While Topps is synonymous with baseball cards in America, their products also found an enthusiastic following across the pond in the United Kingdom starting in the 1950s. Baseball may not be a particularly popular sport there, but British children of the post-war era quickly fell in love with collecting the colorful card stickers and trading them with friends at school.
The Topps company was founded in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York by brothers Joseph and Leonard Shorin. They began producing ‘Batter-Up’ gum and started including a cartoon character on the wrapper. This proved popular with kids and helped drive gum sales. In the early 1950s Topps decided to expand this concept by incorporating sports photos on the gum wrappers, kicking off the modern baseball card craze.
Their cards started gaining popularity internationally as American pop culture like rock n’ roll, movies and sports filtered out across Europe in the decades after WW2. British kids were enthralled by these vivid portraits of their baseball heroes like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. The cards also provided an educational window into the game itself which they mostly knew little about.
Topps came to an arrangement with British confectionary company Marshall & Snelgrove to produce and distribute their cards locally in the UK beginning in 1955. M&S packaged the gum and cards together in affordable stick packs that were wildly popular on sweet shop counters. Subjects expanded beyond just Major League players to include other sports and hobbies as well.
Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, Topps baseball stickers and subsequent variations like the ‘Magic Photo’ imprint became one of the most collected items among British children. They added extra regional interest by including homegrown sports personalities of the time like football and cricket stars. Summer holiday traditions included hunting local shops to find cards not already in one’s collection.
The nostalgia and amusement of trading duplicates with fellow collectors also helped make Topps cards enormously popular as a social pastime. With no baseball to follow locally, the cards provided a gateway to learn about the big league stars and stories in a fun, visual way. They fueled young imaginations about traveling to America to see a real baseball game.
By the 1970s, competition emerged from rival brands like Donruss but Topps maintained their reputation as the premium standard. The classic design aesthetic they established also endured even as new sets brought updated photography and statistics on the back. Though the subject matter stayed rooted in American sports, Topps found a dedicated multi-generational fanbase in the UK.
This was due in large part to their astute distribution through mainstream merchandisers like WHSmith. Topps could be readily found on store shelves alongside confectionery, creating constant visibility among kids. Their ability to evolve product lines like intra-set variations also kept collections exciting for dedicated collectors.
Two major developments in the late 1980s helped revitalize interest in Topps cards in Britain. Wider availability of televised MLB games brought the sport to a new audience. Simultaneously, the sports memorabilia market boomed as fans looked to recapture the nostalgia of their youth through vintage sets from the 1960s.
This made valuable ‘golden age’ Topps rookie cards highly sought after, whether of baseball legends or iconic UK personalities. Entire unopened boxes were going for small fortunes. Specialty shops opened to cater to this growing hobby, keeping Topps relevant for a new generation of enthusiasts.
In the modern era, Topps has greatly expanded its digital offerings to remain relevant. Online membership sites allow UK-based fans to more easily build complete sets. Social media promotions also help maintain visibility, aided by widely available streaming of MLB games.
While baseball may never be more than a niche sport internationally, Topps tapping into nostalgia ensures their iconic vintage cards will always have collectors in the UK. New immigrants additionally drive interest as they share the hobby with their UK-raised children. The company’s nine decades of history in Britain is a testament to how memorable childhood introductions can foster lifelong fandom.
So in conclusion, Topps has found sustained popularity far outside of America by establishing themselves as the premier brand for collecting sports and entertainment cards globally. Their canny distribution and ability to evolve with trends kept them staples of British sweet shops, store aisles and collectors’ imaginations for generations since first bringing baseball cards across the Atlantic in 1955.
