Topps " Monopoly"
Topps never really had a monopoly to produce baseball cards. But the contracts they had with players, particularly after they purchased the assets and trademarks of Bowman, was player contracts that gave them the exclusive right to market player likenesses/cards with gum/candy/confections.
Anyone could have marketed player cards by themselves or with cookies ( Fleer) or marbles ( Leaf). And if they could find players who did not have exclusive contracts, they could market those with gum ( 1959 Fleer). As far as I know, the 1963 Fleer set stopped after one series not because of any litigation by Topps, but because of poor sales. Topps had defined the market as cards + gum
The deckle cards, 1969 and 1974 were Topps, as well as OPC
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