A Synergy of Packaging Technologies Allows Topps to Curb Pilfering at a Reasonable Price

The new BlisterGuard® pack is an attractive alternative to clamshells for small, expensive items like these Topps collectible card packs that retail at up to $30 each.

Preventing the best base-stealers in Major League Baseball is a challenge to even the best pitchers and catchers in the Big Leagues. Preventing the best packet-pilferers at retail is a challenge that the best packaging companies have, of late, been rising to.

Topps Company Inc. is a leading international marketer of entertainment products, principally collectible trading cards, confections, sticker collections, and comic books. Some of Topps premium lines of Major League Sports cards retail at up to $30 a package. Topps had been relying on plastic clamshells to thwart tampering and pilfering, but they felt that the clamshell packaging was expensive, not aesthetically pleasing at point of purchase, and annoying for the customer to open.

Bob Riley, director of Topps USA, was determined to move away from the expensive, unattractive, and unfriendly clamshell, so Topps 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, IL, where Colbert Packaging had just introduced a new security package called BlisterGuard®.

Colbert Packaging’s unique and patent-pending BlisterGuard package combines several elements, built on Everest® Safe-Pak bleached board from International Paper. Safe-Pak is a new heat-sealable, tear-resistant paperboard, laminated with a multilayer, three-mil, high-strength Valéron® film. It has a tear-resistant hanger hole for durability.

“They said it offered excellent visual appeal at far less cost than the plastic clamshells,” Riley says. “We found that not only did the package meet our expectations, but also that Colbert was able to offer one-stop shopping as well.” Colbert handled printing, converting, assembling, filling, heat-sealing the filled package, and shipping.

A favorable customer response Topps felt that some informal test marketing would be helpful, so Topps had Colbert produce some samples that they took around to the retail trade. The response was roundly positive, and they decided to move ahead by using the new BlisterGuard package on four series of premium baseball card collectibles that run in the $30 range.

Glenn Grosskopf, vice president, product development at Colbert Packaging, explains that the foldover board encapsulates a customdesigned blister from Brookdale Plastics to form a package that provides eye appeal and exceptional security. “It is lower in cost and safer to open than standard RF (radio frequency) sealed clamshells,” Grosskopf says.

The 16-pt. Everest Safe-Pak bleached board for the Topps package is produced at International Paper’s mill in Texarkana, TX, and shipped to an International Paper facility in Raleigh, NC, where it is laminated with the Valéron film from Valéron Strength Films, an ITW Company based in Houston, TX. “The film’s layers are oriented and then criss-crossed to eliminate grain direction, a process that ensures superior tamper-, pilfer- and tearresistance,” explains Rich Witmer, Valéron’s marketing communications manager. 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,” Rotonde claims.

With the successful introduction of the new pilfer-resistant package in Topps premium baseball cards, their premium NFL and NBA cards quickly got the same treatment.

No additional equipment needed The laminated, extrusion-coated rolls are then sent to Colbert’s Lake Forest facility, where they undergo fourcolor 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,” notes Grosskopf.

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, MN.

At the packaging facility, Colbert personnel place BlisterGuard cards on tables for application of Sensormatic and Checkpoint security tags to the cards. After an accurate and secure loading and sealing process, the Topps card packs are inserted 12 at a time into a display box with a Topps checklist placed on top. The display boxes are stamped with the exact time, date and machine code, and the “master cases” of four display boxes are marked similarly.

“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: “We found a better mousetrap at a better price.”