Topps Baseball Cards Corporate Office History
The Topps Company, Inc. is best known for producing sports trading cards and bubbles gum, with their baseball cards being one of their most iconic and popular products. The company has been manufacturing baseball cards since the early 1950s and their corporate headquarters, located in New York City, has played an integral role in the success and evolution of Topps baseball cards over the past 70+ years.
Topps was founded in 1938 by brothers Isaac and Joel Bijur and began as a small chewing gum manufacturer called the Topps Chewing Gum Company. In the early 1950s, Topps began experimenting with including collector’s cards in their gum wrappers and packages after noticing the growing popularity of non-sports related collectible cards. Their first sports card releases in the 1950s featured players from Major League Baseball and quickly proved to be a successful venture.
Demand for Topps baseball cards surged and the company began rapid expansion from their original New York City office located on East 66th Street. In 1956, Topps moved their headquarters to a larger facility in Kew Gardens, Queens to accommodate their growing staff and baseball card production needs. This multi-building complex served as the center of Topps baseball card operations for several decades.
During the 1950s and 60s, Topps held the exclusive license to produce MLB player photos and stats on cards. This monopoly allowed them to dominate the baseball card market unchecked. The Kew Gardens office oversaw creative development, photography sessions with players, packaging design, distribution deals with stores, and all business operations related to their booming baseball card business.
In 1969, rival card company Fleer was the first to break Topps’ exclusive MLB deal after a lengthy legal battle. This opened the door for competitors like Donruss to enter the market in the late 1980s. Topps had to evolve their business model and find new ways to retain customers as the once solo baseball card provider. In the 1980s, Topps moved their headquarters again, this time to One Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan.
At the new downtown NYC office, Topps focused on attracting new collectors, building international markets, partnering with sport leagues other than just MLB and pushing specialty inserts, parallels and limited edition sets of their baseball cards. The increased competition through the 80s and 90s forced Topps to get more creative with their products and brand. They introduced popular sets featuring traded players photographed in their new uniforms, high-end autograph cards, and ultra-rare memorabilia relic inserts.
By the late 1990s, Topps had expanded dramatically from their early gum company roots. In 1998, they relocated their corporate headquarters from lower Manhattan to a new 130,000 square foot LEED certified green building in Jericho, New York on Long Island. The modern Jericho headquarters provided state-of-the-art design, manufacturing and warehousing facilities under one roof to facilitate their growing multi-sports portfolio. Over the past 25 years, this office has overseen Topps’ continued baseball card innovation including more insert sets, parallel variations, autographed memorabilia cards, and higher end hobby boxes to fuel secondary market collectors.
Today, Topps still holds an MLB player contract and photo license, though competition remains strong from companies like Panini and Upper Deck. From their Long Island headquarters, Topps baseball card executives focus on securing athlete and team licensing rights, digital platforms, growing international sales and releasing retro reprint sets to engage nostalgic collectors. Over 70 years since those early 1950s gum-included baseball cards, Topps remains a dominant force in the hobby and their corporate home has played a major part in the sustained evolution of their iconic baseball card brand. Though they have relocated offices multiple times, Topps remains headquartered on Long Island with baseball cards as their foundational collectible product.
