In the late 1930s through the 1950s, there was one brand of bubble gum that was synonymous with baseball cards – Topps chewing gum. The Topps Company, which is still a leading manufacturer and distributor of sports and non-sports trading cards, conceived the innovative idea to include a bubble gum ball with each wax paper wrapped package containing a random assortment of baseball cards.
This revolutionary marketing strategy was devised by Topps co-founder Sy Schulz in 1938. Prior to Topps distributing cards with gum, baseball cards were sold loose in packs without any other incentives. Schulz realized bundling a fun treat like bubble gum along with the coveted cards would help drive sales, especially among children and young collectors. The very first Topps gum and card series debuted in 1947 and was an overnight sensation.
Kids eagerly tore open the thin yellow packaging hoping to score rare cards of their favorite players while enjoying the stick of grape or cinnamon flavored bubble gum inside. All that vigorous chewing and blowing bubbles also had the added bonus of ensuring any collected cards would be stuck together, helping fuel demand for replacement packs. This ingenious dual product format pioneered by Topps revolutionized the trading card industry and set the standard business model still utilized today across many sport, non-sport, and entertainment card lines.
Throughout the 1950s golden era of baseball, Topps held the exclusive license to manufacture official Major League Baseball cards packaged with their bubble gum. Each year, the company would release several series totaling over 500 unique cards featuring the biggest stars of the day like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron. The cards measured approximately 2 1⁄2 inches by 3 1⁄2 inches and featured a black and white player photo on the front along with career stats on the back. The quality and sheer volume of cards produced during this vintage period has ensured 1950s Topps issues remain some of the most coveted and valuable in the entire hobby today, routinely trading hands for thousands of dollars per card in near mint condition.
Besides just baseball, Topps expanded into other sports like football, hockey, and basketball throughout the 1950s bringing the same winning formula of trading cards coupled with bubble gum. The gum flavors and packaging designs evolved over the years too. Initially only grape and cinnamon were available wrapped in yellow paper. But later flavors like lime, berry, and fruit punch were introduced packaged in modern multi-color designs on both the gum wrapper and box. This helped Topps cards and gum stay fresh and exciting for new generations of collectors.
Peak production and sales years for Topps were undoubtedly the 1950s as the post-war economic boom and rise of television brought unprecedented attention to professional sports. Topps even launched related non-sport products on the side like Wacky Packages parody trading cards and Bazooka Joe comic inserts found in each stick of bubble gum. The company maintained its hold on official MLB, NFL, and NBA licenses well into the 1980s still distributing the card-gum combo millions of kids (and adults) enjoyed as an integral part of the sports tradition.
While competitors like Fleer and Donruss tried imitating the Topps formula with varying degrees of success starting in the 1980s, no other brand could replicate the genuine nostalgia and importance of those classic postwar Topps issues packaged alongside grape, lime, or cinnamon bubble gum balls. The origins of today’s robust multi-billion dollar trading card industry can be directly traced back over 75 years to that simple, yet profoundly impactful, decision by Topps to stuff baseball cards inside sticks of chewing gum. Their novel approach helped spark a collecting phenomenon that bonded generations of sports fans both young and old for decades to come.
