March 30, 2010

You know, there are some people that say that the trading card industry is down…well, they’re right, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t keep trying new things to bring revenue in the door.

Its probably with that mind set that Topps Trading Cards entered into a deal with the Indian Premier League (IPL) to produce all things related to cricket collectibles in 2011.

Topps will produce stickers, albums and trading cards that will be sold both at retail and online. A substantial marketing campaign is planned that includes television and sampling initiatives as well as a nationwide “Game Play demonstration tour” to help children learn how to play and swap their IPL collectibles.

“This alliance with Topps – the world leader in collectibles, is part of our effort to actively engage IPL fans across multiple platforms,” said Sundar Raman the IPL’s Chief Operating Officer. “Collectable trading cards are an integral part of any fan experience globally and through this partnership we are happy to introduce Indian fans to this unique and exciting global concept.” (via Beckett Blog)

“A substantial marketing campaign is planned that includes television and sampling initiatives as well as a nationwide “Game Play demonstration tour” to help children learn how to play and swap their IPL collectibles.”

Its an interesting concept.  The trading card market in America is bad, so Topps is essentially building a trading card market from scratch over in India.  Granted, I have no clue how popular cricket collectibles are or will be, but you obviously have a strong interest in the sport so it doesn’t seem like a transition from watching cricket to collecting cricket collectibles is a far stretch.

This by no means is Topps first foray into foreign markets, just its most recent; they already have trading cards with Germany’s Bundesliga football and Italy’s Serie A football, among others.

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