I will admit I am a vintage card guy but still have room for the shiny stuff on occasion. When I heard that Topps was losing it’s license, I do have to say there was a great deal of sadness that came with this news. I was raised on Topps being THE card company because it was the ONLY card company. Even when Fleer and Donruss came along in 1981, I collected those cards but Topps was still the top dog. Sure, being a vintage guy, I love Bowman, had Play Ball and Diamond Star cards in my collection and even added some Fleer to the mix but the affinity was always for the Topps brand. And since we cannot ignore the elephant in the room, Topps almost always had that value above most other brands in the business for the most part.
I like many others here on the Net54 boards am probably a dinosaur in the collecting card business in that I have stuck with my vintage sets and really have no need or desire to dive heavily into anything new. If I was being honest, I just don’t have interest in today’s players and certainly will not be shelling out large amounts of money for cards of guys I just really do not care for. For guys like me, the loss of the Topps license likely will not effect us very much but the reality is that likely Topps exiting the sports card business is much like the loss of a family friend. Someone who has been there one’s whole life and now will be summarily dismissed much like those family friends who have grown old beyond their years and everyone wonders whatever happened to them.
I am going to miss Topps but not for the fact I will no longer be able to purchase memories in packs of cards but for the fact a company that was there for me as a nine year old kid, a company who’s products helped me to learn to read and understand statistics and showed me what my childhood heroes really looked like is being dismissed. Is this Topps fault? Sure, they need to share the blame as they failed to change with the times but the real culprit is what is killing sports in general. The culprit is greed and the need to capitalize on an investment and make money for the stockholders while making the collectors pockets as light as possible. I understand it all but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with this process or be happy with it.
As for me, I am going back to my Sibby Sisti, Oscar Zamora and Fergie Jenkins cards while trying to finish my 1975 and '65 Topps set for the third time.
At least I still have these memories.
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