands of tobacco card sets manufactured by 300 different companies. Children would stand outside of stores to ask customers who bought cigarettes for

7797-407: The country. Now they sell a lot more of football cards. As of February 2016 Topps Match Attax dominated the secondary UK card trading market occupying two out of the top three spots on the stickerpoints.com 'most popular soccer collection' list. In January 2023, Topps released both physical and digital trading cards for their latest partner the 24 Hours of Le Mans Motorsport event. The release

7910-496: The development of sports cards, during the second half of the 19th century, is essentially the story of baseball cards , since baseball was the first sport to become widely professionalized. Hockey cards also began to appear early in the 20th century. Cards from this period are commonly known as cigarette cards or tobacco cards , because many were produced by tobacco companies and inserted into cigarette packages, to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands. One of

8023-470: The development of the Internet has given rise to various online communities, through which members can trade collectible cards with each other. Cards are often bought and sold via eBay and other online retail sources. Many websites solicit their own "sell to us" page in hopes to draw in more purchase opportunities. Singles are usually of higher value than contemporary cards which are often sold as "bulk" or as

8136-483: The dimensions of its cards slightly, to 2-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches, setting a standard that remains the basic format for most sports cards produced in the United States. In 2005, the long-standing sports card producer Fleer went bankrupt and was bought out by Upper Deck . Not long after that, Donruss lost its MLB license. Since 2009, Topps has held exclusive rights to produce MLB-licensed baseball cards. Basketball cards feature one or more players of

8249-536: The first boxing cards on record in "America's Greatest Boxing Cards" and encyclopedia and check-list of boxing cards, was of John C. Heenan issued by photographs Charles D. Fredericks in the 1860s. The first set of boxer cards was issued by Goodwin & Company in 1886. Other companies, including Duke and Sons and the Lorillard Tobacco Company , also issued boxing cards in this period. American company Allen & Ginter issued several boxing cards in

8362-559: The first of them with footballers caricatures by Bob Miram), Giant Licorice Cigarettes, MacRobertson's and W.D. & H.O. Wills , among others. The most popular set of Australian rules football cards are often the considered to be the 1963 Scanlens card set. Select Australia is currently the longest continuously operating and largest producer of Australian rules football cards. Prices for Australian rules football cards can be relatively high compared to other sporting codes in Australia. This

8475-423: The form of trade cards produced in 1868. They evolved into tobacco cards by 1886. In the early 20th century, other industries began printing their own version of baseball cards to promote their products, such as bakery/bread cards, caramel cards, dairy cards, game cards and publication cards. Between the 1930s and 1960s, the cards developed into trading cards, becoming their own product. In 1957, Topps changed

8588-592: The front of the card, and a tobacco advertisement and short biography of the player on the back of the card. Modern association football trading cards were sold with bubble gum in the United Kingdom from 1958 to 1975 by A&BC, and later by Topps, UK from 1975 to 1981. Similar smaller sized cards were issued in Spain and Italy beginning in the late 1940s. Cards have been produced from 1981 to present, save 1985 and 1986. Under its Merlin brand, since 1994 Topps has held

8701-666: The inaugural BRI Liga 1 trading card collection. Australian rules football cards are almost exclusively found in Australia as no top-level leagues are present outside the country. The first Australian rules football cards were produced in conjunction with Goodwin & Co's Old Judge Cigarettes in the late 1880s. In the set were Australian celebrities which included Australian rules footballers from Victoria and South Australia. Other companies that issued earlier football cards were W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1905, and Sniders & Abrahams (featuring scenes of matches in 1908 and then releasing other sets with portraits of football players in

8814-504: 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 . 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

8927-573: The licence to produce stickers for the Premier League sticker album . Launched by Topps in the 2007–08 season, Match Attax, the official Premier League trading card game, is the best selling boys collectable in the UK – with around 1.5m collectors in the UK – and with global sales it is also the biggest selling sports trading card game in the world. Other variations of football products exist, such as marbles, cut-outs, coins, stamps and stickers , some made of light cardboard and attached with glue or stickers, into sticker albums specifically issued for

9040-447: 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

9153-496: 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 " IPOs " (or, "Initial Player Offering") in which

9266-435: The most expensive cards in the hobby is a cigarette card of Honus Wagner in a set called 1909 T-206. The story told is that Wagner was against his cards being inserted into something that children would collect. So the production of his cards stopped abruptly. It is assumed that less than 100 of his cards exist in this set. The 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner card has sold for as much as $ 2.8 million. More recently, on August 28, 2022,

9379-604: The most famous bicycle races in Europe, such as the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia . Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures trading cards and other collectibles . Formerly based in New York City , Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards. Topps also produces cards under

9492-512: The most successful licenses have included WWE , Pokémon , Doctor Who , High School Musical and SpongeBob. Topps Merlin branded Premier League sticker albums have been popular since their launch in 1994, and in 2007 Topps acquired the Premier League rights for trading cards. Previously, the trading card rights were held by Magic Box International who produced the Shoot Out cards from

9605-601: The new company while Mudrick Capital would lead an additional investment of $ 250 million. The deal valued Topps at $ 1.3 billion. However, reports surfaced within six months of their initial plans that Mudrick Capital Management had backed out of the investment deal. In August 2021, it was reported that Fanatics acquired future exclusive licenses with Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association to produce baseball cards. In January 2022, Fanatics announced they had acquired Topps for US$ 500 million. Topps has

9718-422: The next quarter-century. 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

9831-529: The only official Premier League sticker and album collection in the UK. The initial success of the Premier League stickers and album collection was so great that it took even Merlin by surprise, with reprint after reprint being produced. In 1995, the Topps Company Inc. completed its takeover of Merlin Publishing . Merlin's official company name changed to Topps Europe Limited, but its products still carried

9944-400: The other, "2nd Series". The cards were acquired in trade for fifteen Murad cigarette coupons. The offer expired June 30, 1911. Basketball cards were not seen again until 1932, when C.A. Briggs Chocolate issued a 31-card set containing multiple sports. In exchange for a completed set of cards, Briggs offered baseball equipment. The number of basketball cards in the set is not known. One of

10057-445: 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

10170-404: 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 inches by 3-1/2 inches, setting a standard that remains

10283-457: 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

10396-447: The possibility of wax stains on the top and bottom cards in the packs. In an attempt to stay current with technology and digital trends, existing and new trading card companies started to create digital trading cards that lived exclusively online or as a digital counterpart of a physical card. In 1995 Michael A. Pace produced "computer based" trading cards, utilizing a CD ROM computer system and floppy discs. In 2000, Topps launched

10509-460: The products. Forming a partnership with FIFA in 1970, Panini first produced a World Cup sticker album for the 1970 World Cup . Initiating a craze for collecting and trading stickers, since then, it has become part of the World Cup experience, especially for the younger generation. The Guardian states, “the tradition of swapping duplicate [World Cup] stickers was a playground fixture during

10622-463: The promotional cards. Following the success of cigarette cards, trade cards were produced by manufacturers of other products and included in the product or handed to the customer by the store clerk at the time of purchase. World War II put an end to cigarette card production due to limited paper resources, and after the war cigarette cards never really made a comeback. After that collectors of prizes from retail products took to collecting tea cards in

10735-606: The purpose. Topps first became active in this process through an 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

10848-450: The resulting design resembling that of playing cards. Topps owner and founder Sy Berger created the first true modern baseball card set, complete with playing record and statistics, the following year in the form of 1952 Topps Baseball. This is one of the most popular sets of all time; its most valued piece was 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311, which is sometimes erroneously referred to as Mantle's rookie card, though he had in fact appeared in

10961-419: 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 option for one year, Topps included in its own contracts

11074-592: 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 U.S. federal court . The lawsuit alleged infringement on Bowman's trademarks, unfair competition, and contractual interference. The court rejected Bowman's attempt to claim

11187-561: The sale. 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. A second revival would be launched in 2010. Topps grabbed collectors' attention early in 2007 when the new card of Yankees ' shortstop Derek Jeter

11300-425: 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 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. This 1952 Topps Mantle

11413-432: 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 . In the autumn of 1951, Berger, then a 28-year-old veteran of World War II, designed

11526-566: The tobacco cards is not known. The next series of basketball cards were issued in 1911, in two separate series; "T6 College Series", measuring approximately 6" by 8", and "T51 College Series", measuring approximately 2" by 3". These series included a variety of sports, with only 4 cards being associated with basketball, one card from the T6 series and three cards from the T51 series. Both series were produced in two variations, one variation reading "College Series",

11639-480: 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. The figure for individual player contracts has since increased to $ 500. As

11752-452: 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 player under contract, generally for five years plus renewal options, so Shorin declined. After continued discussions went nowhere,

11865-474: Was an app that allowed users to connect with other fans in a fantasy league type game environment wherein they can collect their favorite players, earn points based on how well they play and trade and compete with other fans. Three years later, the same company launched a digital experiment in Europe (geotargeted to exclude the USA) with its Marvel Hero Attax, using digital as an overlay to its physical product. Today,

11978-450: 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

12091-492: Was found to have been altered to include an image of Mickey Mantle standing in the dugout and 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. The exclusive deal

12204-423: Was introduced in 2009. In 2010 Panini released a UEFA Champions League edition of Adrenalyn XL, containing 350 cards from 22 of the competing clubs, including defending champions FC Barcelona . The fourth edition of Panini FIFA 365 Adrenalyn XL was released for 2019, featuring top clubs, teams and players. In 2022, Indonesian manufacturer FanGir established a partnership with PT Liga Indonesia Baru to introduce

12317-404: Was issued under the title of "Club Colours". They featured illustrated images of players on the front of the card, and a tobacco advertisement on the back of the card. Many other cigarette companies quickly created their own series, beginning with Kinner in 1898. A later series of cards was produced in 1934 by Ardath, which was a 50-card set called Famous Footballers featuring images of players on

12430-626: Was left in the hands of the Shorin family throughout all of these maneuverings. On October 12, 2007, Topps was acquired by Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners . Under Eisner's direction, Topps began to expand into the entertainment and media business with plans for a Bazooka Joe movie. Former television executive Staci Weiss was hired as Topps's head of entertainment to develop projects based on Topps properties, including Garbage Pail Kids , Wacky Packages , Dinosaurs Attack! , Mech Warrior and Attax . In 2012, Topps began creating digital sports cards, starting with

12543-774: Was limited to a certain maximum. After a sale, the cards were held in a climate-controlled warehouse unless the buyer requests delivery, and the cards could be traded online without changing hands except in the virtual sense. In January 2012, Topps announced that they would be discontinuing their eTopps product line. Digital collectible card games were estimated to be a $ 1.3B market in 2013. A number of tech start-ups have attempted to establish themselves in this space, notably Stampii (Spain, 2009), Fantom (Ireland, 2011), Deckdaq (Israel, 2011), and 2Stic (Austria, 2013). Panini launched their Adrenalyn XL platform with an NBA and NFL trading card collection. Connect2Media together with Winning Moves, created an iPhone Application to host

12656-958: Was produced. The T206 set, distributed by the American Tobacco Company in 1909, is considered by collectors to be the most popular set of all time. In 1933, the Goudey Gum Company of Boston issued baseball cards with players biographies on the backs and was the first to put baseball cards in bubble gum. The 1933 Goudey set remains one of the most popular and affordable vintage sets to this day. Bowman Gum of Philadelphia issued its first baseball cards in 1948. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. , now known as "The Topps Company, Inc.", started inserting trading cards into bubble gum packs in 1950 with such topics as TV and film cowboy Hopalong Cassidy ; " Bring 'Em Back Alive " cards featuring Frank Buck on big game hunts in Africa; and All- American Football Cards . Topps produced its first baseball trading card set in 1951, with

12769-600: Was renamed), 1953 and 1960. Only 500 catalogs were printed in 1939, increasing to 3,000 in its last edition of 1960. It has become the de facto method in identifying and organizing trade cards produced in the Americas pre-1951. The book catalogues sports and non-sports cards, but is best known for its categorization of baseball cards . Sets like 1909-11 White Borders, 1910 Philadelphia Caramel’s, and 1909 Box Tops are most commonly referred to by their ACC catalogue numbers. They are, respectively, T206 , E95, and W555. The following

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