A Visit to ToppsTown

No, the title of this post doesn't refer to a magical place where Topps sports cards are made - though it would be cool if that happened to be true. Rather, ToppsTown is the company's latest effort to get kids more involved in collecting sports cards with their own interactive online space. Though I'm not in the target demographic, I decided to head over to www.toppstown.com anyway and see what it was all about.

Registration is free, and doing so allows you to customize your own avatar and gives you your first few virtual cards. Codes found on special cards in various Topps products (currently in 2008 Topps Series 2 Baseball) give you more virtual cards, special items to trick out your avatar's clubhouse, and points that can be used to "buy" even more items.

ToppsTown also has a zone where users can play a number of sports-related online games. And, since this is a place that's supposed to encourage youngsters to collect cards, there's a zone that allows users to trade virtual cards with each other.

As an adult, I'm not 100 percent sure if today's kids would be into this, but it seems like a worthwhile effort on Topps' part to try to combine something we know they like (the internet) with the hobby of collecting sports cards. If you or your loved ones enjoy ToppsTown, you can find more codes - including ones for football cards and items starting in July - in other Topps brands throughout the year.