Topps began as a chewing gum manufacturer in 1938 before transitioning into producing collectible baseball trading cards beginning in 1951. Over 70 years later, Topps remains one of the leading manufacturers and distributors of sports and entertainment trading cards worldwide. Though the company has expanded significantly since those early days, baseball cards continue to be their flagship collectible product. This article will provide an in-depth look at Topps’ global corporate headquarters in New York City where they orchestrate production and distribution of iconic baseball card sets each year.
Topps is headquartered at 245 Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan, occupying the entire 30th floor in a 49-story office tower. The building is located in the Plaza District neighborhood just south of Central Park. Topps moved their headquarters to this Park Avenue address in 1986, consolidating operations that had previously been split between various locations in New York City and upstate New York facilities.
Upon entering the lobby of 245 Park Avenue, there are no obvious signs indicating Topps’ presence in the building. The company maintains low visibility for security purposes given the valuable sports memorabilia, cards, and assets located inside. Visitors take private elevators directly to the 30th floor reception area, passing several internal security checkpoints along the way.
Topps headquarters covers the entire floor space of roughly 60,000 square feet. The open floorplan office space features modular workstations divided into departments like sales, marketing, research and development, finance, and administrative functions. Conference rooms line the perimeter featuring baseball memorabilia and photos of company milestones. Meeting spaces are named after iconic players, teams, and cards from Topps’ illustrious history in the industry.
Perhaps the most interesting area is the creative design studio located towards the back of the floor. This is where current and future baseball card designs come to life. Designers work with photographers, graphic artists, and license holders from Major League Baseball properties to create visual concepts and mockups using the latest software. Sample prints and prototypes of cards from the current season in production can often be seen around the studio area.
Due to obvious security and proprietary concerns, Topps does not publicly reveal details about where they manufacture, store, and quality control their vast production of sports and entertainment cards each year. It is known they coordinate these comprehensive supply chain functions from their New York City headquarters location. Management of printing vendors, fulfillment centers, and distribution networks both domestic and international is directed from this central hub.
Within their Park Avenue offices, Topps maintains secure storage vaults where they house historical archives and valuable vintage cards, photos, artwork, wax packs, and other memorabilia from their company’s inception in the late 1930s to present day. Only a select few employees have access to these climate-controlled archives. The material collected over decades serves as inspiration for Topps’ heritage and retro reprint programs as well.
Topps executives offices are also located within the headquarters. Notable current and past leaders include CEO Michael Eisner who oversaw the company’s growth into digital platforms and international markets in recent years before his retirement in 2019. Longtime Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Theo Panagopoulos has been with Topps since 1964 and is remembered fondly within the company and hobby community for modernizing the brand in the 1970s and establishing many of their most beloved baseball card designs still enjoyed today.
Though baseball cards remain the foundation, Topps undertakes design, marketing, sales, and licensing of a vast array of sports and entertainment collectibles from properties in football, basketball, hockey, soccer, wrestling, movies, and television under their headquarters direction as well. Their digital offerings like apps, online games, digital trading card packs, and diverse licensed products give them revenue streams beyond traditional cardboard wrappers sold within wax packs at retail stores.
Given the unprecedented boom in nostalgia and retail sales of trading cards experienced during the pandemic, Topps’ baseball card operations have taken on even more significance in recent times from their New York headquarters hub. Careful planning and execution is undertaken each year to develop baseball’s annual rookie classes into emerging stars through strategic short print parallels, autographed memorabilia relic cards, and initiatives like Topps Project 2020 highlighting neglected players from Black and Brown communities.
Though Topps has expanded far beyond their roots manufacturing chewing gum and baseball cards, their heritage products remain exceptionally close to the heart of the company’s identity. All essential business operations and creative driving forces behind their iconic baseball card sets are masterminded from the secure, sprawling Manhattan headquarters location that has served as Topps’ corporate home for over 35 years. Despite vast changes in technology and marketplace, their Park Avenue offices maintain a vibrant baseball card development culture that has captivated collectors worldwide for generations.
