Topps for 50 Years

This season will mark the 50th consecutive year that Topps has produced a trading card set of professional football players. As part of a season-long celebration, the company will offer collectors the chance to purchase special packs of trading cards (during one weekend) for the price of a pack in 1956 -- a nickel.

Although the company offered few details, the weekend of Sept. 10-11 (the NFL’s Kick-Off weekend) has been designated by the company as "Topps Turn Back The Clock" weekend. On those two days, collectors will be able to walk into their local participating hobby shop and purchase a special pack of Topps 50th Anniversary trading cards for 5 cents…

… Hottest card of 2005 -- Pope John Paul II: The Topps trading card company and Beckett Media each sent out press releases recently noting that Pope John Paul II’s card from the 2005 Topps World Treasures insert set, which features his actual signature, was sold for $8,100 by a California dealer to a collector there shortly after the pontiff’s death.

The sale is described in detail in the June edition of Beckett Baseball magazine, currently on newsstands. More…

View information on Beckett Baseball Collector magazine.