Over the past century, trading cards have been easily accessible, steadily popular collectibles. Depicting athletes, cowboys, teen heartthrobs, and game characters, they can appeal to any kid and are often the first steps in budding collections. For Star Wars fans, the collecting opportunities number into the thousands.
In 1977, The Topps Company became the first to produce and release Star Wars trading cards to coincide with the first film. Since then, they have remained the official producer in the U.S., though cards are manufactured by various other companies domestically and around the world.
Topps has utilized many different design styles and configurations for the cards, which are released in contained series. In addition to the regular cards, they can also include stickers, autograph cards, costume cards, specialty promos, and mail-away cards. As new sets are released, they feature new characters and scenes while also offering the potential for cards connected to older films.
In 1977, they released five series of Star Wars trading cards. Each set is designated by a different color border surrounding the card images. Though sold in separate series, the cards are numbered sequentially from series to series. In total, Topps produced 330 cards and 55 stickers that year.
With The Empire Strikes Back, Topps produced three more series of cards as well as a set of Giant Photo Cards. Similar to the ones created for Star Wars, these sets featured different color borders with each new release. In 1980, they released 352 cards and 88 stickers, plus 30 in The Giant Photo Cards group.
Return of the Jedi’s run in 1983 was a bit smaller. It consisted of two series with a total of 220 cards and 55 stickers.
Since then, Topps has produced many more card sets for the other films, animated series, original trilogy releases, and specialty sets for vehicles and similar themes. In addition to the regular base sets and stickers, they include chrome cards, autographs, animation cels, dog tags, and several other types of specialty cards. There are thousands of cards, stickers, and related items that represent over 40 years of franchise history.
Learn more about Star Wars trading cards and other series collectibles in The Overstreet Price Guide to Star Wars Collectibles, now available for preorder in PREVIEWS.
