2019 Was the Worst

In December 2019, Topps revived its weekday print-on-demand model with 2019 Was the Worst, an online series that filtered twelve months of news stories through the standard Garbage Pail Kids lens. Structured around the daily cadence previously used for political releases in 2016 and 2017, the cards went live on the Topps website on weekdays from December 2, 2019, through December 20. Every sticker had a tight twenty-four-hour ordering window, after which production was capped to match the exact tally of preorders received. Single cards retailed at $7.99, but collectors could take advantage of bulk discounts offering bundles of five for $27.99, ten for $44.99, or twenty for $74.99. SmartPost delivery within the United States was provided at no extra charge.

The base checklist contained twenty numbered stickers, dividing the work evenly among five painters who each contributed four paintings: Brent Engstrom, Neil Camera, David Gross, Joe McWilliams, and Joe Simko. Because the release was sold directly from the website, traditional pack odds and parallel borders were completely absent. Each card applied a Garbage Pail Kids spin to a news story from the year. Subjects spanned David Gross's Unmasked SINGER, Brent Engstrom celebrating the Baby Shark phenomenon with Baby MARK, and Joe McWilliams focusing on Amazon and its CEO with Jet-Set JEFF, alongside cards like Pop IRA, Fort NATE, and Wrinkled RITA.

Print runs varied across the three-week window, starting with high numbers before sales dropped later in the release. Joe Simko's kickoff card, Walking JOAQUIN, found immediate momentum by selling 1,120 copies, making it the second highest-selling individual online sticker the brand had ever logged behind only the premiere Dis-grace to the White House release. Early offerings maintained a steady pace in the six hundreds, with Gross's Unmasked SINGER and Camera's Freein' IAN each matching 626 copies. Sales began to taper, but the drop became more pronounced once Topps doubled the daily pace by rolling out two cards each weekday. By the middle of the third week, tallies slid into the four hundreds, with Engstrom's Outer ACE logging 487 copies and Simko's Bottlecap CHAD falling to 486.

The release also encountered several catalog and shipping errors along the way. Fulfillment created another issue with card seven, as many collectors received card sixteen, Bottlecap CHAD, in place of Jet-Set JEFF. Staff pulled the page within hours and emailed cancellation notices to purchasers, but at least one buyer reported receiving six cards that included the free replacement. Card twenty brought the twenty-card set to a close.