Why the Card Market Is Better Positioned Than Comics After Diamond’s Bankruptcy
Is a similar shakeup coming to cards?
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.
Diamond Comic Distributors announced its bankruptcy on Tuesday. As a card collector, the name might not sound familiar, but Diamond Comic Distributors is one of the largest distributors of comic books and the company behind Free Comic Book Day.
In its statement, the company explained why and how it reached this point.
Reasons included the loss of exclusive publisher relationships, contracted consumer spending, inflation and smaller margins.
The company stated, "The comic book industry at large has seen a decrease in consumer activity paired with rising operating costs, and Diamond is no exception.”
Given this news, I wondered: Can something like this affect the card market? Is there a possible card-like shakeup in the future?
There are differences in the comic space vs. the card space.
One of the biggest differences is the distribution model. Comic publishers – large and small – use distributors to get their books into different shops.
There are distributors in cards, but different card manufacturers are not exclusive to one distributor. Topps has minimized the number of distributors it uses, but that’s because of another huge difference.
Topps with the backing of Fanatics has a big direct-to-consumer market. Topps doesn't really need distributors but uses them because there are many accounts that Topps does not sell to directly.
Related: The Biggest Loser in the Fanatics Acquisition Could Be Distributors
That wasn’t the case at least five years ago when Topps’ direct-to-consumer program wasn’t as robust, but Topps, similarly to Panini and Upper Deck, have different distribution arms where they don’t have to rely on one type of model.
They have distributors, but they also have direct accounts, retail outlets like Target and Wal-Mart, and Topps has the Fanatics’ infrastructure including its website for product distribution.
You don’t see comics in as many places anymore or as many comic shops.
Another big reason is the difference in the collectability – or really the secondary market value of the collectibles.
Every week, hundreds of comics come out from small and big publishers, which include variant covers. But these variants don't often capture the same type of attention as low-numbered card parallels or autographs.
Part of the reason is the blind purchase aspect of card buying.
In other words, the gamble.
A card hobbyist can buy into a break or buy a box of cards and hit something that can bring life-changing money or at least be worth a pretty good price on the secondary market. Many collectors also sell cards they don’t want to fund future purchases.
Comics don’t often offer a blind collectible option. WhatNot created blind packs with Marvel for New York Comic Con, which saw a lot more similar success to what the card space does. Some of the variant covers from the WhatNot packs have sold for more than $1,000. Sealed boxes that come with three comic packs sell consistently for $500+.
Topps Marvel cards have been selling for more than the comics.
So, while the card space is facing similar challenges as Diamond, such as exclusive licenses, inflation, market contraction and smaller margins, there are other factors that will keep the card collecting space chugging along … for now.
Maybe the trading card bubble will keep inflating. As a collector I sure hope so. And cards have a couple of more attributes not mentioned in this column that make them more covetable than comics. Their size, for one. They're easy to display, store and take care of. There's also a lot of exciting innovation, some coming along the periphery by "card" artists like PiggyBanx. Even the industry's big monopolist is proving able to innovate. Those MLB Debut cards! Who doesn't daydream about landing one of those? But a big red flag started waving this week. After the Los Angeles Dodgers stacked their all-star roster with even more big-name free agents, rumblings began: MLB owners should insist on a salary cap and new revenue sharing model in the next collective bargaining round with players. MLBTradeRumors wrote a story that asked readers if they would be willing to forego the 2027 season for a salary cap. Giving up on a season might be what it takes to get players to budge on this issue. But the junk wax bubble imploded in 1994 when a players strike canceled much of the 1994 season, leaving collectors to ponder their unsound financial decisions. For me, personally, there is another red flag -- our climate crisis. I would like to bequeath my collection to family who can sift through it and find some treasures they can decide to either keep or sell. But with all the global warming-triggered disasters taking place I'm wondering what use it is to be spending so much money on a collection that's just going to go up in smoke, be carried away by a flood or blown away by a hurricane. And even if I'm fortunate enough to escape such an event, how many collectors might there be if my heirs decide to sell any treasures they might discover in my collection one day far from now? I've cut way back on my card purchases since Hurricane Helene. Now these L.A. fires have me pondering whether I should start selling off my collection while there are still collectors. My money would be better spent traveling to exotic destinations before our world becomes even more disaster prone.
Interesting news piece that I didn't know about, since I don't dabble in comics. One of the things I believe helps cards is that they are tiny. You can have 100,000 cards -- and really only take up like a small closet if stored correctly. In doing so, you can have a large/wide inventory, and keep adding to it. I know this article was all about distribution, but I felt like the difference in the physical form of collecting cards is also worth mentioning as to why the hobby might have more stability. Just a though -- thanks for the article, Sooz.