ETopps Offers Unique Super Tuesday Collectibles of Presidential Candidates Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Romney

eTopps, the internet-based presence of Topps, the grandfather of sports cards, is entering the excitement of this year's Presidential election campaign with unique collectible cards of the major Presidential contenders on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008. Keeping with the sports card tradition of eTopps, Senators Obama, Clinton, McCain, and former Governor Romney will be pictured throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game. The cards are exclusively offered at eTopps.com, and are in a retrospective design looking like Allen and Ginter cards from the 19^th century.

eTopps began offering football cards that individuals could purchase via the internet in 2000. Since then, they have also issued baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and NASCAR cards. The cards are limited in print runs, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand of each card. Purchasers can either pay a shipping fee to have the cards sent to their residence in mint condition in a sealed hard plastic case, or keep the cards in storage by eTopps and viewable in an on-line portfolio. Cards kept on-line can remain in a virtual collection, be bought or sold on eBay or the specialty web site CardTarget.com, traded for other eTopps cards, or ordered for shipping at a later date.

While eTopps has issued more than 2,300 different athletes in the last eight years, the Presidential candidates are the second foray by eTopps into political collectibles. Last year, eTopps issued cards of five former presidents (Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton) and George W. Bush. Each President had 999 cards issued at an initial price of $7.50 or $8. Since then, the cards have risen in resell value with most recently selling for about $20, and the Kennedy and Reagan cards selling for over $30.

eTopps is also offering a bonus for the candidates that become the Republic and Democratic nominees. eTopps offers "rewards points" that can be exchanged for eTopps cards in a weekly electronic catalog or traded for cards on eTopps' trade post. Each nominee will receive 2 reward points, worth about $2. It will be interesting to see if the resale values of the cards track the candidates' electoral successes on Super Tuesday. Most likely, one of the cards will become the seventh President pictured on an eTopps card. So if you live in a state with a primary or caucus on February 5, vote for your favorite candidate, and regardless of where you live you can vote in eTopps campaign by purchasing a card from eTopps or CardTarget.com.