Topps Signs an Exclusive Deal with Major League Baseball

Word on the street is that Topps has landed a deal with Major League Baseball for exclusive rights to issue officially licensed cards. This isn't a news site, so you'll have to check the details elsewhere if this is the first time you're hearing about this. However, I'd be amiss not to address the development in this space.

This seems to mean that Topps will be the only company producing baseball cards for the length of this deal. I'm not sure of MLB's motivation for going down this road. Perhaps they got a lucrative contract with Topps. Or better yet, perhaps they understand what the imminent demise of the hobby would do to their fan base in the long run and they hope that by getting back to basics, more kids will collect baseball cards. There is no question that the breadth of sets in recent years has confused many kids right out of the hobby, not to mention the prices that the companies are charging for a pack. Maybe the industry does need to get back to basics and maybe Topps can provide that. Of course, that would have to mean that Topps wont release three dozen reprint and parallel sets and wont charge an arm and a leg for a pack. There are obvious questions as to whether this deal is on the up and up (think antitrust issues). Legal ramifications aside, this all doesn't seem like a terrible idea. After all, Topps was for the most part the only company producing baseball cards from about 1950-1980, and that was a great time for baseball cards (of course, Mickey Mantle helped a little - that 1956 card is amazing). When the other companies like Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck and Score came along, there was a baseball card boom followed by an even quicker crash.

There are rumors that Upper Deck, Topps closest competitor, has said that they want to stay in the baseball card business. Apparently, Upper Deck has a deal with the players association for the right to use the players' likenesses on their cards. What that will mean? I have no clue. Maybe Upper Deck is planning on releasing cards with the players wearing generic hats and uniforms like Fred McGriff in the old Tom Emanski Defensive Drills video commercial. Kidding aside, Upper Deck actually raised the bar for card quality when it first started issuing cards in 1989. It's hard to believe that statement when you think about the junk that all of the companies were releasing in the early 1990s, but could you imagine how much worse it would have been without Upper Deck? If the rumors are true, I would think that Upper Deck has some trick up their sleeve to release a decent product.

One way or another, this should be interesting for the baseball card collectors of all ages. Maybe baseball card collecting can make its way out of the realm of the simple nostalgia of grown men with extra spending money and a hole in their heart from that 1984 Topps Don Mattingly rookie card they never had as a child and actually bring something memorable to the childhood of young baseball fans like it has for previous generations. If I were Major League Baseball, this is what I would be hoping for. It remains to be seen if it can actually happen, but it looks like it's going to be up to Topps to do it.

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