Scranton, Pennsylvania has a long history with Topps baseball cards that goes back to the company’s early beginnings in the 1950s. At the time, Topps was producing their iconic collectible cards out of Brooklyn, New York and wanted to establish additional manufacturing facilities to keep up with growing demand. In 1953, they opened a new factory in Scranton which would play an important role in mass producing baseball cards for decades to come.
The choice of Scranton made sense for several reasons. It was within driving distance of the Topps Brooklyn headquarters to allow for close oversight of the new plant. Real estate and labor costs were also lower in Northeast Pennsylvania compared to New York City at the time. Scranton also had skilled workers familiar with printing and packaging processes from the local steel, coal and railroad industries that once thrived in the region. Topps was able to hire experienced laborers and easily ramp up production.
Initially, the Scranton factory produced subsets of Topps baseball card releases, making sure each set had all players, managers, and teams. It eventually took on a larger share of production to help Topps meet booming demand. In the 1950s, collecting baseball cards had exploded in popularity among America’s youth. By opening the Scranton plant, Topps gained the capacity needed to print tens and eventually hundreds of millions of cards annually. The facility specialized in the gum and cellophane packaging phase of production.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, Topps emerged as the dominant brand in the baseball card market largely due to the efficient mass production enabled by their Scranton factory. Famously, the company was even able to outmaneuver rivals like Bowman and compete effectively on a national level. During this golden age of baseball cards in America, the Scranton employees played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in printing and packing cards that ended up in the hands of collectors across the country.
Into the 1970s and 1980s, the Scranton Topps factory remained a consistent presence, producing cards year after year alongside the company’s other facilities. By this time, technology and techniques had advanced significantly. Older letterpress printing was replaced by modern offset lithography allowing for faster runs with photo-realistic coloring. Automated equipment also took over more packaging tasks previously done by hand. But the basic functions of printing, inserting cards into wax packs, sealing with gum or stickers, and boxing product remained the same.
By the 1990s, the collectibles bubble of the late 80s had burst and interest in sports cards waned industry-wide. In response, Topps scaled back production and eventually closed some plants. The Scranton location continued operating for most subsequent releases. The city still provided Topps with a capable, experienced workforce even as competition increased from new publishers like Upper Deck entering the market. Its northeastern location was also still advantageous for distributing product to the Eastern Seaboard population centers.
In 2002, the Scranton factory faced an uncertain future as Topps underwent restructuring under new ownership. There was real risk of closure like other facilities had seen. Local and state politicians rallied behind efforts to keep the plant open, recognizing it as an important manufacturing employer for half a century. An agreement was reached allowing Topps Scranton to continue producing baseball cards, albeit at a smaller scale aligned with the current market. This saved over 100 jobs in the Scranton area.
Today, the Topps factory in Scranton soldiered on and still carries out a portion of production for the company’s annual sports card releases. Now semi-automated with fewer employees, it remains a notable outlier as one of the few surviving sports card manufacturing plants in America. Each spring it contributes to packing and boxing new baseball sets. In this way, Scranton maintains its legacy of supporting Topps’ cardboard classics since the early days of their popularity’s meteoric rise. Even amidst wider industry contraction, this connection has lasted over 65 years so far through booms, busts, and ownership changes. For northeast Pennsylvania, the Topps baseball card factory in Scranton stands as a local institution deeply tied to the region’s economic and cultural history.
