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NEW BLISTER PACKAGE FOR TOPPS BASEBALL CARDS CUTS COSTS, IMPROVES APPEARANCE AND PREVENTS PILFERAGE
Colbert Packaging's Unique BlisterGuard® Package Combines Everest® Safe-Pak Bleached Board from International Paper, Valéron High-Strength Film and Brookdale Plastics' Blister to Maximize High-End Collectible Card Protection
Stealing bases is a plus in professional baseball - it can get players onto premium collectible cards and maybe into the Baseball Hall of Fame as well. But for purveyors of valuable collectible cards, stealing can be an expensive problem.
Topps Company Inc. - a leading international marketer of entertainment products, principally collectible trading cards, confections, sticker collections and comic books - had been relying on plastic clamshells to thwart tampering and pilfering of its premium Major League Baseball cards, which sell for up to $50 a package. But the clamshell packaging was expensive and not "esthetically pleasing," according to Bob Riley, Director of Topps USA. So the company began searching for ways to reduce the costs and improve the appearance without jeopardizing the security of the packaging.
Riley's search led him to Lake Forest, Ill., where Colbert Packaging had just introduced a new security package called BlisterGuard®. "They said it offered excellent visual appeal at far less cost than the plastic clamshells," Riley said. "We decided to check it out. We found that not only did the package meet our expectations, but also that Colbert was able to offer one-stop shopping as well. Their ability to handle printing, converting, assembling and filling the package, heat-sealing the filled package, and shipping to our distributors and retailers would make the effort much easier for us."
Favorable Customer Response
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"We had Colbert produce some samples and took them around to the retail trade. Everyone was favorably impressed. So we decided to move ahead by switching four series of our premium lines of baseball card collectibles," Riley noted. "Topps Clubhouse Collection," "Bowman's Best Baseball," "Topps Pristine Baseball," and "Topps Retired Signature Edition" led the way. The patent-pending BlisterGuard package, which had been in development for almost two years, incorporates Everest® Safe-Pak bleached board from International Paper, a new heat-sealable, tear-resistant paperboard, laminated with a multi-layer, three-mil, high-strength Valéron film. It has a tear-resistant hanger hold for durability. The fold-over board encapsulates a custom designed blister from Brookdale Plastics to form a package that provides eye appeal and exceptional security, explained Glenn Grosskopf, Vice President, Product Development. "It is lower in cost and safer to open than standard RF (radio frequency) sealed clamshells," he said. |
The 16-pt. Everest Safe-Pak bleached board for the Topps package is produced at International Paper's Texarkana, Texas mill. The rolls of board are shipped to an International Paper facility in Raleigh, N.C., where they are laminated to the film from Houston, Texas-based Valéron Strength Films, an ITW Company. "The film's layers are oriented and then criss-crossed to eliminate grain direction, a process that assures superior tamper-, pilfer- and tear-resistance," Rich Witmer, Valéron's Marketing Communications Manager, pointed out. The non-printed side of the board is extrusion coated to enable effective heat sealing.
Erin Rotonde, Marketing Manager for International Paper, said the Everest Safe-Pak bleached board "has up to five times the tear resistance of current fold-over boards on the market. Additionally, the new material enables shorter dwell times and lower temperatures for efficient sealing of the filled blister packages."
No Additional Equipment
The laminated, extrusion-coated rolls are then sent to Colbert's Lake Forest facility, where they undergo four-color process printing on standard offset presses. The printed board is die cut both to hold the blister and for hanging and is converted to final specifications. "We did not need any additional equipment to die cut and convert the board," noted Grosskopf. "The finished board then goes to our facility in South Bend, Ind. where the product packaging occurs."
The plastic blister that holds the Topps card packs is supplied by Brookdale Plastics, a leading thermoformer for the medical device and consumer packaging markets. The material, .015" virgin PVC, is produced on a Sencorp HP2000 Form and Trim machine at Brookdale's manufacturing facility in Plymouth, Minn., and shipped to the South Bend plant. According to Jeff Tullbane, Sales & Marketing Manager for Brookdale, "the blister is custom designed so that the fit, form and function showcases the product and seals most efficiently to the blister card."
At the packaging facility, Colbert personnel place BlisterGuard cards on tables for application of Sensormatic and Checkpoint security tags to the cards. Once the cards are tagged they are moved to the production line a short distance away.
The Topps card packs, which have been shipped to South Bend from several Midwest production facilities, arrive in cartons that hold bulk packs of a specific series. A pack of Topps cards is loaded face side down into the plastic blister, which is then inserted into the blank side of the BlisterGuard card. This is then placed onto slide rails that feed the sealing machine. The back of the BlisterGuard card is folded over for heat sealing. A mirror located under the rails provide additional visual confirmation of blister placement accuracy. This unit is forwarded to the heat sealer and inserted into four-up tooling for the sealing process in which the inside of the board is bonded to itself.
Every 12 completed packages are then inserted into a display box with a Topps checklist placed on top. The display boxes are stamped with the exact time, date and machine code. Four display boxes are placed inside a master case. Master cases are then placed on skids and packed out according to Topps' carton layout. Each master case is marked by the name of the series and the time and date stamped in two locations. Skids are labeled on all four sides with purchase order number, series number, title and address of each customer. These are then shipped to retailers and distributors.
"We are quite pleased with the switch," said Peter Sawkins, Topps' Marketing Director for Sports. "The high-end brands contain one autographed card per pack as well as other cards. We needed to be sure the package isn't tampered with and the cards aren't pilfered. We also wanted our package to help sell the product. The new BlisterGuard package works well on both counts."
Riley concurs, adding that "we found a better mousetrap at a better price. We're now beginning to package our 'Pristine Football' cards and several other premium lines of football and basketball cards in BlisterGuard."
For further information about BlisterGuard, contact Glenn Grosskopf at Colbert Packaging, 847-367-5990. For further information about Everest® Safe-Pak bleached board, contact Erin Rotonde at International Paper, 901-419-4215. For further information about Valéron Strength Films, contact Rich Witmer, 713-996-4260. For further information about Brookdale Plastics, contact Jeff Tullbane, 763-797-1057.