Bernie Sanders Just Broke This Topps Records

Whether you know it or not, you've probably held a Topps product in your hand at some point in your life. To sports fans and collectors out there, the Topps name is king. They're the largest manufacturer of sports trading cards in the world, along with being the producer Bazooka bubble gum and candies. Of course, the company doesn't limit its card sets to the athletic world. That would leave several untapped markets for their competitors to snatch up, and this multi-million-dollar company doesn't seem like they're going to let that happen. Instead, they've branched out over the years to produce things like special Star Wars collector sets, their infamous Cabbage Patch parody sticker-card set known as Garbage Pail Kids, and... um... political trading cards?

It's true. The Topps Company has released a 2020 presidential election trading card set under their Topps NOW brand that contains points of interest from the presidential debates all the way through President Joe Biden's inauguration, including a single Bernie Sanders card that, according to the company's Twitter account, broke the Topps NOW record for most prints in a single run.

At this point, we've all seen the memes sparked by Bernie Sanders attending Biden's inauguration in his sensible winter coat and stylish mittens. The image has exploded on social media, and thanks to that explosion, we now get to enjoy a mittens-wearing Sanders injected into all sorts of awesomely hysterical situations. There's a Bernie on Game of Thrones, a Bernie in Star Wars, a Bernie sitting on the moon next to the American flag, and so forth and so on. And now, there's a Bernie on the front of a Topps trading card.

The record-breaking "Bernie Sanders Attends 59th Presidential Inauguration Ceremony" card, the 21st card in the USA Election Topps NOW® set, has sold out after becoming available on January 21, according to the Topps website. During a grand total of one week, Topps managed to sell through a whopping 91,169 copies. According to The Hill, the Bernie card broke the previous record set by the Dr. Anthony Fauci card by nearly 40,000 copies.

Collectors, take heart. If you didn't manage to snatch up one of the Sanders cards up in time, there's no need to fret. Topps printed a second Bernie card for a different product line, but we're going to warn you, they're not exactly the same.

As you can see on the Topps website (and above), Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has joined the Garbage Pail Kids universe in a limited set that becomes available January 29 and expires on February 5. Sanders is actually present on two of the sticker-cards, "Big Screen Bernie" and "Sanders Cinema," but the only thing that seems to change between the two card covers is the title at the bottom. Otherwise, both show a cartoonish Bernie Sanders in all of his inauguration-wear glory sitting in an empty movie theater while a janitor pushes a broom in the background. There's probably some deep meaning to the card that we have yet to uncover, but like with most spiritual things of this nature, it's probably best if you figure that part out on your own.

The new sticker-card set includes a total of 12 cards that poke fun at politicians, the uber-rich, and the recent GameStop-Reddit-Robinhood stock incident that's been blowing up the media. For just $19.99, anyone can own these nifty tokens to commemorate the first part of 2021, with characters such as Electric Elon and Reditt Remy. If that's something you're into.