Topps should stop trying to cram the word ‘anniversary’ where it doesn’t fit
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Where does the time go?
Sooz and I celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary this year.
Seems like a moment ago we were getting married on a beach in front of our favorite people (and coincidentally, a Corvette parade), missing a downpour by minutes, making it inside before the sky opened.
I blink and almost six full years have passed — six years full of love and support, ups and downs.
2020-2014=6.
Anniversaries are important because they allow us to celebrate all over again, to commemorate how far we've come.
Six years ago, I worked the graveyard shift, and Sooz had recently started at Topps, and the idea of a child was just that — an idea. Now I have a long-awaited book on the way, and Sooz has an exciting job managing a team, and Dean likes it when I hand him baseball cards to play with.
The traditional gift theme for your first wedding anniversary is “paper.”
Cards happen to be a form of paper, and Topps offers custom cards on its website that allow you to celebrate your biggest life moments in cardboard form. We used the 1968 design (the mesh has such a classic look) on our custom wedding cards.
But notably, the company behind the custom cards has struggled mightily to celebrate its own anniversaries. I'd joke about it with Sooz when we opened cards, especially 2017 Bowman, when Topps tried to honor the 70th anniversary of Bowman’s 1948 card set but ended up celebrating the 70th anniversary of … well, not 1948.
I figured the anniversary issues were isolated and brushed it off. But I noticed the problem crop up again when opening boxes of 2019 Topps Heritage High Number and Topps Archives, which were both released around the same time. In Heritage, I pulled a 1970 buyback of Giants reliever Frank Linzy. The card features the same gold foil stamp that's been used for the past decade for Topps Heritage original cards: "50th Anniversary Topps '70 '19."
In Archives, I pulled a 50th Anniversary of the Montreal Expos autograph of pitcher Jeff Fassero, showing Fassero on a 1969 card design to highlight the year the team debuted.
2019 couldn’t be the 50th anniversary of both 1969 and 1970 — an anniversary, by definition, is the yearly recurrence of the date of a past event, or the celebration or commemoration of such an event.
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of 1969 — of Woodstock and the moon landing and the Miracle Mets. Which means Frank Linzy's "50th anniversary" card, and every single stamped buyback featured in Topps Heritage since 2008, is one year early, and thus, quite lame.
Finding the Fassero and Linzy cards caused me to dig deeper. All told, Topps has released countless cards during the past 15 years that incorrectly highlight anniversaries. Some honor the wrong dates. Others improperly interchange the word "year" with "anniversary," as if they mean the same thing. And a number of the cardboard remembrances are flat wrong.
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Let’s get one thing straight: Topps’ first baseball card set was not released in 1952.
Yes, 1952 Topps ushered in the modern era of collecting. Yes, the 407-card oversized set is visually and informationally stunning, featuring brilliant portraits on the card fronts and biographical information and full statistics on the card backs. Yes, it contains a Mickey Mantle card that’s among the most influential in the hobby.
But the story of Topps baseball cards begins earlier. Topps’ first baseball cards were released in 1948’s Magic set, which contained subjects in various sports. By 1950, a Topps competitor, Bowman, was the industry standard.
“We were on the outside looking in,” Topps icon Sy Berger wrote in a booklet for the company’s 1989 auction. “Topps decided to get into the field in time for the 1951 season.”
Berger started talking to players and signing them to contracts.
“My father-in-law was managing editor of the New York Post at that time, and he got me into Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds, where I mingled with the ballplayers, bringing them bubble gum and some of the novelty products that Topps then made.
“That was the start, and after an enormous effort, we’d signed virtually all of the players. Yogi Berra, Gil Hodges, Ted Kluszewski, Johnny Sain and a hundred others who became part of the 1951 Red and Blue Backs, the sets that marked the entry of Topps into the baseball card world.”
The Red Backs and Blue Backs were 52-card sets that doubled as game pieces. Topps also produced cards of baseball legends (Connie Mack All-Stars) and current stars, as well as cards devoted to nine teams in 1951. Mantle wasn’t included in any of Topps’ initial card sets, a situation that would be rectified the following year.
While many of Topps’ 1951 cards are affordable today, some — such as Major League All-Stars cards of Phillies workhorse Robin Roberts and relief ace Jim Konstanty, and Giants second baseman Eddie Stanky — are worth tens of thousands of dollars due to scarcity.
Topps highlights the Red Backs and Blue Backs in a historical profile on its website.
In 1951, “Topps becomes a permanent fixture in America’s most popular sport of the day by releasing its first series of baseball cards … Although unique among subsequent Topps sets — and packed with taffy, not bubblegum — these historic cards establish the company as the leader in the upstart baseball card game.”
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Topps’ first pronounced efforts to celebrate its baseball card history came in 1975, with a “25 years of Topps 1951-1975” subset featuring miniature cards showing the MVPs from each year from 1951 to 1974.
The subset included a handful of facsimile cards — the company didn’t have Roy Campanella under contract in 1951 and 1955, or Maury Wills in 1962 when they won the Most Valuable Player award.
Card no. 193 shows Yogi Berra and Campanella on the design of 1951 Topps Red and Blue Backs, the company’s first significant baseball card releases.
Topps was also smart with how they worded the MVPs subset — 25 years of Topps. Because 1975 marked the 25th year that Topps was producing baseball card sets, the 25th summer for a card set, it wasn’t called an anniversary.
The 25th anniversary of 1951 Topps was technically 1976. Topps skipped any cardboard celebrations for its 25th and 30th anniversaries and used its 35th in 1986 to launch a “Turn Back the Clock” subset that celebrated cards of yesteryear.
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By 1991, Topps’ gray-stock card backs and pink slabs of gum had grown stale, tired and old — especially compared to upstart Upper Deck, which used full-color photography and holograms.
But Topps had something to offer that Upper Deck didn’t: nostalgia — “its 40th anniversary of producing baseball cards,” according to an advertisement in an issue of Topps Magazine.
1991-1951=40.
Topps added a “40 years of baseball” logo on each card in the 1991 set and repurchased every Topps base card since 1952 for reinsertion into packs or exchange cards for oversized cards.
While the promotion was a big hit, the cards that year were a mixed bag. The flagship set featured gorgeous photography — such as Cecil Fielder charging toward home plate as Carlton Fisk awaited the throw — but the set was a mass-produced mess featuring a glut of errors and tons of printing variations. Some of the card backs glow in the dark.
The set marked the last time Topps included gum in packs of its flagship product and the final time that inserts weren’t included. The end of an era.
But the more things change in the hobby, the more people yearn for yesteryear, when the cards were simple and beautiful and came packed with gum.
So for its 50th anniversary, Topps was ready to dive into its past like never before.
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2001 was a year devoted to nostalgia for Topps.
Topps base cards all carried a gold “50 years” logo, and a main insert set was called “Golden Anniversary.”
Employees were given a special set that year in which each of the cards was embossed: "Topps Baseball limited edition for Topps employees 1951-2001."
The centerpiece of Topps’ reminiscence came with 2001 Heritage, which was modeled after Topps’ famous and influential set from 1952 (Topps also debuted Bowman Heritage that year to honor Bowman’s iconic 1948 card set).
The 2001 Topps Heritage sell sheet highlights the set’s nostalgia.
“Ever wonder how Sammy Sosa would look as a 1952 Chicago Cub? Jeter as a '52 Yank? The inaugural release of 2001 Topps Heritage Baseball helps celebrate 50 years of Topps baseball cards, offering a glimpse at how today's stars would shine on Topps 1952 cards. This collection features over 400 current players designed in the Topps 1952 gray back card style — a classic look that Topps created fifty years ago! And, like the early 50's, there's gum included in every pack!"
2001 Topps Heritage, like its inspiration, remains an iconic and difficult and valuable set, a transformative release that inspired a generation of cards behind it.
Topps Heritage became such a big hit, the company decided to bring it back, year after year … it’s still going strong today. Each subsequent set honors the next of Topps’ iconic releases. 1953 in 2002. 1954 in 2003. 1955 in 2004.
This year’s Heritage celebrates the black-bordered 1971 Topps cards.
Bowman Heritage continued until 2007, coming to an end after honoring the cardmaker’s original run that ended by the mid-1950s.
Buyback cards — cards from the original series — have been regularly inserted into boxes of Topps Heritage. Starting in 2008, those cards have been stamped to denote the so-called “50th anniversary” of the original cards … but Heritage was created to honor Topps’ 50th anniversary of baseball card sets, not specifically the 50th anniversary of the set it celebrated.
Which means 13 years of Topps Heritage buybacks have incorrectly carried the word “anniversary” in gold foil.
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Things got confusing for football cards, too.
Topps included football players in 1948 Magic, then released college-focused Felt Backs in 1950 (one of the key cards was a Brown quarterback named Joe Paterno) and 1951 Magic.
In 1955, the company produced its first major football set, Topps All-American, which was devoted to college legends such as Jim Thorpe and Red Grange.
Topps turned its attention to the professional ranks in 1956 and didn’t look back, becoming the premier football card maker during the decades that followed.
Like it had in 1991 for baseball, Topps honored its 40th anniversary football card set in 1996, stamping each card with a special logo and inserting special cards showing current players on vintage Topps designs.
Nine years later, in 2005, Topps was ready to celebrate another anniversary … the 50th?!
The golden anniversary?!
So Aaron Rodgers’ rookie card is labeled “Topps Football 50th Anniversary,” even though 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of Topps’ All-American set featuring college icons.
That year’s factory set shows the years being celebrated: 1956-2005. Um...
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Since the 1950s, the Topps All-Star Rookie Team has honored baseball’s top young stars, some of whom have gone on to become legends. Willie McCovey. Joe Morgan. Johnny Bench. Cal Ripken Jr. Ken Griffey Jr. Derek Jeter.
Not all of the players named to the “Rookie Cup” team became household names (sorry Warren Morris). But the All-Star Rookie Team has become a hallmark of Topps card sets.
Rules for naming the first All-Star Rookie Team were announced in July 1959.
“Appropriately, the balloting for the young ballplayers who are spending their first year in the major leagues is being done by the youngsters of America, with boys and girls from 6 to 16 years old eligible to vote for their favorite first year players,” according to a report published in the Pottsville Republican. “A committee of sportsworld personalities is supervising the election … The idea to honor the young ballplayers came from Joseph E. Shorin, president of Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., which puts out the baseball cards that are so popular with youngsters every year.”
The ballots were distributed by “Boy Scout organizations, Boys’ Clubs, YMCA’s, Children’s Aid Society and other groups,” as well as in packs of baseball cards.
The initial team was announced in September 1959, and special cards of the players were included in 1960 Topps.
Topps was so excited for the “50th anniversary” of its All-Star Rookie Team’s success, it celebrated a commemorative insert set in 2008 products. While 2008 was the 50th time the team was selected, it wasn’t the golden anniversary — it was the 48th anniversary of the first Rookie Team cards and 49th anniversary of the first team being announced.
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The big 6-0.
The diamond anniversary.
Topps took another look to its past in 2011. A collector’s guide full of coupons and team schedules described the company’s historical focus.
“Certain items stand the test of time. Among those archetypal American staples are pick-up trucks, chocolate bars, blue jeans and baseball cards. Beloved objects like these are not subject to fickle fads. Perhaps the wrapping has varied from wax and cellophane to foil, but there hasn’t been much change to the basic formula for baseball cards since the Topps Company issued its historic first set in 1952.”
The theme for the diamond anniversary involved code cards that could be used on a “diamond dig” website that unlocked vintage cards, free packs and boxes, and 60 diamond rings.
But the diamond rings, like the collector’s guide, highlight 1952 as the first Topps card set, overlooking the set that inspired commemorations in 1975, 1991 and 2001.
The “60 Years of Topps” insert set also skipped over 1951 and started with 1952, meaning only 59 cards, representing 59 years, were included each in Series 1 and Series 2.
A similar issue cropped up for Topps’ 65th anniversary of baseball cards in 2016, when a promotional video proclaimed that “Topps Baseball started in 1952.”
Again, 1951 was an afterthought. The anniversaries were held in the correct years, but the starting points for those anniversaries were not (The overlooked set that started it all finally got the Heritage treatment with … um, a “65th anniversary” set — 2015 Topps Heritage '51 Collection).
Topps got a few other anniversaries wrong around that time, too. The 10th anniversary issue for Allen & Ginter, its series inspired by the 1880s tobacco cards of the same name, should have been released in 2016, not 2015 (the first Topps A&G set was from 2006). Same with 2015 Triple Threads, which featured 10th Anniversary inserts in its ninth anniversary release.
Additionally, an insert set in 2016 Topps honored “100 Years at Wrigley Field,” a centennial that was actually celebrated in 2014. The team wore a special sleeve patch and nine different throwback jerseys throughout the 2014 season. 2015 Topps cards of players like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Starlin Castro, Tsuyoshi Wada and Arismendy Alcantara featured images of the throwbacks, and a handful of the 2015 cards even highlighted Wrigley Field’s 100th birthday in the text on card backs a full year before the “100 Years at Wrigley Field” insert set.
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Topps created its final NFL cards in 2015 after Panini reached an exclusive card license with the league.
The company marked the closing chapter in style. Boxes and packs featured special (and accurate!) branding: “Celebrating 60 years.”
And then, similarly to 2005, cards were incorrectly labeled “60th anniversary.”
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"In celebration of Bowman's 70th anniversary, 2017 Bowman Baseball will showcase limited-edition insert and autograph content,” Topps wrote on a sell sheet for 2017 Bowman.
"Take part in seventy years of Bowman Baseball with this anniversary-themed flagship release."
Topps declined to consider three factors when deciding to honor the history of Bowman in 2017:
The early days of Bowman had already been thoroughly celebrated starting in 2001 with Bowman Heritage.
After outlasting and buying out its rival, Topps from 1956 through 1988 declined to produce any Bowman cards and only brought back the brand in 1989. So 2017 was only the 37th year in which a Bowman set was released.
2017 was not the 70th anniversary of 1948 Bowman.
Topps has gotten Bowman’s anniversary correct before. In 1998 Bowman, each player’s card featured a “Golden Anniversary” parallel numbered to 50, and a refractor version numbered to 5. Additionally, 2018 Bowman Chrome included 20th anniversary cards celebrating the 1998 design, and 2019 Bowman featured 30th anniversary cards resembling the oversized 1989 set.
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1969 was a memorable year. Why not celebrate its 50th anniversary twice?
Boxes of 2018 Topps Heritage — honoring the 1969 set — contained numerous “anniversary” cards. In addition to the usual “50th anniversary” buybacks, parallel cards stamped with a 100th anniversary MLB logo highlight Major League Baseball’s centennial — 1869-1969.
Cards released in 2018 and 2019 both highlighted the 50th anniversary of teams that debuted in 1969 — Seattle Pilots cards in 2018 Topps Heritage, Montreal Expos cards in 2019 Topps Archives.
Anniversaries matter, whether it’s the sixth or the 70th, which is fast approaching for Topps. In 2021, Topps will again ratchet up the nostalgia, as it has at every 10-year interval since 1991 to celebrate its first baseball card set.
Like it or not, those first sets came in 1951, not 1952. For Topps’ 70th anniversary in 2021, the starting point should return to 1951, the same way it was incorporated in commemorations from 1975 to 2001.
For Heritage stamped buybacks, meanwhile, Topps could rectify a decade-long error by making a minor wording change, from “50th anniversary” to “50 years.” That’s similar to how Topps honored the MLB Draft in 2014, with an insert, “50 Years of the Draft,” or the 1975 “25 Years of Topps” subset.
Topps should stop trying to cram the word “anniversary” where it doesn’t fit. The cardmaker’s history speaks for itself.
Other card companies don’t seem to be having this much trouble. Upper Deck celebrated its 30th anniversary last year with a special logo and rare diamond cards.
It’s been more than 30 years since a smiling Ken Griffey Jr. graced card No. 1 in 1989 Upper Deck, launching a new era of collecting.
Thirty-plus years since “The Kid.”
Where did the time go?
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