Last week Topps announced that several of its baseball products are dead. Actually, they said that they are taking the year off, but, that is just the polite way of saying they are goners.
I collect six of the late brands. One is actually still on life support. The 2022 edition of Gold Label is supposed to come out some time this month. After that, the plug gets pulled.
The five other dead brands in my collection are...
Gallery, Fire, Opening Day, Bowman Heritage, and Gypsy Queen.
My thoughts...
- Fire is relatively new, and my guess is that is never really caught.... fire. So they doused it.
- Gallery was brought back from the dead a couple of years ago. Topps has stopped using paintings in Gallery, so, what is the point? It is probably now dead for good.
- The end of Bowman Heritage is no surprise at all. The checklist and release date for the 2021 set was announced in December, 2021, and then nothing. The set never came out. Nothing was ever said about a 2022 product. In a sense, it has been dead for more than a year.
- I didn't expect to see Opening Day on the list. Topps had touted the set as a low-priced introduction set aimed at young collectors. They have said that Big League, which was on the shelf last year, will be coming back. So I guess that's what they'll have for the kiddies.
- Gypsy Queen's twelve year run is coming to an end. I've always question the need for another old timey cigarette brand since there was already Allen and Ginter. Fanatics must have had the same thought.
Visitation for each of the dearly departed will take place over each of the next several days.
I somehow missed that GQ was going away. I won't miss it. Nor the other ones. Archives Snapshots is also leaving, which I sort of liked, but since it was an online thing, I won't miss it either.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I won't really miss any particular brand here, but I wonder whether this marks an overall move away from retail product and/or less expensive product. I've found myself buying a lot of Opening Day over the years just because it's inexpensive, and some of these brands, especially Gypsy Queen, seem to show up in dime boxes and such (and therefore in my collection) a lot. I hope they'll introduce some new retail product, or make some of their existing products (I'm looking at you, Topps Total) more accessible.
ReplyDeleteI did not see GQ on the original list of sets axed. I am disappointed then - GQ had really grown on me - It was different then Ginter and the 2020 and 2022 sets were really well designed.
ReplyDeleteI liked opening day because it was a mini Topps set where you could get all the stars and not have to wait months for series 2.
The GQ announcement came a bit after the original.
ReplyDeleteThey have way too many brands as it is. In the early 90s, there were 2: regular and Stadium Club. Then greed just took over.
ReplyDelete