Michael Eisner, the former Disney chief executive, last year led a consortium that bought trading-card marketer Topps for $385 million. Topps formally launched a website— Toppstown.com — that's not only billed as something new for cards but a new start for a company founded in 1938. Said Eisner Thursday: "This is the future of the company. It's the beginning of the digitization of Topps." While legions of websites sell trading cards online, Toppstown — hyped as "Topps 2.0" and a place "Where Your Cards Come Alive" — is designed to be interactive entertainment. Users can create virtual clubhouses, make Topps baseball cards featuring themselves, trade cards with other users and play video games to win points that can be used to buy Topps products. Some card companies, after glutting the market with cards in the 1990s, turned to marketing high-priced cards. The idea is to get back to connecting with kids who likely don't think of clipping cards in their bicycle spokes. To do so, Eisner says Toppstown.com will launch "Internet-driven material" such as an upcoming Topps Down online comedy starring twins Randy and Jason Sklar, who had an ESPN comedy show. Says Eisner of a company also known for its Bazooka Bubble Gum: "We're on all cylinders digitally.”http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/sports/20080530/topps30.art.htm
http://www.toppstown.com/
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