Kohl’s is a department store chain located throughout most of the United States that is perhaps best known for its clothing offerings, but the store has also had a presence in the baseball card market over the years. While Kohl’s does not have a long history of producing exclusive baseball card sets like some other retailers, the company has periodically offered promotional baseball cards to customers both in-store and online.
One of the earliest Kohl’s baseball card promotions came in 2001, when the store partnered with Topps to offer packs of 2001 Topps baseball cards exclusively at Kohl’s locations. Customers could find 20-card value packs from the main 2001 Topps set mixed in with Kohl’s-branded packaging. While the cards inside were the standard Topps release, the purple and white Kohl’s branding on the outside of the packs served as an advertisement for the store. This type of exclusive packaging deal became a periodic occurrence at Kohl’s over the next several years.
In 2004, Kohl’s again partnered with Topps, this time to promote the 75th anniversary of the Goudey Gum Company sets which Topps had recently reprinted and released. Special Goudey packs were available at Kohl’s stores featuring cards from the 1933, 1934, and 1935 Goudey sets inside vintage-style green wrappers with Kohl’s logos. A mail-in coupon was also included to receive a special Kerry Wood “throwback” card made to resemble the classic Goudey designs.
For 2005, Kohl’s and Topps moved beyond just unique packaging and included actual Kohl’s-branded cards in series inspired by past tobacco era designs. A 99-card “Kohl’s Treasures” set recreated the look of the 1951 Bowman set right down to the yellow borders and action photos on a white background. Parallel “Kohl’s Treasures Masterpieces” cards were also available as super short prints featuring current stars. Additionally, Kohl’s offered exclusive “Precious Gems” packs containing reprints of rare 1910 to 1914 Cracker Jack cards with the company logo added.
One of the largest Kohl’s baseball card promotions came in 2006 when their partnership with Topps resulted in two insert sets being produced exclusively for the store. The “Kohl’s Crown Jewels” parallel insert set within 2006 Topps featured 65 short print parallels of top stars. Even rarer were the 8 parallel “Ruby” versions signed by the players themselves. That same year also saw the 95-card “Kohl’s Diamonds” retro-styled release that paid tribute to vintage designs like 1953 Topps. Both inserts featured the Kohl’s logo on the fronts and were available as bonus packs or by mail-in redemption.
In subsequent years, Kohl’s exclusives with Topps scaled back but still gave collectors chances to find rare bonus packs or promotional parallels at their local store locations. From 2009-2011, Kohl’s once again used unique packaging to house regular Topps series packs like Update and Opening Day. 2011 also saw a mail-in Kohl’s/Topps promotion where collectors could obtain special rookie parallels of Buster Posey or Jason Heyward.
For 2012, Topps produced a brand new Kohl’s exclusive insert set alongside its main Series 1 release called “Kohl’s Classics.” The 42-card retro-styled set paid tribute to the 1954 Topps design and included current stars framed within the yellow borders of that vintage era. Bonus packs were distributed at Kohl’s or available as redemptions for mail-in points from purchases at the store. The final Kohl’s/Topps partnership promotion came in 2016 when exclusive Opening Day packs wrapped in Kohl’s logo paper were distributed leading up to the start of the new baseball season.
While Kohl’s deals with Topps brought welcome exclusive cards and packs to collectors visiting the department store chain over the years, the company has also offered original baseball memorabilia products of its own design as well. In the late 2000s, Kohl’s sold framed and unframed sets of reproductions depicting iconic vintage cards from the T206 and 1951 Bowman sets. More recently in 2019, Kohl’s began producing higher-end memorabilia under the “Kohl’s Elite” brand that included signed baseballs, jersey relic cards, and autographs of current stars individually numbered to only 50 copies.
Whether through Topps insert sets, unique packaging variations, or in-house Kohl’s Elite memorabilia, the department store’s various baseball card promotions over the past two decades have been welcomed opportunities for collectors. The potential to find rare bonus packs or redemption cards exclusive to certain Kohl’s locations kept customers checking end caps and impulse buy aisles when shopping there. While partnerships with card manufacturers have been scaled back since 2016, Kohl’s still demonstrates interest in the hobby through occasional original memorabilia offerings showing there remains an audience for baseball collectibles among the retailer’s customer base.
