Hobby Weekly Recap: Skenes MLB Debut Rookie Patch Pulled
Cards are profitable and CT scanning is back in the news
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Topps announced an 11-year-old kid from Los Angeles pulled the biggest baseball chase card in recent memory.
The company said the Paul Skenes MLB Rookie Debut Patch card was pulled on Christmas. The news didn’t end there as social media was ablaze with conspiracy theories, commentary and endless speculation.
Depsite the crazy commentary, it keeps Topps’ name in the news. There was the follow up to the card being graded, the card owner deciding to forego the Pittsburgh Pirates offer of season tickets for 30 years and the general conversation around the card.
Topps shared journal notes it says belonged to the child who pulled the card, which caused its own social media firestorm.
The card is going to auction with Fanatics Collect, the marketplace arm of Topps’ parent company.
Box prices of 2024 Topps Chrome Update have come down since the announcement, according to WaxStat.
CT Scanning in the Hobby
CT scanning is popping up again. Fanatics reportedly added language to its hobby store agreements banning direct accounts from using CT scanners in its business.
If you haven’t heard about CT scanning with cards, it essentially works the same way as human bodies. The machine can scan different sections of a pack, box or case to bring up an image of what each section looks like.
This means cards or boxes can be scanned to potentially see what’s inside. One company, Industrial Inspection & Consulting is offering its services as a way to verify authenticity of products.
You can see how CT scanning would work on a pack of Pokemon cards here:
Goldin recently used the technology to verify the authentcity of a Pokémon box, according to cllct.
The auction company authenciated a 2000 Wizards of the Coast Pokémon Chinese Base Set 1st Edition booster box and is including a letter of authenticity from Industrial Inspection & Consulting. Goldin also states it does not know the contents of the box, just that it hasn’t been tampered with.
This may be a way to keep anyone from getting GI Joe cards instead of Pokémon, but the fact that Fanatics is taking CT scanning of product seriously shows this process certainly has legs and is another thing for collectors to worry about.
Cards Have Been Good to Fanatics
Fanatics continues to stay in the news as Sportico had a story detailing Fanatics’ $8.1 billion year.
The breakdown of revenue is as follows:
Fanatics Commerce (apparel and merchandise): $6.2 billion
Fanatics Collectibles (trading cards): $1.6 billion
Fanatics Betting & Gaming: $300 million.
In other words, cards are making Fanatics a lot money:
In 2020, the last full year disclosed before Fanatics bought the business, Topps trading card and entertainment division had sales of $368 million (Topps' candy business was retained by the seller). Sales have more than quadrupled since, to $1.6 billion last year (a 40% jump from 2023), featuring an EBITDA—a measure of core business profitability—of greater than 20%. It’s the highest-margin business at Fanatics, according to the executive.
It’s not a completely rosy picture. The Sportico article does get into Fanatics’ debt, heavy spending and agency ratings, which are below investment level.
The spending has occasionally drawn the concern of ratings agencies. Fanatics’ “heavy investments in [its] various subsidiaries, such as its gaming subsidiary Fanatics Betting & Gaming … will lead to leverage being sustained at higher levels than previously expected,” said Fitch Ratings in an October report discussing Fanatics’ debt rating, which it earlier had dropped to B+, four notches below investment grade in its 23-level scale.
That same month another corporate debt rating service, Moody’s, dinged the rating of Fanatics’ Commerce subsidiary one notch to B1 in its non-investment grade zone. Moody’s cited “a higher reliance on its revolving credit facility and the challenges it faces to demonstrate that it can achieve the appropriate level of returns on investment and sustainably improve earnings, margins, free cash flow and credit metrics.”
Fanatics shared these numbers with Sportico, which is not something private companies usually do. As a private company, Fanatics doesn’t need to show anyone the numbers other than its stakeholders, but one has to wonder why they would put this information out there now.
I’ve been getting ads on Meta that say “Investors cut valuations for Fanatics…”. Is this an attempt to combat those ads or is an IPO for Fanatics in the near future? Maybe both?
Hobby Headlines
Three people have been charged for selling fake Jason Kelce autographs (cllct)
Victor Wembanyama recently gave a jersey to young fun, but now that jersey is on sale at Goldin. Wemby responded to the news with a crying face emoji 😭 (The Sporting News)
Fanatics continues to spread its wings as it announced it is opening its first flagship store in London this spring. There’ll be exclusive card products, a breaking area, athlete appearances and more. (SI)
With info on 2025 Topps Baseball Series 1 coming out, eagle-eyed collectors noticed a staple, the Black parallel, was not listed on the odds. (Card Chat Hub)
Upcoming Releases
Four new sports products are on the schedule this week.
January 31
2024 Leaf Ultimare Sports
A high-end premium release. Leaf Ultimate Sports has just three cards in every box, but plenty of signatures.
2024-25 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball
The highlight of Hoops is getting the first rookie cards of players in their NBA jerseys.
2025 Topps Chrome WWE
This release marks the return of WWE to Topps. The set is highlighted by The Rock signing autographs for Topps for the first time since 1998.
2023-24 Upper Deck Clear Cut Hockey
Here comes another chance to find Connor Bedard rookie cards, even though he’s well into his second season as a player.