How Is Fanatics Changing the Sports Card Landscape?

Fanatics’ purchase of Topps and their imminent takeover of both football and basketball sports card licensing IS the biggest story in the hobby, full stop.

What have they changed so far, and what do we have to look forward to?

I’m Not Up to Date…What’s Happening?

Since the 2009 season, Panini has had the exclusive license to produce NBA and NFL trading cards. This means they were the only company that could produce cards that had team names and logos on them (which are massively favored by sports card collectors over unlicensed).

Then, along came Fanatics.

They purchased Topps in 2021 (who owns the MLB trading card license), and are set to take over licensing for NBA (this fall) and NFL (April 2026). Many are concerned about possible monopolistic issues with the same company holding the three largest licenses.

Today, we’ll talk about the good. Next week, I’ll dive into the bad.

Why Is Fanatics Good for the Hobby?

Let’s talk about some things Fanatics has already done and the implications for the hobby moving forward.

📝 No More Missing Rookie Autos - Fanatics has already signed many major athletes in basketball and football, yet they don’t have the licenses yet. This means that top-flight rookies like Wembanyama, Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, Drake Maye, and others literally don’t have any licensed rookie autos. That shouldn’t be a problem once Fanatics fully takes over.

📈 Fanatics Promises Growth - One of their stated goals is to expand revenue from collectibles from $1.6 billion in 2024 up to $3B in 2026. Growth is good for the whole hobby IMO. They can spend to promote and advertise, bringing in more collectors, which makes it more fun and connective for all. Plus, growth can drive prices for older stuff up, making your cards more valuable.

💰 Fanatics Can Spend - In 2024, Fanatics brought in over $8B in revenue! More money means more expansion, more top stars at events (and autos!), more innovation, and just more everything moving forward.

🎯 Market Innovation - We’ve already seen some of what they plan to do, including:

• Fanatics Fest - The recent 3-day event that attracted over 120k people, including top athletes from around the world. Probably a yearly thing moving forward.

• Fanatics Trading Card Stores - They opened their first one in London and seem poised to continue.

• Running Team Stores at Arenas - While they’re not in every arena, they seem to be moving that way. They can, of course, sell their apparel there, but sports cards seem a likely addition.

• “Global Digital Sports Platform” - I honestly like that there’s one place where you can buy cards, sell cards, grade cards (they partner with PSA and SGC), and also buy sports memorabilia and gamble. They’ve discussed expanding into ticketing, gaming, media, and more. The more all these things are integrated, I think the easier the experience is for us as collectors. (Besides, if something can upend eBay for selling cards, I’m ALL for that!)

• Celebs + Athletes - They’re including A-level stars like LeBron, Brady, and Jay-Z into mainstream marketing strategies. Sounds like they’re even partnering with Taylor Swift on some pop culture card releases.

• Overall Movement - Honestly, I can’t keep up with all the partnerships, mergers, and new business divisions they create. They’re going to have some misfires, of course, but overall, I like that they’re trying to upend something that’s a bit stagnant and bring in as many new people as possible.

🤷‍♂️ Card Innovation - They’re trying stuff, like MLB Debut Patches, the Buyback programs (Topps and Bowman), new SKUs like Cosmic, and more. They’ve mentioned scaling back some less popular SKUs to being every-other-year releases. What else is coming?

⚾🏀🏈 Unity Across Sports - I hate that I have to keep track of completely separate brands across the sports I collect. Now, baseball, basketball, and football will have relatively the same brands released for each sport. The same inserts, parallels, and more. Makes my life easier.

👴 Brand Nostalgia - This won’t apply to newer collectors, but I love that we’ll be seeing brands like Topps Chrome and Topps Finest coming back to basketball and football. Means a lot more to me than Prizm and Select. The Topps Kobe rookie card is one of my favorites.

🤝 Better LCS Experiences - They want Local Card Shops (LCS) to provide the best service possible. Fanatics provides training, expectations, and audits, promising to allocate new product only to those who meet certain standards. Can’t live in your basement and get allocation while an actually great LCS gets hosed.

❤ They Seem to Care - I don’t know who the CEO of Panini is, but I keep hearing the right things from Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin. He says things like building a “10x better experience” and that they’re pledging to fix current issues like redemptions and card printing issues. They seem to legit want to make collecting better for all.

🖋 On-Card Autos - Speculation on my part, but I’m guessing Fanatics will be able to secure more on-card autos because of their incredible access to athletes.

🚀 Runway for Growth - Their licenses don’t expire for 20 years, meaning they’ve got plenty of time to make cool things happen.

Anything else? What do you think will happen in the near future with licensing shifting to Fanatics?

Catch you next time, where I’ll talk about the reasons for possible concern with Fanatics taking over!

Buy/Sell Targets

This doesn’t constitute investment advice, more just a window into my overall strategy and how I see the market, and for entertainment purposes.

✔ Paolo Banchero 🏀 - I couldn’t love the Desmond Bane fit more on this team. He’ll give Banchero more open lanes and efficient scoring opportunities. Banchero is the clear star on a team that might be a 2 or 3 seed in the East. There just isn’t a lot of volume on his cards, with less than 1,400 Prizm PSA 10s. I’m going to grab one for around $40.

✔ Victor Wembanyama 🏀 - His pricing has fallen fairly consistently since his deep vein thrombosis took him out for the season. I think this team will surprise people. Fox is awesome, and they have some excellent role players in Castle, Vassell, and Sochan. This could be a top-5 MVP year for Wemby and he’ll join the very top group with SGA, Jokic, and Doncic. His PSA 10 Prizm sells for about 1/3 of Doncic’s, with pop counts relatively even.

✔ Riley Greene ⚾ - He’s a guy that doesn’t seem to get much love, despite being the best hitter on the best team in baseball and still only 24 with improving power. If they keep winning into the playoffs, he’ll keep rising. Great 2-4 month flip opportunity.

✔ Alperen Sengun 🏀 - With Kevin Durant in the fold, I think a rising tide lifts all boats. Their offense always felt like a slog, but now they’ve added a hyper-efficient scorer who doesn’t demand the ball and is a very good passer. The outgoing players (Green and Brooks) take more shots than Durant, so there are actually more shots to go around this next year. He’s also only 22! I would’ve guessed at least 24.

❌ Tyrese Haliburton 🏀 I know, I know, it’s not the best look to propose a fire sale after his injury, but even without it, I would have advised selling. He’s still up massively over the past two months, and storybook Finals runs usually don’t repeat themselves. I would’ve bet against him being in the Finals again even before the injury.

❌ Joe Burrow 🏈 I’ve been a solid buy on him after his crazy statistical season, but now it’s time to sell. His PSA 10 Prizm pricing has jumped up about 35% in just the past month to around $130. I know Lamar and Josh Allen’s are valued at $250+, but the pop counts are WAY lower. The AFC has the Ravens, Chiefs, and Bills as clearly better than the Bengals, with the Broncos, Chargers, and Texans also being strong teams. It's highly unlikely the Bengals will make a run. You could wait a month or two to see if he keeps rising as the season gets closer, but I’d personally move now and take the profit.

Quick Hits

News From Around the Hobby

+ Selling Cards, Full (Game)Stop - An executive said GameStop “stores will start adding dedicated space for sports cards.” It’s like adding an extra 3,200 card shops who also have a direct partnership with PSA. Easier all around for collectors and should raise awareness about the hobby.

+ KD to Rockets on Stage - “The star forward found out about the blockbuster trade while onstage at Fanatics Fest.” The event already seemed like an unmitigated win for everyone, and moments like these are just super cool to see.

+ The Best Card Show That’s Not a Card Show - “Fanatics announced that 125,000 people attended [Fanatics Fest] in New York." Some dealers reported spending $3k to secure a table, but sold 100x that in cards.

+ That’s Sho Many Cards - “22,126. That's how many different cards Shohei Ohtani has.” And no, not like in his collection…that’s how many different Ohtani cards there are on the market to collect. I love the variety and that there are cards for any budget and style preferences… but I think we’ve jumped the shark a bit here on having that many.

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The content in this newsletter is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be actual financial or investment advice.