![]() ![]() It bought the sports and entertainment business, which is the trading cards, on-demand printing service (Topps Now), and various collectibles lines. We’re proud of what the Topps team has accomplished, and we look forward to seeing what Michael and his team do to continue growing the Topps collectible business while staying true to its iconic history and relevance to consumers.”ĭo the former owners retain any equity in Topps? Like any crown jewel, I and my partners at Madison Dearborn will miss our many years of ownership where we grew a highly profitable business through strategic licensing partnerships, global expansion and digital transformation. Eisner had this to say in a statement: “Michael Rubin is the perfect entrepreneur to lead this company forward. They paid $385 million for Topps in 2007 and owned it equally. along with Chicago private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. It’s been reported at about $500 million, with an EBITDA of $160 million off revenue of $550 million in 2021.įormer top Disney executive Michael Eisner and his L.A.-based investment firm The Tornante Co. It could continue to create such sets until getting the NFL license in a few years. 1 by Jacksonville (ironically, Fanatics’ HQ city). Topps has done football player cards without NFL licenses, such as last year’s artsy Trevor Lawrence special set before he was drafted No. No word on whether Fanatics will try to buy Panini or Upper Deck, too. Upper Deck retains the NHL licenses it’s had since 1990 and was extended in 2019. ![]() Panini has had the exclusive NBA deals since 2009 (and nabbed the WWE license from Topps starting this year). The NBA/NBPA and NFL licenses remain with Italy’s Panini until 2026. Fanatics also gets Topps’ wholly owned Garbage Pail Kids products.Īnd football, basketball, and hockey cards? Topps has done one-off e-commerce card sets for properties such as MetaZoo, Avatar, American Cornhole League, Muhammad Ali and Lil Wayne, and could continue to do such deals under Fanatics. The sale includes Topps’ card licenses for UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga, Major League Soccer, Overtime Elite, Athletes Unlimited, Formula One, Europa League, Disney’s Star Wars, Wacky Packages and Mars Attacks. What else is Fanatics getting in the deal? Nothing has been said about any product price increases under Fanatics or retail partners, but it seems unlikely anything drastic will occur outside of traditional market forces (or by the artificial scarcity that now undergirds much of the modern card business, fairly or not). The card industry has long had a complex system of intermediary suppliers that sell to retailers (and is affected by industry politics and supply-chain issues), and it’s unclear if that ecosystem will evolve under Fanatics. Fanatics is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business at heart, and a robust DTC future is probably in store for Topps, but the plan is to also continue to sell trading cards across all retail channels - and that will include brick-and-mortar card shops and big-box chains like Target and Walmart. Will Topps cards still be sold in stores? Prior to the Topps deal, Fanatics already had a licensed non-fungible token deal with MLB under a business called Candy Digital. It’s very likely Topps under Fanatics will see its direct-to-consumer and digital products expanded. ![]() Long-term, it’s not yet known if Fanatics will annually market all the same various Topps MLB product lines such as Bowman, Allen & Ginter, Project 70, etc. No radical changes are known to be in the immediate works. The cards will be Topps branded as the public-facing product. The cards themselves will remain as consumers know them today and will be produced by the same Topps staff and facilities. Both companies have their share of fans and detractors, and with a near-monopoly on baseball cards, what Fanatics does with Topps will influence a big segment of the collectibles market.īelow is an FAQ of what we do know and what is yet to come. Panini has a robust international soccer sticker business it retains.īecause the trading-card and collectibles businesses have been white-hot for several years, the Fanatics-Topps deal sent shockwaves through that community. That scotched Topps’ $1.3 billion plan to go public and created an uncertain future for the brand.įanatics CEO, chairman and lead owner Michael Ruben orchestrated a series of quiet deals to land the licenses, which undercut Topps more than card rival Panini, which has the NFL and NBA licenses that will switch to Fanatics in coming years. What it meant was that Topps, which had been in the baseball card business since 1952, would be left without its core product - licensed MLB cards - by 2026.
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