Expect the "vault unloading" products to start coming out...

"Players Inc, the marketing and licensing arm of the NFL Players Association, confirmed on Monday afternoon that it will not renew Topps’ trading card license for 2010.

The move to reduce football manufacturers has been rumored for months and will take place officially when Players Inc’s current agreements with Panini, Topps and Upper Deck expire at the end of February.

Multiple attempts to contact NFL Properties regarding its plans for 2010 and beyond have so far been unsuccessful.

Players Inc’s decision to move forward with just Panini and Upper Deck comes after months of thorough investigation and evaluation of a current football card marketplace still reeling from the troubled economy. The move also represents the latest bombshell in a continued streamlining of the overall sports collectibles industry that has seemingly seen a life’s worth of monumental licensing changes in 2009 alone.

Topps officials were not immediately available for comment. Just three months ago, Topps secured a Major League Baseball Properties exclusive beginning next season.

Stay tuned to Beckett.com for additional details on this breaking story."

- beckett

http://beta.beckett.com/group/185224/?tab=...079#ViewArticle

Wow, its going to be wierd seeing no topps in stores.

yep, no more bowman, bowman chrome, triple threads...

i am not a fan of Topps footbal products so i wont be bothered byt this.

I will however be upset if they go exclusive with one company as Panini is great and Upper Deck can be great at times. so i would like to see them both stay in for football

Another hit to the Trading Card market!

this is bad!!! the hobby took a huge hit when fleer went out, this could be the undoing of topps! how many companys have to be lost! pacific, fleer, collectors edge, and some others.

This is cutting down on the prodction of cards though right? So there will be less of players and less autos of players. In that way I see it as a good thing. Maybe there will be less 1/1s and stuff now too. That could cause prices of cards to rise. Maybe Im wrong but thats how Im seeing it.

well that how it seems it would work. but what will happen is the other company's will ether over produce stuff now, or keep it like it is now and raise the price on everything. why because they can, because were else will you get them???? and yes prices i thin would rise, but maybe out of reach for to many people! and if people cant afford to collect, then the bottom falls out on everything and then by by cards!!!

and what would we all do with out topps chrome, topps finest, and bowman chrome??? they have pattens on those chrome cards, meaning no one else can make them!!! so for get chrome cards anymore!

Wow, no more chrome cards.

I see what your saying. It seems like if companys would cut down on production of cards so lets say there arnt as many Matthew Stafford autos but kept prices the same or maybe even drop a little, the prices of cards would go up and it seems like itd be more fun to open a box and get a good auto and not an auto of some undrafted player.

I agree! less brady autos thats the bad part!

No more chrome cards. That would be a disaster.

Oh no! No more parallels or parallel RCs! What will I complain about now besides autographed stickers?????

I don't collect football, but this is very surprising! I hope it doesn't hurt them too much because I love Triple Threads, Allen and Ginter, etc. If Topps goes out, I don't know what Richard will do. Hopefully this means that Topps Baseball will just get better.

I don't like the fact the NFL, NBA, or MLB are the ones who get to choose who stays in the trading card business....and not the consumers or manufacturers.

I mean, if the manufacturers can afford to pay the for the license and stay in business why shouldn't they be able to? Limit the number of products...not the number of manufacturers.

I think this is a blow to open competition, pretty soon each sport will be exclusive and that doesn't make much sense to me.

Wow!

No more Bowman/Chrome, Topps/Chrome is really gonna hurt.

This is almost reminding me of a video game comparison - EA having exclusive rights to all NFL games.

so whats the 09 triple threads going to be stuffed with?

um it wouldn't be!! if they lose the rights, that means NO FOOTBALL PERIOD!!!!

this is equivalent to MC Donald's, not making french fries!!! or car dealer ships not selling used cars!!!

i really liked topps now i have less nice products to look forward to next year. i have gotton the topps complete set since 03 and hoped to keep the streak going on

09 Triple Threads is due out at the end of the month. Topps is still going to make football cards through the 09 season. they are not stopping production today.

my guess is triple threads and mayo will have a ton of redemptions and we will see a super high end football product rushed out the door like upperdeck did with exquisite basketball

yeah lol.. the rest of the 09 stuff is still coming, just not 2010

McDonalds can't make onion rings because Burger King has a patent on them.

I hate this. Am I the only one who asks for independent oversight in the card manufacturing business? It seems rediculous. Now card companies can get away with highway robbery in boxes and packs because there is no competition to keep them in check. I will never buy an Upper Deck football product. Luckily Panini is doing a good job on football this year.

And I will miss Chrome, one of my favorite products to bust.

I hope more people don't start thinking about collecting vintage cards.

Nah, there is plenty of 2001-2009 Topps, Fleer & Donruss products to bust out there still.

plink plink, alright, I will put in my two cents worth....I have rarely Topps football products, so I feel no pain here....but I did when Donruss lost their baseball license...and am proud to say that I went on a one year ban on baseball products that has ultimately gone much deeper. Since they lost that license, I probably still spend no more than 25% of what I was...so to those of you saying that there needs to be independent supervision, there is...it's you. But...there aren't many Topps products I have been impressed with in a long time...

Well I am sick to my stomach. Literally. Did anyone who collects other sports feel similar with those sports respective similar announcements?

I think this may officially RIP my future collecting (but not current and past stuff)

ehh.. Besides Bowman Chrome, I never opened up much Topps Stuff, basically all I open is Panini Football products.. Topps/UD just dont hold their products to the same standard IMO

I have every Topps set since 1978....this is truly a shame...

bad news Topps Chrome and Bowman chrome are some of my favorites to open,now it`s gonna get bad,and expensive,really sucks

It needed to happen folks..I believe I counted something like 43 planned football releases for this year ! Thats way too many!

Topps will be fine! They may lose some market share but they got the sport they wanted!

Upper Deck however could be on the ropes if they DON'T get football!

Panini could squeeze UD right out the door!

Whomever was listing defunct MFG's add Sage Hit to your list with the loss of the college market! abd who knows about press pass! (is racing strong enough)

Wouldnt you like to be able to see a financial statement for UD or topps?

Touché!

5 (plausibly up to 8) products per manufacturer
at a tiered retail price structure, i.e.;

$25.00 - $60.00
$61.00 - $110.00
$111 - $200.00
$201.00 and above

The individual manufacturer could choose their niche
or spread their production throughout the tiers.

This is just an example with very little forethought.

The point is, I agree with Lew. The Major League
Baseball Players Association has no business in my
Baseball Card Collection.

Why then, pray tell, do the DLP products suddenly disappear
from said collection in 2006 (2008 Prime Cuts withstanding)?

Collect Hard!,
RGBII

I was behind a day on all of these happenings, but man! That was a disappointing way to start the day, especially since I am getting so excited for my 1/2 case of Topps Mayo to arrive on Friday! I basically got back into collecting JUST to collect the Topps Chrome set each year (kind of went overboard from there, but still the set I wait for each and every season, like quite a few others).

I guess I will finally have the time to go back and try and complete all of the chrome sets from 1996-2005 though...

Here comes an "UD Style" sticker/GU dump... Super-Paradigm? Mega-Performance? Octuple Threads? We guarantee one Chris Leak and one James Jones auto per pack, plus a Syvelle Newton box topper!!!

They will surely put out something just as nice as SP Signature!

Let's be honest... Topps football products are the bottom of the barrell when it comes to Football Sports Cards. For all the hype surrounding the products "Paradigm, Performance, Mayo, Magic, etc.) Topps falls short in delivering the quality of the other 2 main competitors. Even their better products such as Bowman Chrome and Topps Triple Threads don't have much of a market value when compared to the baseball versions of the same products.

Stick with what yo do best... Bowman Chrome, Topps Sterling, and Topps Triple Threads baseball and leave the football to Panini Sandwich!

Amen.

This is sad to hear but just as UD plans to get around the baseball exclusive, do not be surprised if Topps gets around an NFL exclusive license. In The Game has been doing it for 4 years now with Hockey. Yes they don't produce hockey at the level of UD, but the do produce some nice stuff here and there.

I think this hurts the marketplace, and I wish the leagues/players associations would think it through and charge based on the number of products produced, so someone producing 15 products might consider cutting back to 10 instead due to the price per product. Alas, greed exists so that will never happen. Will this change eliminate scrub autos/gu, NO. Will it make UD or Panini's products any better, NO. Will it reduce the number of products? Not sure, it will remove Topps products, but does that just mean that UD will buy the "Bowman" name similar to what they did with "OPC" for hockey and then produce 5-10 products under that name?

Here is where I am disappointed, many collectors dislike Topps, but it has been the staple of set builders and kids for around 5 decades plus. Who does not remember saving up to get an affordable pack of cards. Yes the cards were not great, there were not 3 game used a box, but what mattered was the card itself and who it featured. Somewhere in this mess we have lost all contact with what made us collect cards to begin with. This is the truly sad part of Topps losing it's license.

I have to agree with what Brian had to say.

Agreed! My most favorite part of the hobby has always been set-building, and Topps was BY FAR the best brand out there for that. I have been trying to figure out if there is even a legitimate set out there now that would be any fun to build, and I am struggling to find one! I do agree that Panini puts out some great products, but they really deliver more in the hit department, but there just isn't anything to build. Here's to hoping Topps finds a way around this travesty and releases a few products one way or another!