Gone Exotic

Following the popularity of the Netflix documentary Tiger King in April 2020, Topps moved quickly with an online release, building on an existing licensing relationship with Netflix that had already yielded a parody release for Stranger Things. Conceived and painted entirely by artist David Gross, Gone Exotic arrived as an online exclusive on the company website across April and May of that year. Topps released three separate waves of cards before the run concluded.

Each of the three releases followed the same tight configuration, offering ten cards built from five original paintings split across traditional a and b sticker names. Across the three series, thirty stickers completed the full sequence, running from card 1a through 15b. By the third wave, the checklist expanded to include a parody of Nicholas Cage, who had signed on to portray Joe Exotic in an upcoming movie. Every wave was sold during a seven-day ordering window at $19.99 for an individual ten-card set or $179.99 for a ten-set lot, with SmartPost shipping included at no charge, and the final installment added individual 10x14 posters of the artwork at $19.99 apiece.

Demand for the opening wave established a new benchmark for online Garbage Pail Kids releases, generating 3,285 orders to surpass the previous online sales record of 1,870 sets held by that year's first Disg-Race to the White House offering. Interest cooled as the sequels arrived with less promotional push, but the numbers remained respectable by online standards. Series 2 finished with a print run of 1,378 sets, and Series 3 closed out the physical trilogy at 1,193 copies. A portion of the original print run for the first set resurfaced briefly on the NTWRK app and website, sold for $20 alongside a $35 t-shirt that featured the Garbage Pail Kids logo across the front and the JOE Chaotic painting on the back.

When collectors began receiving their sets, some discovered printing errors in their shipments. The initial batches included sets with completely blank card backs, while others were missing front printing entirely, an error that appeared mostly among orders delivered to European addresses. Topps confirmed the defect affected only the earliest shipments, promising replacements through its customer support desk, but the misprinted cards quickly attracted attention as oddities on the secondary market. With the three web releases finished, the Gone Exotic concept later transitioned to the digital realm as a release in partnership with WAX.