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Topps Releases Checklist for International Trading Card Day

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Jeff

This Saturday, 8/6/22, is the Topps International Trading Card Day. For the first time, Garbage Pail Kids will be part of the festivities. Collectors visiting a participating hobby shop this Saturday can choose a free 5-card pack of either baseball, soccer, or GPK.
Topps today released the checklist, and there is a wide variety of GPK cards in the set. The base set features 30 cards. There are 15 cards using artwork from 2022S1 GPK Book Worms, and 15 cards featuring artwork from OS 1. Additionally, collectors can find random artist autographs of the same 15 cards from 2022S1 Book Worms. The autos will not be on the card, as the artists signed sticker autos for the promotion. See below for the GPK portion of the checklist, the entire checklist can be found here. A list of participating hobby shops can be found here. Get out there this weekend and visit your local hobby store!

2022 GPK S1 BASE CARDS
GPKB-1 Researching Ralph
GPKB-2 Spammed Sam
GPKB-3 Book Mark
GPKB-4 Angry Ahab
GPKB-5 Abner Underpants
GPKB-6 Whittled Woody
GPKB-7 Hexing Hermione
GPKB-8 Flattened Frank
GPKB-9 Slappy Sly
GPKB-10 Split Kit
GPKB-11 Stacked Jack
GPKB-12 Cheshire Pat
GPKB-13 Story Book Bastian
GPKB-14 Too-Hot Tom
GPKB-15 AMBUSHED ART

GPK OS1 BASE CARDS
GPKOS1-1 Nasty Nick
GPKOS1-2 Junkfood John
GPKOS1-3 Up Chuck
GPKOS1-4 Dead Ted
GPKOS1-5 Stormy Heather
GPKOS1-6 Adam Bomb
GPKOS1-7 Tee-Vee Stevie
GPKOS1-8 Potty Scotty
GPKOS1-9 Junky Jeff
GPKOS1-10 Drippy Dan
GPKOS1-11 Nervous Rex
GPKOS1-12 Creepy Carol
GPKOS1-13 New Wave Dave
GPKOS1-14 Slimy Sam
GPKOS1-15 Buggy Betty

GPK ARTIST AUTOGRAPH CARDS
GPKA-AA Angry Ahab
GPKA-AAR AMBUSHED ART
GPKA-AU Abner Underpants
GPKA-BM Book Mark
GPKA-CP Cheshire Pat
GPKA-FF Flattened Frank
GPKA-HH Hexing Hermione
GPKA-RR Researching Ralph
GPKA-SB Story Book Bastian
GPKA-SJ Stacked Jack
GPKA-SK Split Kit
GPKA-SS Spammed Sam
GPKA-SSL Slappy Sly
GPKA-TT Too-Hot Tom
GPKA-WW Whittled Woody

Topps Reveals Image for 9 Card GPK Puzzle Giveaway at SDCC

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Jeff

Topps shared with GPKNews the image of the 9 card Garbage Pail Kids puzzle giveaway at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. The artwork, done by artist Chris Meeks, features a number of GPKs all invading SDCC, both above and underground! Collectors attending the show can collect the completed image in a 9 card puzzle available at 9 different GPK partner licensee booths. Each booth has 500 cards to pass out over the five day show. Topps did give each partner suggested daily handout limits, so collectors will want to visits the booths early! Checkout the checklist below for the list of participating booths.

Garbage Pail Kids Part of Topps International Trading Card Day

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Jeff

Do you want a Mike Trout or Adam Bomb? Collectors get to make that choice during this year’s Topps International Trading Card Day. Previously called National Baseball Card Day, Topps is expanding the program this year to include different brands. Collectors that visit a participating hobby store on Aug. 6 can choose to receive a free pack of either MLB, UEFA soccer, or Garbage Pail Kids cards. Topps released information to distributors today on the promotion along with the first look at the cards. Each pack of cards contains 5 cards from the brand collectors choose and 1 marketing card. No checklist has been revealed yet for the program, so there is no information yet on the set size. Each 50 pack box stores buy, yes hobby shop have to purchase the packs, contain 30 MLB, 13 soccer, and 7 GPK packs. Topps did reveal a checklist and participating store list on last year’s promotion just prior to the date, so hopefully collectors will have the information again this year.

Topps Files Trademark for GPK Phlushers

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Jeff

Will you soon be able to cuddle with your Garbage Pail Kids? According to Paul Lesko, Topps recently filed for a trademark for GPK Phlushers. Lesko is known for following and reporting on all the legal happenings in the trading card industry. The application was filed on 5/18/22, and covers dolls, stuffed toys, plush toys, and toy figurines. Is Topps considering getting into the stuffed toy market? A trademark doesn’t mean a product is a for sure thing, but does give some insight into what Topps might be working on.

Funny new trademark filing from Topps: GPK PHLUSHERS.

Covers dolls, stuffed toys, plush toys, and toy figurines. pic.twitter.com/uLEC0oJfd7

— Paul Lesko (@Paul_Lesko) May 25, 2022

Garbage Pail Kids Collector Featured on History Channel Show

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Jeff

If you collect Garbage Pail Kids you probably are a child of the 1980’s. The new History Channel show, Adam Eats the 80’s, brings back all the nostalgia around food from that decade. Episode 2, Only in the 80’s, features the candy collection of long time Garbage Pail Kids collector, Russell Vandiver (RusVan). The host of the show is Adam Richman, you may recognize Adam from various food channel shows such as Man vs. Food. The show features Adam traveling across the country to relive popular food items from the 80’s.

In the second episode of the show, the last two segments feature what is probably the largest vintage candy collection in the US. GPK collectors might recognize the owner of that collection, Russell Vandiver. Russell has been a long time member of the GPK collecting community. He was part of the old GPKUG forums, and continues to be an active part of various Facebook groups. Russell is also the foremost expert on GPK Cheap Toys from the 80’s. The show spends a lot of time on his GPK collection both cards and Cheap Toys.

The segment with Russell was filmed in November of last year. Producers decided to film only part of the collection! Filming was done on the living room displays, while other parts of his collection reside in the loft and spare bedroom of his house. GPKNews asked Russell how the spot on the show came about, “I had a buyer in my GARBAGE ARCHIVE store for several years that turned out to be a producer, who was pitching a new show about food from the 80’s. History took it, and then they contacted Topps and asked Topps if they could film on their location. Topps said they have almost nothing of their old candy lines and then signed a rights document over to me, so that I could represent Topps for this program. This then lead to an interview, which lead to me sending pics and them forming a script. During this process I had to fight to get some of the attention at least off candy and get GPK, and mainly Cheap Toys mentioned. Unfortunately, in post-production Topps changed their mind and said they did not want to be mentioned in the show, which meant almost 95% of my lines were cut because all day I talked about Topps! Also if you notice, they cropped out most of the Topps logos in the images, but they did miss a few.”

While the filming took a long 13 hours, Russell had a great time with Adam and the producers, “Incredible, the energy coming off this guy was nothing I’ve ever experienced. I realized why he hosts a bunch of different shows, Adam is amazing!” The edpsode first aired on The History Channel on Feb. 27, 2022, and is now available to watch online through your local cable company or Amazon Prime Video.

Garbage Pail Kids to be Part of Topps International Trading Card Day

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Jeff

Card shop owners from across the country are gathered this week in Arizona for the yearly Topps Industry Summit. This year’s conference has featured both Topps employees with Fanatics leadership discussing how the trading card industry moves forward. As usual, the discussions and news coming from the conference is focused on baseball and other sports properties that Topps manages. However, there’s always a nugget or two of Garbage Pail Kids information that comes from the show. Today, during one of Topps presentations, information was shared on Topps plans for this year’s International Trading Card Day. Previously, National Trading Card day, was only available in the US and focused on baseball cards. Topps is expanding the skope and presence of the event this year. On August 6th collectors in the US, UK, Japan, and Germany will be able to go into a participating hobby store and pick out a free pack of either MLB, UEFA, Star Wars, or Garbage Pail Kids cards. The cards for this type of event are usually specifically for the event, so collectors can expect something new. Mark your calendars and plan to get to your local hobby store on 8/6/22!

Tom Bunk Featured in 2021 Topps Allen & Ginter Set

Posted on August 7, 2021 by Jeff

Original Series Garbage Pail Kids artist Tom Bunk is featured in the upcoming 2021 Topps Allen & Ginter release. Thanks to collector Jeremy Lawson for first posting information about the card, and sending along pictures. Topps has been releasing Allen & Ginter (A&G) sets since 2006. While the sets primarily are focused on baseball players, they always include a number of celebrities and people of interest within the set. Bunk is card #250 in the regular base card set. The back of the card reviews Tom’s history of working for Mad Magazine and creating GPKs and Wacky Packages. It wouldn’t be Topps, if there also wasn’t a handful of parallels of the card to collect. Besides the base card, there are also regular sized Glossy (1/1) and Silver Portrait (Hobby Only) parallels. There are also a slew of mini parallels. The card can be found in Mini (1:1), A&G Back Mini (1:5), Black Mini (1:10), No Number mini (/50), Brooklyn Back (/25), Glossy (1/1), Wood (Hobby 1/1), and Framed Printing Plates (1/1). Cards have been showing up online this weekend, but the official release date for 2021 Topps Allen & Ginter is 8/11/21.

Topps Taking Company Public In Merger With Mudrick Capital

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Jeff

Topps announced today they will be merging with Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation and taking taking the company public. The deal is expected to close late 2nd quarter or early 3rd quarter, and values the company at $1.3 billion. Once the deal closes the company will trade on the NASDAQ market under the TOPP symbol. Current Chairman, Michael Eisner, and current CEO, Michael Brandstaedter, will remain in their current rolls with the company. Previous owners, Madison Dearborn Partners will be exiting the company, while Eisner will convert his equity and become the company’s largest shareholder. The company was previously a public company prior to Eisner and Dearborn purchasing it in 2007. To read the fulls details of the deal, visit the release on Topps Investor website.

How does this involve Garbage Pail Kids you wonder? Well besides being made by Topps, today’s release by the company gives some insight to the business, and how the company perceives the brand. As part of an investor slideshow the Garbage Pail Kids brand is listed as one of the company’s key brands, along with MLB, Star Wars, WWE, Formula 1, and UEFA. The is high praise for a brand that was in mothballs just 11 years ago, and was seen as a niche brand.

Additionally, throughout the presentation and in media interviews today, the company and Eisner pushed hard their move to digital and NFTs. Topps clearly sees NFTs as the future of the company. While physical cards aren’t going anywhere, there will be a huge push in 2021 and 2022 into the NFT space. The Garbage Pail Kids brand was called out throughout the presentation for being the guinea pig for NFTs during 2020. It’s also interesting to note the company did $567 million in revenues in 2020, which was a 23% increase over 2019. The company expects to do $692 million in 2021. Currently Topps reports 55% of revenues come from physical trading cards, 6% from digital, and the remaining from their candy and gift card businesses.

Contact your stock broker today, soon you too can own a piece of Topps!

Topps Looking for New GPK Brand Manager as Jessica Kanzer Leaves Topps

Posted on February 17, 2021 by Jeff

GPKNews has learned that Garbage Pail Kids Brand Manager Jessica Kanzer is no longer with Topps. Sources say Jessica left Topps a couple weeks ago for an opportunity in another field. Jessica had been leading the retail releases for GPK. She took over for previous brand manager Colin Walton in mid-2018. She oversaw all the retail sets since 2018S2, including the recently released 35th Anniversary and Chrome OS 3 releases. In addition to GPK, Jessica worked on Topps’ entertainment properties like Wacky Packages, WWE, and Star Wars.

According to a Topps spokesperson, the Brand Manager team is working to cover Jessica’s former responsibilities until a replacement is hired. There is currently a listing for Brand Manager – Entertainment on Topps’ job website. The change in leadership is not expected to cause any delays with releases. Work was already completed on 2021S1 Food Fight before her resignation. While no future sets have been officially announced, work continues uninterrupted on 2021S2 by the GPK artists. The GPK brand is exploding in popularity, whomever takes over will have the chance to lead Topps’ entertainment properties through these times.

More Info on 2021 Topps Baseball Series 1 Garbage Pail Kids Insert

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Jeff

With the official release of 2021 Topps Series Baseball tomorrow, boxes are already being busted and cards have started appearing on eBay. As announced on the checklist last week, the History of Topps Insert Set within the series contains a Garbage Pail Kids card celebrating the launch of the brand in 1985. Thanks to collector Joshua for sending along pictures of the card. The card features the iconic Adam Bomb OS 1 card on the front. The card is numbered HOT-5. GPK collectors looking for the card should be aware the card comes in multiple parallels. In addition to the base card, there is also Blue, Black (/299), Platinum Anniversary (/70), Red (/10), and Gold (1/1). As you can see below from some of the early odds, the card will not be an easy pull, especially the parallels.