Topps baseball card products
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The Topps Company has created a number of different baseball card products during its existence. Topps has used a number of brand names and distribution methods to cater to various segments of the market.
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[edit] Factory sets
Topps remains the only baseball card company today to still offer factory sets of their Topps base brand. Their first factory set was offered in 1974 exclusively in the J.C. Penney catalog, but Topps would not begin releasing factory sets again until 1985. From 1986-1992, Topps factory sets came in two flavors. Retail factory sets were in very colorful boxes and were typically released near Christmas time (and for that reason are sometimes called Christmas sets). Hobby dealer sets were in much plainer boxes until 1993. Topps continues to this day to offer retail and hobby factory sets with bonus cards exclusive to each one.
[edit] Tiffany sets
From 1984-1991, Topps released a limited edition version of both their regular and traded sets called "Tiffany" sets. These sets were released in hobby dealer exclusive factory set format only and are identical to the regular cards, but these were printed in Ireland with white cardboard (instead of the then-standard gray cardboard) with a glossy finish on the front. The color of the inner boxes the Tiffany sets came in as well as the estimated number of sets produced (according to the annual Beckett price guide) are:
1984: Red (10,000)
1985: Blue (5,000)
1986: Maroon (5,000)
1987: Violet (30,000)
1988: Green (25,000)
1989: Blue (15,000)
1990: Red (15,000)
1991: Navy (unknown, but believed to be the lowest print run of all, so <5,000)
[edit] Bowman
Bowman was Topps' main competior from 1951 until Topps bought out Bowman after the 1955 season. Almost 35 years later, in 1989, Topps resurrected the Bowman brand and created a new annual baseball card set which was unique in two ways. First, the 1989 Bowman cards were 2.5" x 3.75" instead of the standard 2.5" x 3.5" card size (they went back to standard size from 1990 onwards however) and second, its main focus was on upcoming minor league players who Topps believed had a good chance of making it to the majors someday, which continues to be the focus of the Bowman set today. Although the Bowman sets were not very popular in its first three years, that changed in 1992 when Bowman was upgraded to a premium quality set (with UV coating on both sides and a special subset with bronze foil borders), and very limited production. Since then, including today, Bowman (along with its spin-off Bowman's Best and Bowman Chrome sets) is among Topps' most popular products.
[edit] Stadium Club
Topps released their first "premium" set in 1991 called Stadium Club. This was the very first major baseball card set to feature glossy UV coating on both sides of the card as well as gold foil stamping on the front and a borderless (or "full-bleed") Kodak photo on the front. The back of the card also featured an image of the player's first Topps card. This set was a major hit at that time with packs costing $5 or more. In 1992, Topps released three different series of Stadium Club cards. There was also a factory set from 1992 in which cards were packaged in a reproduction dome stadium, made of plastic, but this was not the same as the regular 1992 Stadium Club set.
[edit] Topps Finest
Topps released their first "super premium" set in 1993 called Topps Finest (or just Finest for short). These were issued in six card packs with 18 packs in a box and 12 boxes per case, and only 4,000 cases were produced. This set was also a major hit with packs costing around $25 at the time. Many hobbyists, however, frowned upon such an expensive set thinking that it was driving the hobby away from younger collectors. Topps also included a Finest All-Star jumbo card in each box (a 4" x 6" version of the All-Star subset) and randomly inserted (1 in 18 packs) a Refractor insert card which was exactly like the regular card but with a rainbow sheen on the front with some of them worth over $1000 at that time. Only 241 of each Refractor were produced and continue to this day to be highly sought after.
[edit] Topps/Bowman Heritage
In 2001, Topps (for its fiftieth anniversary) released the Heritage brand for its baseball, football and hockey brand. The novelty was that the brands had modern players with designs from past years. The baseball cards had the design from 1952 for its 2001 selection of Heritage baseball cards, 1953 design for 2002, 1954 design for 2003, and so on. Bowman Hertiage was also started in 2001 and used the following throwback designs:
2001: 1948 Bowman
2002: 1954 Bowman
2003: proposed 1956 Bowman design (original 1956 set was not issued due to Topps' buyout of Bowman after 1955)
2004: 1955 Bowman
2005: 1951 Bowman
2006: 1951 Bowman
[edit] Topps baseball cards outside the United States
A Canadian licenced version of the Topps set was produced by candy company O-Pee-Chee were produced from 1965 until 1992. From 1970 onward, the cards were bilingual in order to comply with Canadian language laws. [1] There were also licenced version Topps sets issued in Venezuela from 1959 to 1977, with some changes and the addition of winter league players.[2] In the late 1980s, Topps issued two sets for the United Kingdom market of American baseball players, complete with explanations of key baseball terms on the cards.
[edit] 2006 Topps Products
2006 Series One
2006 Topps Bazooka
2006 Heritage
2006 Opening Day
2006 Triple Threads
2006 Finest
2006 Bowman
2006 Co-Signers
2006 Series Two
2006 Chrome
2006 Allen & Ginter
2006 Bowman Chrome
2006 Turkey Red
2006 Sterling
2006 Bowman Originals
2006 Updates and Highlights
[edit] Products By Year
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Topps baseball card products
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