Over the historic span of sports collectibles in America, no one company has been more influential in its development than Topps. The Topps baseball card company was started in 1952, back during a time when post-war America was just beginning to find its roots. Because baseball was by far the most popular professional sport, Topps made baseball cards.

Sports cards have been popular since the turn-of-the-century, but usually these cards were produced and paid for by the corporations sponsoring them. Cigarette companies like Piedmont are a good example of this early trend. What sets Topps apart from previous trading cards is their loyalty to the game, not a sponsoring corporation.

Because of this, the popularity of Topps baseball cards took off with the youth of America. Topps has been making baseball cards ever since, making it the longest continually-run baseball card company in the country. Today, Topps makes much more than just baseball cards, including football, basketball, and even hockey cards and memorabilia.

Topps cards have a certain simplicity to them, and that's why they remain the standard by which all other trading cards are measured. Other companies might limit their production runs, making them more valuable, but Topps trading cards are and always have been the most available and widely traded cards in the market. Just don't put them in your bicycle spokes; thousands of fortunes have been ruined this way!