Topps Company Inc. is an American company best known for producing chewing gum, candy, and collectibles such as baseball cards, football cards, entertainment cards featuring movies, television shows, and music. As one of the largest and most successful manufacturers of trading cards in the world, Topps’ baseball card business has led to increased public interest in collecting and speculation about the value of rare and vintage cards. This in turn has had a significant impact on Topps’ publically traded stock price over the decades.
Topps began as a small candy company started by brothers Ira and Joseph Shorin in 1938 in Brooklyn, NY under the name The Topps Chewing Gum Inc. In the late 1940s, Topps began experimenting with the inclusion of sports photos in their gum packages as a marketing tool. This ultimately led to Topps securing licensing deals with major sports leagues and launching full sets of dedicated sports trading cards in the early 1950s. Topps gained exclusive rights to produce official MLB cards in 1952, replacing Bowman as the main card manufacturer.
With the debut of their iconic 1952 Topps baseball card set featuring colorful portraits of players on a yellow background, demand and collecting of sports cards really took off. Topps quickly dominate the baseball card market share, releasing full color photo cards annually starting in 1956. By the late 1950s, Topps was experiencing strong sustained growth financially thanks to the rising popularity of baseball cards among children and collectors alike.
As the only company producing licensed MLB cards for decades until competition emerged in later years, Topps enjoyed very profitable revenues from its baseball card business. Many factors contributed to driving interest and value in Topps cards from the 1950s onwards such as the growth of modern baseball and rise of iconic stars like Mickey Mantle, the vintage aesthetic and statistical info, and the natural scarce of older cards as fans aged.
In the early 1960s, Topps shares were first offered to the public with an IPO on the American Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TOPP. Initially trading around $7.50 per share, Topps stock rose steadily during the 1960s amidst the company’s market dominance with sports cards along with expansion of their candy business. By the late 1960s, TOPP stock was trading over $20 per share, representing solid growth and investor confidence in Topps’ business prospects going forward as involvement in hobby grew.
Through the 1970s, Topps remained highly profitable producing an annual set of baseball cards as well as starting new lines like hockey, football and non-sports cards. Competition started to arise when rival Donruss entered the baseball card market in 1981, marking the end of Topps’ exclusive hold. This competitive pressure led to TOPP shares tumbling to under $10 by the early 1980s as the baseball card bubble began to burst with an oversupply.
A pricing war ensued in the mid-1980s as Topps and Donruss had to lower card prices to move excess product, severely impacting profit margins. Coupled with a general decline in interest among children in baseball cards that decade, many retailers stopped carrying cards and values of vintage collections started falling hard just as the speculative boom period ended. This difficult period saw TOPP shares sink below $2, representing substantial losses for long-term investors.
Through acquisitions of other brands like Bazooka comic books and acquisition of the TOPP shares by current parent company American Brands Inc. in 1984, Topps survived the 1980s downturn but revenues remained pressured for years while gradually developing fledgling entertainment card categories. TOPP shares hovered between $3-7 range through much of the 1990s as the company diversified its branding/licensing business.
New competition from Upper Deck and hobby retailer dominance starting in the early 1990s continues to see Topps baseball card market share decline, though they’ve held onto the MLBPA license. With renewed collector demand starting in the late 1990s driven by nostalgia and birth of Internet sales, overall baseball card values and speculator enthusiasm increased significantly once more. This corresponded with a sharp rise in TOPP shares back over $10 by the late 1990s.
The sports memorabilia/collectibles category has grown exponentially since the turn of the century, with iconic rookie cards of stars like Griffey, Jeter, Trout commanding six and even seven figure prices. Topps has also expanded into digital/virtual cards and businesses beyond traditional physical cardboard. As a longtime industry leader again thriving on current collectibles boom, TOPP stock has increased tremendously, peaking over $300 per share in 2022. Despite challenges, Topps’ iconic baseball card franchise and diversification efforts have resulted in strong, long-term stock performance.
As the original and still dominant producer of official MLB trading cards, Topps Company’s baseball card business fortunes have waxed and waned significantly over the past 70+ years in lockstep with the greater collecting hobby and market speculative cycles. These dynamics have hugely impacted not only card/vintage collections values, but also the performance of Topps’ publicly-traded stock which investors have closely followed as a barometer for the entire sports memorabilia business. TOPP shares are inextricably tied to the health and popularity of baseball cards.
