UFC Lic back to Topps (Fanatics)
Crashingwaves
Posts: 178 ✭✭✭
Rumors were swirling last year, especially after the WWE dropped Panini well before the end of their agreement.
This week it is official - the UFC Lic is back with Topps. They have already started presale on 2024 Chrome.
I am an old Topps UFC/MMA collector (they had the lic from 2009-21, the Panini took over)... I am excited to see where this goes as Panini was over hyped & over produced and just didn't do anything to distinguish the UFC cards.
Not optimistic Fanatics will be much better for the average collector but will see.
The UFC card hobby is fascinating segment and gaining a lot of new collectors every year. Fasted growing sport in the world but so much different than traditional sports (and card collecting) as it's all about the individual fighter.
Here is an half decent article from Topps.... glosses over a lot of the prior card history but shows they see this as a massive area of new growth.
As we all love visuals.... here are the 2009 Topps UFC Round 1 rare cards of the man who won UFC 1 - Royce Grace (red auto /25 and Ultimate Gear Auto /25)
Comments
Excellent ! No more Panini. Had to pre-order a couple boxes. Wanted a case but sheesh.. unproven and 219 a box was enough.
Your red stuff is amazing !!!
Love the red. Gracie was a sick killer back when they didn't have weight classes and they would fight multiple times in one night. It was some of the rawest stuff ever!
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
Going to be interesting to see how fanatics does coming out of the gate... not familiar with how they (Topps) have been doing with the other sport releases.
$219.00 is not a bad price point... Not too high or too low but reserving judgement (my gut says this is a bit rushed). I was a bit miffed the cases sold out so fast as well... limited supply? Bots? Back dooring stock to big breakers?
With UFC 300 coming up.... Fanatics has a great opportunity to make some amazing cards.
I haven't looked very hard but I saw boxes listed for $450 on eBay and figured my days of collecting UFC were over.
Arthur
I hate those flippers... no shame
Pretty sure that was just the pre-order phase, so normal sales should be coming and be same $219 price at topps.com AFAIK.