Looking Back...Topps Exclusive MLB Deal Part 1

I'm going to start this series off slowly.  I have yet to fully organize my thoughts, finish my research, write my letters, yell really loud, and put it all together.  So lets start at the beginning and maybe go back to it from time to time.

I just finished a great article written fairly recently by Brian Tedardis at Sports Card Radio entitled Card Tank: The Topps Company.  It is really well written and after reading it scared the pants off me a little to think just how true the points Brian makes are.  But we'll talk about a lot of that in another post.

First a little history for histories sake.  In early August 2009 it was announced that Major League Baseball and the Topps Company had come to an agreement to an exclusive 3 year deal for making Baseball cards.
It was a little surprising.  OK for me it was a lot surprising.  The time from the mid 1990's to the mid 2000's was a time of Baseball card gluttony.  There were at times so many products coming out there were stacked one on top of another.  It was almost too much to take in. But while the industry was bogged down in what seemed  like a quagmire of choices, one thing emerged from that time.  Innovation.  This era produced the relic, autograph and parallel card.  The foil stamping and serial numbering.  The SP and the SSP.  The redemption, the chrome, the printing plate, and the 1/1.  It's from this era that everything you love or hate came from, unless you just love vintage, but you know what I mean here.

I can remember back in 2003 standing at the counter at Don's Sportscards looking at the shelves and shelves of baseball card boxes and not being able to decide what I wanted.  And I remember bitching to Don about how there was just too much product. And I'll stand by that.  There was absolutely just no way a collector could collect it all.  And I remember a couple of years ago after Topps' exclusive license took hold looking at those same shelves and thinking how bare the cupboard looked.  From one extreme to the other.  I have to think there can be a happy middle ground.

Alright next time I'm going to talked about what Topps and the MLB said about the deal and what really happened having 3 years to look back on.

Oh and I've started a little poll on the side bar feel free to vote your heart.  Cuz I like pie too.

cb out

It's time to start!

First off let me preface this post with this.  I don't hate Topps.  Not one bit.  What I hate is the lack of choice and exclusivity in general.  Second I'm only going to direct this toward baseball cards, not hockey or basketball.

If you read my blog regularly (thank you by the way) you may have notice the countdown I put up on my blog a few years ago.  That's right my "Countdown to the end of Topps Exclusive MLB License" has been sitting over on the sidebar for well over 2 years.  You may also have noticed that we are under 365 days till Topps' 3 year deal ends.  It's been an interesting 3 years under Topps' reign.  I  plan on dissecting it.  I've started going back to some of the original articles from Beckett, SCD, and other news and hobby outlets looking at claims made and how things actually worked out.  I plan on talking to my two LCS's and seeing how the deal has worked out for them.  I plan on writing letters to the Commissioner of Baseball, Bug Selig, and the Exec. VP of Business for Major League Baseball, Tim Brosnon.  Not that they care what I think, but at least there will be some feedback going their way.  It occurred to me way back in '09 that the MLB never bothered to ask us the fans and collectors what we wanted.  I understand from a business standpoint at least for Topps, having almost no competition is a boon, but for us...well I'll talk about that too.

I guess this is the first post of my crusade this year.  Until  MLB decides if Topps gets another multi-year exclusive deal or they let some others in on the fun too.  And while I have no desire to see the hobby go back to the was it was about 10 years ago, with so many products crowding the shelves it was impossible to choose.  I surely think that there is a happy medium compared to now where it seems like there's barely anything on the shelves at all.

So get your torches and pitchforks ready.

cb out.