A few familiar products won’t be part of the Topps baseball card calendar this year.
The streamlining of product releases was one of a few announcements the company made on the final day of its annual Industry Conference in Arizona Tuesday.
According to our source at the conference, Topps revealed several product lines that wouldn’t be produced in 2023. Among them: Topps Opening Day, Gold Label, Clearly Authentic, Fire, Bowman 1st Edition, Gallery, Archives Snapshots and Bowman Chrome X. Bowman Heritage, last produced in 2020, remains sidelined.
Topps Big League, which wasn’t produced last year, is returning in 2023, adding a low cost, kid-oriented product back into the mix as the similarly priced Opening Day goes away, at least for now.
There were other nuggets dropped by the company as well.
Look for Tom Brady Bowman baseball cards in 2023 Bowman Draft —with autographs possible. Brady was drafted by the Montreal Expos out of high school back in 1995 (yes, he’s been on the pro sports radar for a long time). Brady has an autograph deal with Fanatics, which bought Topps early last year. Brady was also supposed to have autographs in Topps Five Star several years ago but collectors have told us those haven’t been fulfilled yet.
Another young prospect with a famous name will be getting his first basketball card via Topps later this year. Bronny James, son of LeBron James, will be featured in the Topps Chrome McDonald’s All-American Game set, with autographed cards. He’ll play in this year’s game.
Other notes from today’s presentation:
- Topps plans to produce multiple products around the World Baseball Classic including a higher end Chrome product due out later in the year. Look for Topps Now cards from the tournament as well.
- Topps teased “RetroFractor” cards during Monday’s presentation and offered a little more insight into them on Tuesday. In essence, the cards will feature players throughout baseball history who never appeared on a Bowman-branded card. Topps will create those this year but indicated they would be exclusive to 2023 and not return.
- The company will be offering a Bob Ross-style on-demand set utilizing artwork.
- The company says it’s working on a biodegradable wrapper to reduce its carbon footprint.
- Topps still plans on creating a Chrome Tennis product with the top tour players, but has been delayed because of the need to do individual licensing deals.
- Look for Topps Dynasty Soccer at some point in the near future.
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