Another Brick in the Wall, part 2: The Stick and Carrot Era

 

When the 90's came around, Topps had competition and at some point must have realized they need to do something.  Upper Deck was setting a new standard and collectors were clamoring for Topps to get with the program.  Collectors were starting to be disappointed their 80's cards weren't going to be worth a small fortune and they wanted new card stock, preferably one that wouldn't fray on the corners.  Someone at Topps must have caught on, because this new era of sets started what I call the Stick and Carrot era.

With all the choices collectors had, Topps introduced incentives to buy their product starting with their 1991 set.  There was a sweepstakes with one million dollars in prizes.  I was pretty disappointed I never won anything opening these packs, but as usual I still bought both packs and the retail set.  The following years Topps introduced gold cards and those became the rage.  Ever since then, Topps has been adding incentives for people to buy their cards.

The next era of cards has just four sets.  I know most collectors would probably group 1991 into the original era due to the cardboard alone, but as far as retail sets it stands apart.  The box has a revamped design and the instant win sweepstakes.  In the prior era, Topps didn't feel the need to throw a carrot in front of collectors to buy their retail sets.

1991

The card design was nice and Topps went back to a red and yellow design for the retail box.  Unlike the 1988 box, this is more of a red/yellow gradient.  Topps was also big into celebrating its 40th year of selling baseball cards and in case collectors failed to notice this is "the real one!".  Topps probably used that line because they were feeling the heat from competitors.

Who's on the box:

Top: Benny Santiago, Wade Boggs

Front: Rickey Henderson, Bo Jackson

Back: Rickey Henderson, Bo Jackson

Topps continued putting pictures of 6 cards on the box but then got lazy and simply put the same folks on the front and back.

1992

Topps revamped the design again, using catchy blue, red and yellow and kept "the official" tag line again.  This is the first promotion of gold cards.

Who's on the box:

Top: Devon White, Rob Dibble

Front: Andy Van Slyke, Mike Heath

Back: Hal Morris, Howard Johnson

Topps went back to displaying 6 different player cards, but could they have picked a more bland set of players?  I mean, Mike Heath of all players makes another appearance two years after his first.

1993

Topps kept the same design as 1992 but I like this color combo better.  It took me awhile to land this set because I simply didn't want to pay $100 for it.  Recently I've seen this selling for $50-$60 which is more reasonable.  Topps threw out a bigger carrot for collectors, offering pre-production cards as well as gold and black gold cards.  

Who's on the box:

Top: Doc Gooden, Ken Griffey Jr.

Front: Eric Karros, Barry Bonds

Back: Roberto Alomar, Dennis Eckersley

This is more like it, added star power on the product and more incentives to buy a set.  Right about now the market was slowing and the crash of the 90's was right around the corner.  This is also about the time I lost interest in cards and focused on more adult stuff.

1994

A total new look and more incentives.  The card crash was coming in addition to the player's strike.  Topps upped the ante with yet more incentives - pre-production cards, a superstar sampler, gold and black gold cards!  Wow! How could any collector resist that?

Who's on the box:

Top: David Cone, Paul Molitor

Front: Karl Rhodes, Kevin Young
Back: Joe Oliver, Rey Sanchez

This is no way to promote a set when the walls are about to come crashing down.  Yeah, there are some  carrots dangling there but only die hard collectors bought in during a strike shortened season.

Conclusion

These years of Topps sets ushered in a new era.  Out with the old card stock, in with the new bright white card stock.  Gone also were sticks of gum and wax stains.  Retail sets (and packs) offered plenty of incentives to buy.  I guess this could have been labeled the "gold" era too, but I wouldn't exactly say this was a golden era for collecting.

The junk wax era was waning but the card market was showing signs of weakness and the baseball strike helped exacerbate a decline in collectors interest.  Card companies were still pumping out large quantities of cards, but the market was changing and collectors (and fans) were swearing off baseball.  

Next up the downsizing era.  With the exeption of 1993's massive 825 card set, up until 1994 Topps had kept the base set card count consistently at 792, but that was about to change.