Yesterday artists begin receiving word from Topps that they will no longer be producing daily Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages cards. Wednesday’s cards served as the final daily offerings from Topps for the foreseeable future. Instead, Topps will focus on smaller weekly online sets.
The daily cards were based off Topps’ popular Topps Now Baseball Card program started in early 2016. While Topps had been selling smaller GPK sets online, their first daily cards appeared in the GPK Disg-Race to the While house set that took aim at the presidential election. More daily sets were launched by Topps including two Trumpocracy sets, GPK Network Spews, Wacky Packages Alternate Facts, and the Twister set.
There was no overarching reason supplied to the artists on why the daily cards were ending. A number of reasons could certainly be in play. Sales have fallen constantly since the first release of the cards. Collectors have complained about too much political focus, over saturation of the market, along with artwork from certain artists that seems rushed. With sales falling often below 100, it may no longer have made sense financially to offer daily cards.
The focus will now turn to weekly smaller online sets, similar to ones offered in the past. Past sets focused on the holidays, awards shows, TV, and musicians. While sets might not appear every week, you can expect similar themes. More than likely sets will continue to see GPKs mixed with Wacky Packages. With limited political cards, less cards offered, and possibly more time for artists to complete cards, it will be interesting to see if sales start to rise.
Wednesday marked the last day Topps will offer daily GPK cards. Today Topps revealed the print run for Garbage Pail Kids Network Spews #91. The final Network Spews card featuring a trio of superheroes ended up doing really well with collectors finishing with 185 in sales. Topps focus the last couple of weeks was on Wacky Packages cards. What artists showed however was collectors were willing to pay for classic gags, featuring established properties, and well done art. This marks the end of a controversial time in the history of Garbage Pail Kids. With the daily sets now complete it remains to be seeen how topps will incorporate their online offers going forward.
