Can Eisner Save Topps?

The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card is an iconic card in the card collecting game. It is also an example of the kind of card Topps used to produce. Like the Mantle of 1952, those days are long gone.

Last week, Major League Baseball Properties signed an exclusive agreement with the Topps Company to be its exclusive supplier partner of baseball cards. That means that beginning next February, only Topps can manufacture baseball cards with the player and the MLB team uniform. And that's bad news for collectors because it means less choice and fewer options.

The Topps news is like a death knell to the Upper Deck Card Company, a Topps competitor that produces a better product. That's right, the photos are vibrant, intersting and depicting action.

When I collected as a kid, it was as if Topps waited for the players to pass through New York--so all the shots are in the in Yankee Stadium taken during batting practice or long-toss.

Topps was bought by Michael Eisner's Torante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners in 2007. Eisner, the former executive who once led the Mickey Mouse's turnaround in the mid 80s only to be later forced out by the Disney board, is filming a movie about his new business called, Back on Topps. Great.

I have a bad feeling about this. It only took one statement from the press release. "We are looking forward to working closely with MLB Properties and Clubs to invest in innovation and creativity to bring baseball cards and other collectible items to new audiences for many years to come," Eisner said in a statement.

So Mr. Eisner, Michael, Mike. (Can I call you Mike?) Yes, I urge Topps to innovate. Make a product that kids and the card collectors will buy. People cursed Upper Deck for having the audacity to chop up a Joe DiMaggio uniform into a thousand tiny swatches--the insert cards were then included in the regular wax packs. Clever idea.

Say what you want: Upper Deck makes better cards. The Upper Deck photography is topnotch and last year's Yankee Stadium Legacy set (one card produced for each game played at Yankee Stadium) was a stroke of genius. These are the kinds of innovative ideas Topps should have been owning since 1938--when Topps was founded. Instead, "innovation" for kids and collectors of the 1970s meant mini-baseball cards. Save for the popular Heritage sets, Topps too often comes up short on innovation IMHO.

Like I said, I have a bad feeling about this. Hopefully, the Upper Deck lawyers are drafting an anti-trust case as we speak.