Author Topic: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands  (Read 1485 times)

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Offline vahsurfer

  • Posts: 1698
Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« on: January 26, 2025, 09:11:06 AM »
Happy NFC AFC Wacky Championship Day!

Over the past 2 weekends, we have had two card shows here in Virginia Beach.  One was smaller and the one I visited yesterday was 95+ tables with celebrities and all.

It really hit me yesterday as I walked the whole show, 95+ tables and not one Wacky Packages vendor, dealer or individual.
This made me really think how sad this is and almost hurt inside these kids have no clue about this great and humorous product.

Topps MUST be better about promoting what they sell and educate the masses!!!!

These are my quick observations where Topps is missing a huge and untapped market:

1.  Kids! We all started out as kids with Wacky Packages
2.  You already have a captive audience at these shows

Both shows had a HUGE showing with Pokemon cards.  One table at one show had GPK.

So...... I believe it is Topps' interest to help promote there brands at these shows.  I already feel Wacky Packages get the short end of the stick compared to GPK (sorry NOT a fan).
There must be many shows like the 2 we had across the country.

How difficult would it be for Topps to have "Brand Ambassadors" in Regional Markets.  They set up a small table.  GIVE AWAY Excess inventory of Wacky Packages and GPK.  Who cares if it is an older series.  It is all about creating interest in the brand, basic advertising 101.

I see all these young children and teenagers and adults, all Geeks like us!  They probably are not aware of the Wacky Packages, so why not share and educate them your product exists!!!!
What better way then to give them a pack and hook them a potential lifetime customer!

Thanks for listening and hopefully someone will see to it that Topps reads this post.

Richard
#StayWacky

Offline quas

  • Posts: 1908
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2025, 12:35:09 PM »
Agree!
Marc

Offline RawGoo

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Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2025, 02:31:27 PM »
Absolutely, kids are the key!!

Offline lucidjc

  • Posts: 1469
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2025, 03:37:18 PM »
If it doesn't have a screen, battery and or joystick the future looks dim.

I don't see them spending money on advertising at today's cost. That may have been why they killed retail nationwide distribution. E-mails are free to those who sign up.

I thought Brand Busters was a solid set. I think a second series was planned but I think that was dropped. Are other brands available? Seems like Topps put the kybosh to that.

No talk of Old School anywhere, hope that hasn't ended.

Offline drono

  • Posts: 1487
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2025, 08:50:01 PM »
How difficult would it be for Topps to have "Brand Ambassadors" in Regional Markets.  They set up a small table.  GIVE AWAY Excess inventory of Wacky Packages and GPK.  Who cares if it is an older series.  It is all about creating interest in the brand, basic advertising 101.

I see all these young children and teenagers and adults, all Geeks like us!  They probably are not aware of the Wacky Packages, so why not share and educate them your product exists!!!!
What better way then to give them a pack and hook them a potential lifetime customer!

I think the next time I go to one of the shows in Virginia Beach, I'll take some of my many duplicate ANS Wackys and just hand them out to the kids.  The only problem is that the kids won't know what they have or how to get more. 

Maybe Topps should make some "advertising" Wackys with information on the back about what they are and stick a few of them in each of their online sales Wacky sets.  They already produce so many extra base sets that become fodder, so why not throw in a few of these for this purpose.  Then we collectors could handle the regional distribution by handing them out at card shows.

Offline JailOJohn

  • Posts: 794
  • Sticking Wackys on Furniture since 1973...
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2025, 08:21:16 PM »
I have handed out ANS wackys at Halloween the last few years. Not sure kids or parents know how to get more, but i am trying to get Wackys out there…

Offline romebest17

  • Posts: 4
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2025, 12:45:13 PM »
Any card shows in Virginia Beach in March? Gunna be there the end of the month for a few days would love to stop by one.

Offline vahsurfer

  • Posts: 1698
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2025, 04:04:23 PM »
There is a Pokemon schedule show in Norfolk, VA 3-1-25.

A comment was made about it basically not having a screen.  I could not disagree more.  Sure they / we love our screens.
Pokemon Cards were the RAGE at both shows - no screens or Joysticks.

Please Topps - Get with the Program.

Richard
#StayWacky

Offline FourRoses

  • Posts: 732
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2025, 02:27:21 PM »
The card aisles are packed with all sorts of cards but zero Wacky Packages. I get the online thing but in store wouldn't hurt either.

Offline vahsurfer

  • Posts: 1698
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2025, 04:54:06 PM »
Here is an example - 180 Tables! - CAPTIVE AUDIENCE!!!

Topps - Wake up and Smell the Money!!

Richard
#StayWacky


Offline Mashbox

  • Drive Yourself Buggy
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Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2025, 12:17:02 PM »
If Topps really wants to get Wackys back into kids' minds, they need to find a way to turn them into a trading card game.

Pokemon still sells well. Disney released a Lorcana trading card game that proved popular.

If Topps figured out a way to make a trading card game that incorporated Wackys, that might be the trick.

Offline vahsurfer

  • Posts: 1698
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2025, 08:48:06 AM »
Great Ideas!

Keep them flowing!


Richard
#StayWacky

Offline FourRoses

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Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2025, 01:51:54 PM »
Kids can walk into a Walmart, Cracker Barrel, etc..., and buy Pokemon cards. Would they buy these things as much as they do if it were online only? I doubt it.

Offline sco(o)t

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Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #13 on: February 08, 2025, 04:56:09 PM »
    It’s hard to compare Wackies to Pokémon cards though. Pokémon keeps adding new generations by adapting to the popular media or technology of the time. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, my kids got into it because of the TV cartoon series. They then started collecting the cards. It didn’t hurt that Burger King gave out Pokémon related toys, coins, pokeballs, etc. for several years in their kids meals.

    Movies followed along with the never-ending string of video games that are still being made. Clothing plushies, books, and the like appeal to differing age groups. About 8 years ago, they released a game called Pokémon Go for mobile phones. It was pretty innovative, along with several other similar games, that started using “augmented reality”. This  allows the player to move around the real world, while encountering Pokémon, gyms, and  other elements from the card game and TV show.
Over the past 8 years, they continue to add new features regularly to try to retain players and keep it fresh.

    People at Nintendo, Niantic, and other Pokémon related companies, are kind of master minds of keeping all these revenue streams interconnected and interesting to attractive new youth, but also keeping many people my kids’ age, in their 30s, interested with new offerings. Once every 5 years or so, they introduce a new generation of Pokemon characters.

    But this was a gradual process of releasing new products over a long haul. Sports cards continue to appeal because new generations are interested in sports as an ever changing cultural entity. But you definitely see shifts in which sports are popular. I never thought we’d see soccer trading cards, for example.  Wackies appealed to our generation for a number of reasons, but did not in the same way with subsequent ones.

     Parody and satire like I found entertaining included MAD, Cracked, National Lampoon magazines and the like; radio programs like Dr. Demento; movies and TV like Naked Gun, Get Smart,.. or Mel Brooks spoofs or mockumentaries like Spinal Tap, all have pretty much fallen by the wayside, sadly. The closest thing today are lots of political based music parodies on social media and late night talk shows.

     I guess Wackies were relevant for us at the time, and the medium of trading cards hit us in a spot that was great. Without some type of social media presence,not sure how Wackies can be made appealing to youth today. But I fear it would take more than just that. There would have to be some reason they fealt that Wackies  belonged to them. GPK cards are similar to Wackies but don’t appeal to some of us because our tolerance level for certain types of humor is lower, perhaps. For whatever reason many of us think they belong to a different generation.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2025, 05:30:29 PM by sco(o)t »
aka Scot Leibacher (no trademark)

Offline FourRoses

  • Posts: 732
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #14 on: February 09, 2025, 06:15:55 AM »
Most people here became aware of Wacky Packages at the corner store, concession stand at a little league game, etc...., Something tells me we wouldn't have found an interest if we needed to dive deep just to find out about these cards. The appeal to kids is long gone. Topps royally screwed it up and it didn't need to be that way. Disposable income still exists for hobbies.

Think about the significance and even the somewhat bizarre ideal that we could walk into a Cracker Barrel and see collectible hobby cards for sale.

Offline vahsurfer

  • Posts: 1698
Re: Topps Growth Opportunities for Wacky Packages & Other Brands
« Reply #15 on: February 09, 2025, 08:44:59 AM »
Cracker Barrel !!!  Great idea.

There are always opportunities - we need to pull off the blinders and help our hobby grow!

Thanks for the feedback.

Richard
#StayWacky