Is Topps on Top Again?

For generations, sports fans have enjoyed the past-time of collecting sports cards.  During the early 1990's, the art of collecting sports cards had become a $1.2 billion business.  Fast forward to the present and we find that kids and adults no longer collect baseball cards as they once did.  The business has fallen to a $200 million industry.  That is a huge drop!

 

In the early part of August 2009, Major League Baseball (MLB) developed a plan in hopes of resurrecting the baseball card collecting industry.  MLB announced their exclusive agreement with Topps Company making them the official baseball card.  This agreement will take effect on January 1, 2010, and will give Topps the exclusive right to the MLB logo along with team logos.

Once the popularity of collecting baseball cards peaked in the 1990s, a couple of things began to contribute its decline. 

 

 Remember the work stoppage by major league players in 1994-95 which made fans disgusted with professional baseball?  Well, of course, that incident was one of the major factors to the decline as fans did not want to collect cards any longer.  The other major contributor involved the flooding of the market by five major companies producing baseball cards. 

Topps had been the primary manufacturer of baseball cards from 1952 to 1981.  Then Upper Deck entered the field in 1989.  These two companies are the only ones licensed by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) to produce baseball cards. 

 

In July, Upper Deck renewed its licensing agreement with MLBPA.  Upper Deck is also the official producer of NHL cards.  Since Upper Deck does not have a license with the MLB, they will not be able to use the team logos on the cards.

 

Topps was on the brink of bankruptcy just two years ago in 2007, but now they may on top of the world with the only MLB license to produce officially licensed baseball cards.   

 AAA Sports Memorabilia has a great of baseball cards at great prices.  Check out our website and if you don't find exactly what you want, let us know as we probably have it available.