Welcome to the first of three articles that will review the eTopps experiment for the past year. It's been a wild one. With issues down this winter and people complaining on the message boards that eTopps is doomed, we at eTopps Clubhouse thought that it would be a good dose of reality to take a look back over that past year to see exactly how we, as eTopps collectors and speculators alike, ended up where we are today.

Have things ever looked as uncertain as they do today? Oooooh yeah! All you have to do is turn the clock back a year and you'll see a picture that was so bleak it's a wonder anyone bought eTopps at all! But ask anyone who was here then and they'll tell you that they were glad that they did! So strap yourself in, and prepare for a review of the Rags to Riches to Reality story that we like to call "The eTopps 2002 Year in Review".

Part One - The Few, The Proud, The eTopps Collectors...

When 2002 started things looked grim for the eTopps experiment. The vast majority of the recent football issues were trading for well below IPO and things could not look worse as Tony Banks' card came back with a record low pick up of 186. As the basketball season approached, people who had invested $3.50, $6.50 or even $9.50 each in these attractive cards looked at their portfolios, shrugged and collectively said "Well, at least I have some cool-looking cards, or some nice coasters for my Super Bowl party..." And since many issues were trading in the embarrassing range of two to three dollars, that looked to be about their only purpose.

In the sporting world, the St. Louis Rams were steamrolling through the playoffs. New England needed a controversial no-fumble ruling to help them get by the Oakland Raiders and Angelo Dundee watched his job disappear along with the Super Bowl aspirations of the powerhouse Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In the eTopps world, cardholders were taking bets on how badly the Rams would trounce the Patriots and trying to pick a day that they were going to get their cards sent to them in-hand once Topps realized that this experiment was a failure. If they had wagered any money on either of those things happening they would have lost big-time. More on that in Part Two.

Needless to say, the 2001 Football season had not gone well. Print runs were at record lows, and immediate profits were pretty much non-existent. This was the second year for football, but initial sales were less than the previous, "Test Launch" period. Logically, there should have been more people buying more cards, but that did not seem to be the case.

Collectors could only sigh as the 2001 football issues, one after the other, continued to underperform. There were few rays of sunshine. Some of the inaugural 2000 football issues were trading for well above IPO price. Marshall Faulk 2000 would peak around $60.00. Jamal Lewis would hit the mid 50s. So, even in an uninspiring down market, there was some hope. But with IPOs selling at all-time lows, it looked like the investor would have to wait at least a year to make back their money. The big question was "Will Topps keep the program around that long?!"

Some of the ridiculously low print runs included Tony Banks with 186 cards printed, Akili Smith with 202, Eric Moulds with 217, Stephen Davis with 231... the list went on and on. In all, 30 - nearly half - of the 2001 football issues had print runs of less than 300. And the prices immediately fell below IPO. Only a few people were buying these cards and they seemed to have no one to sell them to, in spite of the vast membership of eBay.

The inaugural basketball season saw continued apathy among collectors toward eTopps. The only sellout was Kobe Bryant at a print run of 5,000. Fifty of the seventy-two new issues failed to break the 1000 mark in print run, but at least the print runs were slightly greater than those of football. Prices stabilized in the secondary market - but were very low. Most of the people collecting at that time took the attitude of "Well, I've been with it this long. Might as well stick around to see what happens. It can't get much worse!"

It did not get any worse. But it did not get much better either.

Hakeem Olajuwon saw a quick run-up to the $20.00 mark, but just as quickly fell. Through this time, most of the basketball cards could be easily had for between three and six dollars. And with so few cards being printed, one had to wonder just how long Topps would continue with this costly experiment!

If the eTopps supporters were looking for hockey to breathe new life in the program they were disappointed. Hockey saw 31 of the 35 issues fail to reach a print run of 1000. Brendan Shanahan was the only sellout, with 2000 cards going for $3.50 each. The largest print run belonged to Ilya Kovalchuk, who had a print run of 2,513. The secondary market continued to be weak as spring approached.

At this point, Topps' commitment to the program seemed to be pretty low-key. Despite brave words from Topps management that this was the future of card collecting, Topps efforts to promote these cards were pretty uninspiring. The program itself relied heavily on word of mouth, and with very few issues turning a profit, that was understandably poor.

But, as the winter snows were beginning to thaw, and Major League Baseball's annual exercise (Spring Training) opened upon the sports world, things were happening behind the scenes that would forever change the landscape of eTopps. In part two, we'll look at what happened that would change the face of eTopps forever. It's a section we call "From Rags to Riches" or "From Cardboard Cup Holders to Caviar Dreams".

Part 2 - "From Rags to Riches" or "From Cardboard Cup Holders to Caviar Dreams"

Part 3 - Reality Bites…