Topps loses MLB license to Fanatics

ndleo

@tulsaboy said:

@brad31 said:
Topps is not “going down”. They have some good soccer licenses, F1 and WWE. They have contracts with a significant number of minor league players and a mechanism to sign future players to contracts. Will do prospect sets for baseball, one off player sets like they did for Trevor Lawrence and some all time great sets. They will survive but be less profitable than when they had MLB. If Fanatics wants them there is still value there and it will not be a buying out of name for a company that is bankrupt.

I agree. People also forget that a good chunk of Topps' business, and its profitability, is centered around confections and not sports cards. Things like Ring Pops. Not to say that losing sports cards won't hurt Topps, but the entity would still be a profitable business without cards. I can still certainly see Fanatics buying Topps and then spinning off the confections to ditch a business they don't have an interest in.
kevin

Topps may not be going down but they are falling. From CNBC - "Its candy segment includes iconic brands like Bazooka, Ring Pop and Baby Bottle Pop and accounts for 35% of sales." So cards count for 65% of sales and most of that is in baseball cards. Topps lost the WWE to Panini for approx 3X the rights fee that Topps paid (https://www.sportico.com/business/commerce/2021/wwe-topps-panini-cards-1234644959/).

The Topps SPAC value was at $1.3B. I would think the remaining value is much less, maybe as low as 20-25% of the original. I assume that the sportscard biz was much more profitable than the candy segment.

rexvos

People are assuming a lot of how things will go based on nothing more than wishful thinking. The fact is we are mostly in the dark until we see a preview of the first licensed Fanatics launch. No telling what is next.

Cakes

@brad31 said:
Wow - this is sad news. I cannot imagine a new company run by Fanatics putting out something better. No more Topps, no more Heritage, Bowman, etc.

How will these be distributed - just directly from Fanatics and MLB owned shops and websites? Blowout, Dave and Adams, hobby shops across the country have to be so nervous right now. They could be completely shut-out of baseball.

Panini is done with baseball too because both MLB and the MLB Players association are going exclusive with Fanatics.

Will Topps print cards like it is 1987 until the license is up? Why not - no point in protecting the desirability of the brand and collectors value going forward. The NBA License whenever that goes up will go for enormous dollars as whoever gets it is still viable - but Panini or Topps without MLB or The NBA is pretty much toast. MLB owns a stake in Fanatics will the NBA do something similar with their cards?

This is a sad day for the hobby.

If I understand this correctly - which I may not - the last Topps set will be in 2025 (could also be 2024). That means Heritage will end with the 1976 design.

Many of the fringe collectors only buy a set of Topps Baseball every year. If 2025 is the last year it will be sad.

Flux

@BBN said:

@Estil said:
Do kids even collect baseball cards anymore? NOT Pokemon or Magic or anything like that but good ol' baseball cards?

Honestly, no. Besides being priced out of it, young kids have no interest and the 20-somethings’ trading card interests are as you said, magic, Pokémon, and other non sports stuff.

I would encourage you to check out any decently advertised card show. You might change your perspective. Last one I attended was quite crowded. A majority of those patrons were under 25 lugging around pelican cases bumping in to each other because they were on their phones wheeling and dealing or creating content for their social media accounts. One kid made $500 just posting a card he took a picture of, posted it to his account and then went back to buy it after he got the funds. It is a new world out there and this is how kids make money these days. They aren’t mowing lawns and they certainly don’t Ebay. I doubt much of them care about the lineage of Topps. If Fanatics can offer direct and instantly transferable cards, they will be a huge success. Fanatics did not do all of this to appease to the old foggies.

robert67

An update on recent events concerning Topps/Fanatics for those interested:

https://www.cardlines.com/topps-gts-distributor-license/

Estil

@Cakes said:

Many of the fringe collectors only buy a set of Topps Baseball every year. If 2025 is the last year it will be sad.

Not nearly as sad as it will be if this also means no more Topps Heritage. I still need to get my Topps baseball set sequence updated at some point (I think it's up to 2014 or 2015...maybe?) but right now I've got the silver coin fever and I'm trying to get as much as I can before its price goes back up...