Topps remains the only baseball card company today to still offer factory sets of their base brand.

These sets were released in hobby dealer exclusive factory set format only and are identical to the regular cards, but these were printed in Ireland with white cardboard (instead of the then-standard gray cardboard) with a glossy finish on the front.

The color of the inner boxes the Tiffany sets came in as well as the estimated number of sets produced (according to the annual Beckett price guide) are: Bowman was Topps' main competitor from 1951 until Topps bought out Bowman after the 1955 season.

Almost 35 years later, in 1989, Topps resurrected the Bowman brand and created a new annual baseball card set which was unique in two ways.

First, the 1989 Bowman cards were 2.5" x 3.75" instead of the standard 2.5" x 3.5" card size (they went back to standard size from 1990 onwards however) and second, its main focus was on upcoming minor league players who Topps believed had a good chance of making it to the majors someday, which continues to be the focus of the Bowman set today.

Although the Bowman sets were not very popular in its first three years, that changed in 1992 when Bowman was upgraded to a premium quality set (with UV coating on both sides and a special subset with bronze foil borders), and very limited production.

[1] Since the mid-1990s the vast majority of the MLB's top stars were featured on a Bowman card prior to appearing in any other set.

Many hobbyists, however, frowned upon such an expensive set thinking that it was driving the hobby away from younger collectors.

[9] In 2020, a new Honus Wagner card was issued by the company (#45) as part of the second wave (of 5) released that year.

[11] A Canadian licensed version of the Topps set was produced by candy company O-Pee-Chee from 1965 until 1992.

[12] There were also licensed version Topps sets issued in Venezuela from 1959 to 1977, with some changes and the addition of winter league players.

The 1957 set is one of the most sought after by hobbyists due to the photographic quality and simple card design.

Topps generally had 10 different color scheme designs per year, one for each team in their respective league (National and American).

The schemes were as follows: The 1969 set introduced two new color schemes to accommodate the expansion teams that began play in that year: Players generally gave multiple poses for Topps, and Topps chose which one to put on a card.

In later years, Topps developed an airbrush technique where the cap logo would be manually altered or blacked out.

For example, the 1968 Athletics, after moving from Kansas City to Oakland, are pictured wearing blacked out caps with green bills.