Topps has announced plans for a couple of new baseball card products in 2016 while eliminating one and apparently waving the white flag on football cards you can hold in your hand.
The exclusive MLB licensee also says it will be bringing back National Baseball Card Day for the first time since 2008.
Topps’ presentation kicked off the 2016 Industry Summit being held this week in Hawaii.
The two new issues set for release are “Topps Legacies of Baseball” and “The Mint”. The 
company didn’t provide any release dates or further information about what to expect.
One baseball product will bite the dust. Topps says Supreme Baseball is being taken off the calendar. It’s final edition was released last September.
After losing the NFL and NFLPA licenses to Panini America beginning this year, Topps says it has no plans to produce physical football cards of any kind after their contracts expire next month. When Panini landed its exclusive deal with the NFLPA a couple of years ago, Topps indicated it would produce some sort of football product but with Panini holding all of the cards, so to speak, that apparently became impossible. Topps has been producing NFL trading cards since 1956.
Topps will continue to push out football “cards” through its Huddle app. In fact, the company released figures at the Summit indicating users of its digital trading card apps—Huddle, Bunt (baseball), Kick (soccer) and Star Wars– were opening seven million packs each week.
Like Upper Deck’s current National Hockey Card Day in the US and Canada, National Baseball Card Day will put free packs in the hands of customers who come to hobby shops. The date and details will come later.
Topps also said it was planning an ultra-premium type product tied in with its 65th anniversary in the baseball card business but didn’t offer any details.
Company officials also said they were continuing to work on reducing the number of redemption cards in products. Topps says it currently employs five full-time workers to process 1,800-2,500 redemption requests per week.
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