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Paul If you want to publish a price guide or historical book that includes one or two Topps cards from each set, you shouldn't have a problem. And it doesn't matter whether you personally own the cards or not. But, don't publish a book that pictures the WHOLE set of Topps cards. And don't reproduce even a single card if it's not used in connection with an article about cards or a price list. Topps will certainly send an army of lawyers to your door if they find out about that.
For defunct companies like Goudey, you can probably reproduce the whole set for the simple reason that no one is around to stop you. But if Goudey sold their rights to someone else, like Play Ball, which wold its rights to Bowman, which sold its rights to Topps, then you could have a problem. But after all these years, the copyrights in the Goudey sets may have expired, which would mean you can reprint them all you want.