Reports: Fanatics Set to Acquire Topps Trading Cards
Fanatics Trading Cards is still in acquisition mode. However, this time instead of landing big league licenses, it’s the Topps trading card business.
According to multiple reports including Evan Drellich of The Athletic, an official announcement is expected on Tuesday.
This past August, Fanatics jumped into sports cards by landing exclusive deals with MLB, the MLBPA, NBA, NBPA and NFLPA. These are set to kick in as current deals expire.
Although specifics of the deal aren’t known, it should mean a continuation of the Topps brand in baseball, a history going back to 1951.
Eventually, it could also mean the return of several brands in basketball and football including Topps Chrome. Topps’ NBA license expired in 2009. Their NFL deal ran through the 2015 season. In both instances, Panini took over with exclusive deals.
In August, Topps had been on track to go public through a merger with Mudrick Capital. Then came word about Fanatics’ deals with MLB and the MLBPA. That led to the merger being called off just a few days later and Topps remained private.
Doesn’t matter to me who owns what, I just hope they can keep the Topps name on the cards. It’s not the same without the same brand name that we all grew up collecting from. It’s like if some big corporation bought out Louisville Slugger bats or Hot Wheels cards and changed the name. Keep the tradition of our pastime alive.
Hopefully, they will start re-printing Pete Rose cards and adding him to all the Legacy, chase cards, and such.
As long as Pete Rose is banned from MLB, I highly doubt you are going to see a Pete Rose MLB card.
At this point, do we know if Fanatics will continue to produce under the Topps / Bowman brands or are they going to remarket and rebrand Topps’ baseball products? If so, this could be a great think. Topps basketball and football will be welcomed by the collecting community.
@Justin – The Topps name is sticking around.