Hide Article Text (OCR)
DURYER, Pa. (AP) — Sy Berger approaches his morning newspaper with apprehension, knowing the news on the sports pages may ruin his day. Berger is director of bubble gum trading cards for the Topps Co. and knows there al ways is the chance the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies have swapped infields. Such trades mean millions of his company’s baseball cards are obsolete. But it’s an oc cupational hazard for the man who supervises the printing of a half-billion trading cards each year in baseball, football, basketball and hockey. “Every time there is a trade people call up to tell me about it,” Berger said. At the plant ere which em ploys more than 1,000 persons, high-speed machines print the trading cards in sheets and package them with a piece of flat bubblegum which costs 10 cents. Since the company began producing them in 1951, base ball trading cards always have been popular. Today, they ac count for more than half of all cards sold. In second place are football cards which claim 25 per cent of the market. The rest is divided evenly between basketball and hockey. The company first came out with basketball cards in 1957, but they proved such poor sell ers that they were taken off the market. Twelve years later they tried again, and this time the world was ready. Hockey came in during the early 1950’s, but the cards were only distributed in Canada. However, as hockey spread to the United States and the Na tional Hockey League ex panded and the World Hockey Association was born, Berger began to expand distribution of the hockey cards. He says new hockey cards sell as well as baseball cards in New England. Each athlete receives a flat fee of about $250 for posing for a trading card whether he is a veteran superstar or a rookie. Berger says that making a professional team does not guarantee a player a card of his own. Baseball rookies from the same team are often grouped on the same card. “When I see some of the rookies at spring training, they ask me if they will have a card for themselves next year,” Berger says. For baseball teams, Berger usually chooses 25-30 players, about 20 from football teams and 10 each from basketball and hockey. Berger says when he first started out he had to convince the players that trading cards were a good idea. Now, team owners come to him. A few years ago he was ap proached by professional soc cer, but the soccer cards never caught on. This year the fledgl ing professional tennis organ ization is trying to induce him to push tennis trading cards. His company even explored the possibility of golf trading cards, but dropped it. Generally the cards are printed before the beginning of each season. Where possible, changes are made in case of trades, but often millions of cards are distributed about the same time a player is traded to another team.
Newspaper Details
Glens Falls Post Star And Times
Glens Falls, New York, US
Mon, Dec 10, 1973
Page 22
Full Page
Clipped by
Martin K.
USA 14 Feb 2026
Other Publications Near Glens Falls, New York
Glens Falls Post Star And Times
Glens Falls Times
Glens Falls Post Star
