How come Topps did not make any basketball cards from 1983-91?

Estil

I know the short answer would be "they weren't profitable enough" but I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that. As you guys know, I decided several months ago to start a Topps football run (I'm only lacking 1980, 1981, 1995, 1997 to finish a 1980-2000 run) and I would have loved to have done a Topps b-ball run as well, if it weren't for that big nearly ten year gap from 1983-91. I don't understand why Topps didn't make basketball sets that year (they DID do hockey those years after all and I'm sure basketball is way more popular than hockey outside of Canada). That would've been a cool run to have made had it existed. Imagine what a Topps Jordan RC would've been like. I guess Topps didn't' care about that whole Bird/Magic rivalry?

I guess I could always do a Fleer run (which seems to be the "Topps of basketball" for the mid-80s to early 90s) of course.

Leiascards

I am sure it had to do with licensing agreements.

Estil

<< <i>I am sure it had to do with licensing agreements. >>



I can understand that being true for 1986-87 onward (Fleer), but what about the years before that? Did the NBA just not like basketball cards?

JackWESQ

Dear Estil,

Check out this thread where I posed the same question.

/s/ JackWESQ

ICE9

<< <i>I don't understand why Topps didn't make basketball sets that year (they DID do hockey those years after all and I'm sure basketball is way more popular than hockey outside of Canada). >>



Actually, Topps skipped hockey for two seasons, I believe. 1982-83 & 1983-84 were OPC only releases only. They were probably trying to survive the competition & focus on their most profitable product (baseball) as Fleer & Donruss had entered the market a few years earlier.

Mike

PROMETHIUS88

They didn't have enough cardboard left after massively over-producing baseball card sets!

CDsNuts

Because.

bigfische

racism