Fanatics Purchasing Topps is the Best Possible Outcome for the Hobby

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

---

How could Topps Baseball not exist? It’s what we were asking ourselves since this summer.

Now, we won’t have to find out. Last night, reports came out that Fanatics has reached an agreement to purchase Topps’ Sports & Entertainment Division. The deal means that Topps baseball cards (and conceivably, football and basketball cards, too) will continue for years to come, which eased the hearts of many long-time collectors.

Regardless of your feelings on Fanatics and its flurry of license acquisitions this summer, this was the best possible outcome for everyone.

Here’s why:

Fanatics: It gets Topps’ brand equity, history, and allows it to start making cards right away

Topps: Ownership gets money that slipped out of their grasp with the SPAC deal fell through (although reportedly at about half of what they were going to get), and current employees get to keep their jobs for, at least, an extended period.

Collectors: We get to be in a world where Topps Baseball lives on. We also potentially get the return of Topps brands such as Chrome and Finest in NFL and NBA in a few years when those licenses kick in for Fanatics.

To be clear though, it’s not as though Topps is living on as the brand we know. In fact, the Topps cards we currently collect aren’t the same, either. This isn’t the era of the Shorins and Sy Berger. The current iteration, adrift under former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, will soon be under the Fanatics umbrella.

Sooz🎄 @yanxchick

I was thinking about this the other day. If/when Fanatics buys Topps it's still not the same. It's like Topps is Yankee Stadium. Original Topps = Original Yankee Stadium Eisner Topps = Refurbished stadium Fanatics Topps = New Yankee Stadium. Same but not

Topps is just a name. But a name that is wholly important because it is synonymous with trading cards, especially baseball. Every year since 1952, there has been a fully licensed Topps baseball card release, making it the longest running annual card partnership between a company and sport.

This deal ensures it will keep going and the Topps name will live on.

There’s a reason though the deal needed to happen now rather than a year from now when the Topps/MLBPA deal expired.

Card companies work nearly a year ahead of time. The lead times on the current sets is about 11 months. So, when 2022 Topps Baseball Series 1 hits shelves on February 9, a week later the Topps Baseball brand team will be sitting down to talk about 2023 Topps Baseball.

Fanatics execs might have their thoughts as to what they want the 2023 product to look like, and now is the time to have those conversations. However, we likely won’t see the Fanatics effect for months to come. Topps has been soliciting product into the summer with Topps Chrome Baseball already being sold to distributors and dealers, and it isn’t due out until late July.

That’s not to say things can’t and won’t change. But there is a lot of money tied into the more than a dozen products already on the calendar. I don’t expect the boat to start rocking for at least six months.

At least Topps and Baseball will stay together for years and years to come. One good thing for collectors is we don’t have to imagine a world without it.

What do you think of Fanatics purchasing Topps?