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Press Clippings

Topps Popular With Young and Old Fans for 50 Years

April 2, 2001

NATALIE ALLEN,CNN ANCHOR: Plenty of things have changed about the game over the years, but fans both young and old still collect baseball cards.  Those too are bit pricer than in years past.  But some card collectors are looking to the longterm, as these mementos maybe worth serious money.  Here is CNN's Brian Palmer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW GALLO: I love them.  I buy them because I like a lot of the players and to collect them, you know?  They're worth some money, some of them.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When New York's Topps company transformed itself from a chewing gum maker to a printer of baseball cards 50 years ago, kids were its main customers.  Sy Berger is Topps' original card designer.

SY BERGER, CARD DESIGNER: This is my favorite card.  This is the '54 card.  Kids put them in the spokes of their bikes and, you know, it was great.  You know, kids couldn't wait for the piece of gum and the baseball card.

PALMER: A lot has changed in 50 years.  Topps took the gum out of baseball card packs ten years ago.

MARTY APPEL, TOPPS COMPANY: Actually, there is probably more adult collectors than children collectors today, but we still have a huge kids audience for the product.

WAYNE GROVE, "BECKETT BASEBALL CARD MONTHLY": You're seeing more of an investor mode right from the very beginning, rather than people buying them to put sets together, which is the way -- when we were kids, that was the way we collected.

PALMER: Topps isn't only card company.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are classics.  This is when Topps was the only game in town; there was no Donruss, no Fleer, like there is now.

PALMER: There is even a firm that trades baseball cards like stocks.

VINIT BHARARA, THEPIT.COM: Prices were fluctuating according to player performance on the field, and we thought, what better way to trade these things than in a stock market type atmosphere. 

PALMER: Even kids have the entrepreneurial spirit.

RICKY TRUPPNER: I keep them like in a box and I collect other cards also, so -- the more I keep them in something, I think the more they'll be worth.

PALMER: For their anniversary, Topps has something for the mature collector, as well as the young card enthusiast.  One line of cards is modeled after its 1952 series.

APPEL: We went back and bought up one of every card that we ever made and randomly inserted them in the packs.  So it is possible that you could open a pack and get a 1997 Luis Sojo, or you could open a pack and get an original Mickey Mantle card.

PALMER: For Topps' Heritage series, it put gum back in.

Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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