Baseball Cards of the Future

Before there were Playstation 3's, before there were iPods,

before there were game boys, and even before there were color televisions, there were baseball cards. A longtime supplement to America's pastime, baseball cards were treasures of today's older generations.

In the past, young boys didn't need a lot in order to have fun. In fact, all they needed was five cents. For just five cents, children were treated by a pack of baseball cards and some gum. Thanks to baseball cards, kids could admire their favorite athletes, read their stats, and add these cards to their personal card collection on a daily basis. If they really wanted a particular athlete's card, they could acquire it by trading some of their own to a friend. In older times, a child's collection of cards was his most prized possession.

For all these reasons, it wasn't a surprise that throughout the twentieth century, the baseball card business was absolutely booming.

Enter the era of technology.

Baseball card popularity began to drastically die down in the late 80s and early 90s. Electronics had mesmerized the masses and frankly, the baseball card industry suffered as a result. In 2007, Michael Eisner, the former chief of Walt Disney, bought out the Topps Trading Card Company. He wanted to take the company in another direction.

The first idea of the "new" Topps card company was Web Cards. By using web cards, card collectors could take cards from specially marked packs and put codes from the cards into a website. Using the website, card owners could display their cards to friends and even trade virtual cards online. But this wasn't it for the new direction of Topps.

Beginning in March of this year, Topps released a new card series entitled Topps 3D Live. After buying a pack of this card series, card-loving children could take the cards and put them in front of their webcam on their computer. 

In this particular card set, the player on the card rises from the paper on the computer screen. As you rotate the card, the player rotates with you. The series even allows card owners to play games with the interactive player. This idea certainly combines the idea of electronic gaming with card collecting.

For any business to be successful, it needs to constantly adapt to the ever-changing consumer market. Topps has a history of being a successful business. By instilling this new idea in their current product, they hope to captivate the hearts of children once again.