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Baseball Cards Go Live

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By ERIC A. TAUB

The New York Times

Published: March 10, 2009

Since the 1950s, Topps has sold baseball trading cards filled with photos and stats, bringing the game to life. Now the company is bringing its cards to life.

Collectors who hold a special Topps 3D Live baseball card in front of a webcam will see a three-dimensional avatar of the player on the computer screen. Rotate the card, and the figure rotates in full perspective. It's called "augmented reality," a combination of a real image with a virtual one.

"This is the 'Beam me up, Scotty' version of a baseball card that will get kids to buy more. We see this baseball season as a redefining moment for us," said Steve Grimes, chief digital officer at Topps.

Topps needs to augment reality because baseball cards are struggling in the Internet age. Today's collectors, most of whom are still boys, can just as easily find the sports facts they want online.

In 2007, Michael Eisner's Tornante Co. and Madison Dearborn Partners bought Topps for $385 million. They hatched big plans to make trading cards relevant again.

Total Immersion, a French company, brought Topps the augmented reality technology. Using the technology, card collectors see a three-dimensional version of a player and can play elementary pitching, batting and catching games using the computer keyboard.

Eisner said Topps expected to ship 10 million packs of Series 1 (12 cards for $2) and Topps Attax cards this year (5 for $1). Scott Kelnhofer, editor of Card Trade, says the Total Immersion technology could strike a chord with boys. "This is the boldest technology idea we've seen in sports cards so far. The key is not to have it be a novelty and then it's on to the next one."

On deck: virtual cards that "come alive and contain video," said Louise Curcio, vice president for marketing at Upper Deck. For Eisner, the Topps 3D Live cards are a natural extension of the brand. "We take technology as our friend," he said. "The playing card is the beginning, not the end."

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