Topps Website Now Up to 2011 Standards.

It has been..oh...almost nine years since Topps updated their website (or so it seemed).  Information was never updated, checklists were a hassle to read, and did I mention that information or content was never updated???

Even the Topps Message Boards, the first message boards I joined when I had Internet access, was becoming a problem.  Over the years, the "New Message Boards" had become infested with spammers and many of the locals (like me) were getting sick of them.  I even posted my displeasure to Mr. Mike Mader, the guy that had just been named Topps' Social Media guru.  He mentioned that sooner or later, that the Topps Message Boards, "in their current form, will most certainly be eliminated."  And at the beginning of March, there was no longer a Topps Message Board.  The links to the TMB would send you over to the eTopps Message Boards, which was an entirely different society in their own right.  Now, I joined the eTopps site just to see what was going on but I never posted.  The few hardcore TMB'rs have signed on to eTopps' boards, and are starting to get used to the place.  Sadly, I won't be one of them.  Good luck to you fellas, and as "Keep on Trading."

Which leads me to today's revelation.  I sent my e-mail to Mr. Mader almost a year ago, and even then, he said the site was going to go through a "major redesign."  Almost a year after he responded to my e-mails, Topps website has been relaunched.  And the changes are staggering!!!

From checklists that feature all of Topps' base cards from 1952 to now (still a work in progress) that even shows scans of said cards, to backgrounds that are appropriate to the site content (Topps Attax' page shows...Topps Attax in the background for example).  Links to ToppsTown, the Diamond Giveaway, are easy to find.   

And to show that the TMB is no longer available, there is no link that directs you to a "community."  You'd have to access eTopps.com to get to the message boards.  Now Mader did say that the Topps Facebook pages, whether it be Topps' main FB page or Topps Cards FB page, can serve as a message board of sorts.  And yes, people have placed their comments on there (and on twitter as well), so Topps now reaches a lot more people now than ever before.

But overall, the site looks fantastic.  Congrats to Mike Mader and company on a job well done.  I'm going to enjoy visiting the site and playing around with the checklists (when they're finished of course). 

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama