Topps

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American sports and entertainment collectibles company known for baseball cards and gum.

Last updated October 14, 2026

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First read: Nov 4, 2026
Latest read: Nov 4, 2026

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Overview

The Topps Company is an American company known for producing baseball cards and other sports trading cards, as well as gum and confectionery. Founded in 1938 and headquartered in New York, it was acquired by Fanatics Collectibles in 2022.

History

Topps began in 1938 as Topps Chewing Gum, a New York-based confectionery company associated with the Shorin family. Its early business centered on gum, but the company became strategically important in the postwar period when it used picture cards as an inducement and promotional element in gum packages. This format connected a low-cost confectionery purchase with collecting and helped create a durable commercial model for sports cards. Baseball became Topps’s defining category. The company’s postwar baseball issues established a recognizable annual rhythm: new cards appeared with new seasons, and the sets recorded players, teams, statistics, and visual conventions of the period. The cards were inexpensive enough for children to buy but sufficiently scarce and culturally meaningful to acquire a substantial adult collector base over time. Topps’s designs, checklists, player photography, and statistical information helped shape the modern sports-card hobby. The company expanded beyond baseball into other sports and licensed entertainment. Its portfolio came to include football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and non-sports subjects such as film, television, and popular culture. As the collectibles market became more segmented, Topps introduced product tiers ranging from widely distributed cards to hobby-oriented products with serial numbering, special inserts, autographs, game-used memorabilia, and premium finishes. Topps Chrome became a prominent premium line built around chromium card stock and reflective finishes. Topps also developed products designed around immediacy rather than an annual set. Topps NOW enabled collectors to order cards commemorating recent games, records, milestones, and other events, generally through limited ordering periods. The format connected digital commerce, real-time sports news, and physical card production. The company additionally pursued digital collectibles and online products as consumer behavior increasingly moved toward mobile and platform-based collecting. In 2007, an investor group led by Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners acquired The Topps Company in a transaction that took the company private. Under this ownership, Topps continued to manage a broad portfolio of sports and entertainment licenses and maintained the heritage Topps and Bazooka names, although the card and confectionery activities were distinct parts of the wider business. Fanatics announced in 2021 that it would acquire Topps’s trading-card and collectibles business, and the transaction closed in 2022. The acquisition brought Topps into Fanatics’s expanding collectibles division and strengthened Fanatics’s position in licensed sports cards. The confectionery business, including Bazooka, was outside the transaction and remained separate. The modern Topps brand therefore primarily represents sports and entertainment collectibles, while its historical association with bubble gum remains an important part of its origin story and brand recognition.

2022
Topps collectibles business joins Fanatics
[3]Fanatics completes acquisition of Topps trading cards and collectibles businessfanaticsinc.com
Fanatics completes the acquisition of Topps’s trading-card and collectibles business; the confectionery business is excluded.
2021
Fanatics announces agreement to acquire Topps collectibles
[2]Fanatics announces agreement to acquire Topps trading cards and collectibles businessfanaticsinc.com
Fanatics announces an agreement to purchase Topps’s trading-card and collectibles business.
2016
Topps NOW is introduced
[9]Topps NOW is introducedtopps.com
Topps launches an on-demand product model for cards tied to recent sports events and performances.
2007
Topps is acquired and taken private
[4]Topps Company SEC filing concerning 2007 acquisitionsec.gov
An investor group led by Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners acquires The Topps Company.
1996
Topps introduces Topps Chrome
[6]Topps Chewing Gum is establishedtopps.com
Topps launches Chrome, a premium-format card line that becomes a continuing part of its sports-collectibles portfolio.
1989
Topps introduces its Stadium Club line
[6]Topps Chewing Gum is establishedtopps.com
Topps launches Stadium Club, a photography-led baseball-card line that emphasizes premium presentation and high-quality imagery.
1952
Topps issues its landmark 1952 baseball set
[8]Topps issues its landmark 1952 baseball setbaseball-reference.com
The 1952 Topps baseball set becomes one of the most recognized issues in the history of sports-card collecting.
1951
Topps enters the modern baseball-card era
[7]Topps enters the modern baseball-card erabaseball-reference.com
Topps introduces an important early postwar baseball-card product, helping establish the company’s enduring sports-card identity.
1938
Topps Chewing Gum is established
[6]Topps Chewing Gum is establishedtopps.com
The company that became Topps is established in the United States as a chewing-gum business.

Products and positioning

A heritage collectibles brand spanning mass-market trading cards, premium hobby products, licensed entertainment merchandise, digital collectibles, and historically associated confectionery.

Sports trading cards · 1951
Topps Baseball
Topps’s flagship baseball-card franchise and annual product family. It combines player photography, team branding, statistics, rookie cards, inserts, parallels, autographs, and memorabilia cards. The line ranges from broadly distributed retail products to hobby releases aimed at specialist collectors and is central to the brand’s historical identity.
Premium sports trading cards · 1996
Topps Chrome
A premium card family recognized for chromium card stock, reflective finishes, colorful parallels, and insert cards. Topps Chrome has been used across sports, especially baseball, and is positioned above basic paper-card products while retaining a mass-recognized brand name.
On-demand sports collectibles · 2016
Topps NOW
A print-on-demand or limited-order product format created to commemorate recent games, records, milestones, and other timely events. Its short purchase windows allow Topps to respond quickly to sports news while giving collectors a physical item tied to a specific moment.
Bubble gum · 1947
Bazooka
Topps’s historic bubble-gum brand, introduced after the company’s formation and widely associated with individually wrapped pieces, comic-style packaging, and the Bazooka Joe character. The Bazooka confectionery business was not included in Fanatics’s acquisition of Topps’s trading-card and collectibles business.
Digital collectibles · 2012
Topps digital collectibles
Digital collecting products built around licensed sports and entertainment properties. These products extend Topps’s traditional card concepts into online formats, including digitally issued or traded collectible items and platform-based fan experiences.

Controversies

2021
Topps apologizes and removes BTS sticker after criticism
After social media users criticized a caricature of BTS with bruised faces, Topps apologized for including the sticker and said it had removed it and would not make it available.
Source

2020Project70
United States · Global
Topps marked Major League Baseball’s 70th anniversary of licensing with a year-long program commissioning artists to reinterpret historic baseball-card designs. The campaign connected archival nostalgia with contemporary art, fashion, and culture.
Outcome. Project70 broadened the presentation of baseball cards beyond conventional sports photography and generated a large series of limited releases.
Source
2016Topps NOW
United States · Global
Topps NOW functioned both as a product platform and a marketing model: the company promoted cards tied to current sports moments and allowed consumers to order them during limited windows. The approach emphasized immediacy, scarcity, and social-media-friendly events.
Outcome. The format became a continuing part of Topps’s on-demand and commemorative-card offering.
Source

Brand decisions

2021
Agreement to sell the trading-card and collectibles business to FanaticsM&A
Background
Fanatics was expanding from licensed apparel and merchandise into sports collectibles, while Topps had an established portfolio of sports-card licenses and collector products.
Action taken
Topps agreed to sell its trading-card and collectibles business to Fanatics.
Aftermath
The transaction closed in 2022. Topps’s confectionery operations were excluded from the deal.
Source
2016
Launch of Topps NOWProduct launch
Background
Traditional annual card production was supplemented by consumer demand for products connected to current games and rapidly developing sports stories.
Action taken
Topps introduced an on-demand, limited-order format for cards commemorating recent events and performances.
Aftermath
Topps NOW became a continuing product format for timely physical sports collectibles.
Source
2007
Take-private acquisition by Tornante and Madison DearbornM&A
Background
The public company operating the Topps business was acquired by an investor group led by Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners.
Action taken
The acquisition took The Topps Company private and placed the brand under new ownership.
Aftermath
Topps continued operating as a private sports and entertainment collectibles business before its later sale to Fanatics.
Source

Recent events

2022.01.03
Reported2022.01.04
Fanatics acquires Topps’ trading card business[12]Fanatics收购Topps集换卡业务nbcconnecticut.com
Fanatics acquired Topps’ sports trading card business, including the Topps name and its sports and entertainment division, but not its candy and gift card lines. The deal was confirmed to CNBC on Monday night.
Weekdays and relative dates follow the original report; their exact calendar dates have not been verified.
2021.08.20
Reported2021.08.20
Mudrick Capital and Topps terminate merger agreement[13]Mudrick Capital 与 Topps 终止合并协议prnewswire.com
Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II announced that it and the other parties mutually terminated the merger agreement for a business combination with The Topps Company, after Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association notified the parties that they would not renew their respective agreements with Topps when they expire.
2021.03.31
Reported2021.03.31
Topps releases Godzilla digital collectibles[14]Topps 发布哥斯拉数字收藏品licensing.biz
Topps released a series of Godzilla-themed digital collectibles on its WAX blockchain on March 31, 2021.
Unconfirmed
Reported2021.03.31
Topps and Toho partner on Godzilla NFT collectibles[14]Topps 发布哥斯拉数字收藏品licensing.biz
Topps partnered with Toho to create digital collectibles featuring Godzilla and other classic monsters from the franchise.
2021.03.17
Reported2021.03.17
Topps apologizes and removes BTS sticker after criticism[11]Topps apologizes and removes BTS sticker after criticismchicago.suntimes.com
After social media users criticized a caricature of BTS with bruised faces, Topps apologized for including the sticker and said it had removed it and would not make it available.

Sources15 sources

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