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TOPPS BASEBALL CARDS HOME RUN CHALLENGE

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Topps baseball cards have engaged baseball card collectors for decades with innovative insert sets and promotional gimmicks centered around America’s pastime. One of their most unique promotions of the 1990s was the Topps Home Run Challenge, which not only added excitement for fans during the home run chase seasons of the late 90s, but also sought to bring in new collectors and card traders.

The Home Run Challenge concept started in 1993 with players like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire starting to push past previous single season home run records. Topps saw an opportunity to capitalize on the growing interest in home runs with a contest centered around predictable performance stats in baseball cards. The first year of the Home Run Challenge featured specially marked rookie cards of sluggers like Griffey Jr., Bonds, McGwire and others. Collectors could predict how many home runs each player would hit that season by circling a number on the back of their card.

Correct predictions were submitted to Topps and winners would receive baseball memorabilia prizes. It was a fun way to get casual fans engaged and added excitement in hoping a player would reach or surpass their card prediction. The challenge took off in popularity leading up to the historic 1998 season, which saw Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battle for Roger Maris’ single season home run record. Topps upped the ante that year by including stars like McGwire, Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. in the challenge set, which featured premium embossed foil home run cards.

Collectors could now predict home runs on cards featuring the top sluggers pursuing history. Topps also made the prizes much more enticing, with grand prizes including trips to spring training, autographed items and even a chance to watch a game from the broadcast booth. Local card shops also got in on the action by holding home run prediction contests of their own. The heightened competition between McGwire and Sosa that summer led to a huge increase in baseball’s popularity. The Home Run Challenge helped leverage that interest for Topps by giving fans another way to participate.

cards into the stratosphere. By accurately predicting McGwire would break the record with 65 home runs, one lucky collector won a trip to watch a Cardinals game from the KMOX radio booth. Topps sales of packs skyrocketed that year between the record chase and the added excitement of the home run contest insert set. The promotion was deemed a massive success in drawing new collectors, especially younger fans, who could now win prizes alongside following baseball history.

The historic nature of 1998 led Topps to continue the Home Run Challenge for several more years. In 1999, they upped the maximum prediction number to 75 home runs, nearly double the previous record, to see if McGwire or Sosa could replicate or exceed their 1998 performances. The run totals did drop off from the previous season for most players, but the contest continued generating interest. By 2000, Topps had expanded the promotion beyond just predictions.

The 2000 Topps Home Run Challenge introduced “Challenger Cards,” which featured 20 current sluggers. Collectors could then take part in new mini-contests by attempting to collect a player before they hit a certain home run milestone, such as 15, 25 or 40 for the season. Certain Challenger Cards were also only available through redemption of proofs of purchase or flier inserts from Topps packs. This added a new layer of complexity for collectors and increased the chase for cards and prizes. The Home Run Challenge continued evolving over the next few seasons while maintaining excitement around performance stats and predictions.

As the record chase years of the late 90s faded, Topps began phasing the Home Run Challenge out after 2001. By then it had more than succeeded in its goals. The promotion helped Topps capitalize on the massive spike in baseball’s popularity during 1998 and keep the momentum going thereafter. It drew in legions of new collectors, young and old, by giving them an easy way to participate alongside the sports page home run tracker. Major prizes were awarded to players who correctly called players like McGwire eclipsing hallowed records. Affordable contests at local shops also helped hometown heroes potentially win giveaways through their card predictions.

Perhaps most importantly for Topps though, the Home Run Challenge was a key reason for increased sales of packs, boxes and collections during baseball’s peak period in the late 90s. By all metrics, their innovative promotion was a brilliant marketing success in every way. While home runs may never reach the heights of the Sosa/McGwire battle for the record books again, the Topps Home Run Challenge stood as one of the all-time great collector targeted promotions that helped shape 1990s baseball card history. It brought renewed excitement for the hobby and still stands as one of Topps’ most creative insert sets ever.

TWIZZLERS CHALLENGE BASEBALL CARDS

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The Twizzlers candy challenge has been a beloved tradition for baseball fans and card collectors alike for decades. The unusual origin story and controversy surrounding this unique promotional stunt are not widely known. Let’s take a deeper look at the history and legacy of one of the sweetest promotions in baseball.

It all began in 1959 when the Hershey Company, makers of the iconic Twizzlers pull-and-peel candy, was looking for new ways to market their product to American youth. Inspired by the booming interest in sports card collecting following the release of the famous 1959 Topps baseball card set, Hershey executives hatched a plan to produce a limited run of Twizzlers-branded cards featuring young major leaguers. Each individually wrapped Twizzlers rope would contain a semi-randomly inserted baseball card.

Kids could enjoy the sweet treat while seeing if they “struck gold” by finding a card of their favorite player inside. This novel concept was an immediate success, leading Hershey to make the Twizzlers cards an annual limited-run baseball card insert set each subsequent season. By the mid-1960s, the fervor surrounding the hunt for these rare candied cards had reached a fever pitch among youthful collectors around the country.

The cards themselves were distinguishingly printed on a thicker, glossier stock than typical cards of the era. Along with a color photo and player stats, they prominently featured the Twizzlers logo and catchphrase “Pull ’em and Peel ’em for a Ball Player!” on the front. The reverse contained wrapping and ingredients information for legal purposes. Production numbers were intentionally kept very low, with some estimates placing inserts at only 1 in 10,000 Twizzlers ropes nationwide.

This scarcity drove collectors into a frenzy each spring, racing to convenience stores and drug stores the moment new Twizzlers shipments arrived, hoping to rip open enough pull-and-peels to unearth a coveted cardboard treasure inside. Tales spread of neighborhoods briefly running out of Twizzlers as kids greedily scoured every last inch of excess packaging for elusive cards. Some stores even began charging premium “loot box” prices for guaranteed-to-contain cards inside select Twizzlers packages.

While bringing Twizzlers gratuitous promotion, the inserts also fueled sales of Topps regular issues and card variants, as collectors sought to complete rainbow runs of the rare subset. By the late 1960s and 1970s heyday of the hobby, the Twizzlers cards had become a true status symbol among collectors, with unopened examples selling for upwards of $50 a piece on the fledgling collector marketplace – monstrous sums at the time.

The promotion was not without controversy. As the challenge grew ever more competitive and sales-driven, rumors of shortpacked cards, sandbagged production numbers, and covert scalping operations by unscrupulous collectors looking to profit off the craze began to swirl. Some questioned whether Hershey and Topps were deliberately withholding cards to artificially inflate demand and secondary market profits. Revelations emerged that full rainbow sets of early 1960s issues likely numbered in the single digits nationwide due to reported shortages.

By the late 1970s, amidst the decline of the hot postwar collector market and changing tastes, Hershey and Topps mutually agreed to retire the iconic inserts. A final 1979 run featuring Nolan Ryan brought the Twizzlers cards full circle before quietly disappearing from candy aisles. While no longer actively produced, survivors from the heyday golden era frequently trade hands for thousands among elite collectors to this day. Original examples in unopened condition can fetch over $10,000 or more at auction.

The Twizzlers challenge lives on in legend as one of the most memorable marketing tie-ins in the history of sports cards. Whether spurring genuine childhood joy or cutthroat competition among collectors, it ingrained itself in baseball card culture and helped define an era. While its rarity and mystique may never again be replicated, these sweetened cardboard slices of our national pastime maintain a hallowed place in the memories and collections of generations who grew up chasing that elusive prize within a stick of twisted red licorice. The legacy of its contribution to the hobby ensures this novel promotional twist will remain synonymous with baseball for decades to come.

The Twizzlers challenge introduced a novel concept by randomly inserting baseball cards inside candy to promote both products, sparking widespread collecting fervor. While successfully marketing Twizzlers and cards, questions remain about production numbers amid rumors of artificial scarcity. Regardless, survivors retain immense value as icons representing baseball cards’ golden age and helping define the hobby. Its unique origin story and role in collecting lore ensure this sweet promotional twist remains etched in baseball card history.

ESSO BASEBALL CHALLENGE CARDS

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In the 1960s and 1970s, one of the most popular baseball card inserts for kids in Canada were the Esso Baseball Challenge cards issued by Imperial Oil, commonly known as Esso. These cards came in packs of bubble gum sold at Esso gas stations across the country each summer as a promotion to get kids excited about baseball. While they didn’t feature the same iconic players as Topps or O-Pee-Chee cards, the Esso Baseball Challenge cards offered a fun baseball trivia game on each card that captivated the imaginations of young Canadian baseball fans.

The cards featured trivia questions or baseball challenges on one side and the answers on the reverse. Some examples included identifying players by their silhouette shapes or guessing which Major League team a given statistic line belonged to. They spanned a wide range of baseball knowledge from identifying positions to recounting specific seasons and records. The cards even included puzzles or riddles related to the game of baseball. While collecting and trading the colorful cards was exciting for kids, the real draw was competing to answer the most challenges and beating friends and family at the trivia game on each card.

The Esso Baseball Challenge cards were issued annually from 1961 through 1979, with a brief hiatus from 1970-1972. During their peak years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they became enormously popular, appealing greatly to Canadian kids’ sense of national pride in the sport. While American cards from Topps and others were certainly available, Esso cards offered a uniquely Canadian take on the baseball card collecting craze, making kids feel connected to the national pastime through trivia tailored for young Canadian fans. They also served as effective promotional items to tie Imperial Oil’s Esso brand to the sport.

The cards varied somewhat in design and layouts over the near 20 year run but generally featured colorful graphics with a focus on the trivia element rather than player photography. They were printed on thinner stock than standard baseball cards of the time but were still sturdy enough for the rigors of a child’s pocket or bicycle spokes. The fronts often highlighted the challenge or question in a bold font with related graphics, pictures or diagrams. Answers were presented clearly but concisely on the back to allow for quick checking.

In the early 1960s, the cards featured a blue and orange color scheme with woodgrain borders. Design elements included baseballs, bats, gloves and numbers positioned around the trivia elements. The mid-60s transitioned to a red and yellow colorway with a cleaner layout focused on the challenge text. By the late 1960s, the cards adopted a yellow and blue color palette and introduced team logos alongside the woodgrain borders. The 1970s issues featured various colors and graphics evolving with the era but baseball remained the consistent theme tying the trivia game to the sport.

While players were not pictured on the fronts of Esso Baseball Challenge cards like traditional baseball cards of the time, the trivia did often involve identifying players by name. As such, the backs would sometimes feature headshot portraits of players relevant to the challenge question or answer. This served to educate young fans on the stars of the day while keeping the primary focus on the game itself rather than individual players. Some issues from the peak 1968-1974 period also included statistical or standings breakdowns to complement the puzzles and challenges.

In terms of production, the Esso Baseball Challenge cards were inserted randomly in packs of Esso Bubble Gum, much like the gum-and-card packs sold at convenience stores. They did not have any statistical information, career highlights, or biographical write-ups typically seen on the backs of standard baseball cards. The cards were strictly for the purposes of the trivia-based baseball knowledge game incorporated onto each card. While they did not gain the same collector value as the iconic cards from Topps, they remained hugely popular among Canadian youth for their fun, interactive format focused on baseball as a sport over the individual players.

The Esso Baseball Challenge cards served their purpose well as a memorable and engaging promotional item tying Imperial Oil’s brand to America’s pastime for Canadian kids. While they did not achieve the same longevity, collectability or cultural cachet as the long-running Topps and O-Pee-Chee sets, the Esso cards triggered countless baseball debates among friends completing the trivia challenges during those lazy summer days of the 1960s and 1970s. For many Canadian baseball fans who came of age during that era, the Esso Baseball Challenge cards remain a nostalgic symbol of their introduction and development of passion for Canada’s national pastime.