General Forum

I'm sure this will get this posting juices flowing:

https://www.topps.com/blog/the-topps-company-major-league-baseball-extend-exclusive-trading-card-agreement/

Although everybody loves to hate Topps, I really don't see a better alternative out there.  All companies have their issues, and Topps has been doing this with MLB for a long time.  Folks like to point to "more competition = higher quality product and lower prices" but if the past is any indication, that doesn't work with the trading card industry.  When Donruss and Fleer first came into the market, the quality did not improve.  An argument can be made for improved quaility in 1989 with the introduction of Upper Deck, but that took a long time to get there.  Prices for cards skyrocketed during the mass production era, so the lower prices arguement doesn't hold water with me either.  Also all of the choices frustrated many collectors and scared others away, which overall hurt the health of the hobby.

Anyway, just my two cents.  I'm sure I'm in the minority on this one, but thought I'd share.

I would argue that quality did improve when Donruss and Fleer came in.  1983 and 1984 Topps were their best releases in a number of years.  They had to compete.  I'm not advocating a ton of licenses like the early 90's.. but even a 2nd license would be a good thing. 

I would prefer multiple companies myself. I was happy with Pacific/Panini in hockey, but now that's gone. I feel like some companies don't even try any more. Topps has always been "the" company for baseball cards, so this isn't surprising. But, I would love to see more variety in brands. I'm not a fan of exclusivity.

I think Topps put out quality products through the 1980s (until 1988 anyway). Fleer and Donruss seemed to have some issues with Quality Control both in the layout/typesetting/proofreading areas as well as in the actual card quality. Prices will always go up. I had a discussion with my son about the pricing of cards and how much they cost when I was his age, etc., and we determined that there is a lot more technology in cards these days that makes the cost justified.

We actually still have the problem of the early to mid 1990s with the inundation of sets made by a single company. Just look at the "Major Releases" for baseball in 2017. I counted 35 Topps issues. Then there's 100s of inserts/paralllels in each product. I'd take 1993 all over again with that amount of releases over what we have now.

Topps does a pretty good job. Of course, they have issues as well.

I'd actually be for some competition for them. I wonder if we could bring back Star Co. :) (Just kidding about Star!)

I have to agree that having exclusive rights is a bad thing for the consumer. With that said I have always been a Topps fan so better them than Panini. I still haven't found a brand of football cards I love to collect since Topps went away.

I'm 99% certain that Topps would be the only brand I would buy for modern cards, regardless, because of own stubborness and history. But I sure wish there was some competition. So people could have a choice and so Topps might listen to its consumers a bit more and pick up its own game. But it is what it is.

v3

I agree with BSwagger. It would be nice to have a 2nd company that had rights to producing baseball cards but Topps have been very solid. Plus, he is right. At least baseball isn't stuck with Panini like football. I used to be a HUGE football card collector when Topps, Upper Deck and Leaf/Donruss/Panini were producing cards in the 2000's. Now that just Panini has the rights, it's hard to find a set that I really enjoy year after year. With Topps, I really enjoy the base Topps sets (Series 1, 2 and Update), Pro Debut, Heritage (Minor League too), Archives and Stadium Club every year.

I was hoping one day Upper Deck could get back into making baseball cards. They make nice looking stuff. Heck even Panini would have been good. It would make the products they already make without logos look better at least.