Expenses ate into Topps’ bottom line in the second quarter, but the long-time card maker says it’s sales of sports cards are strong.

Topps posted lower quarterly profit on Thursday, hurt by costs for a proxy contest, but sales rose almost 10 percent.

Topps reported net income of $3.36 million, or 8 cents a share for the fiscal second quarter that ended Aug. 26, down from $4.84 million, or 12 cents per share, a year earlier.

Topps has been contending with a proxy battle by dissident shareholders, which accused Topps’ management of allowing the company’s financial performance to deteriorate, hurting its stock price.

In July, Topps agreed to support a dissident slate of three board directors, in a victory for the hedge fund dissident group that included Pembridge Capital Management.

In its second quarter, Topps said sales rose to $82.3 million from $74.9 million last year.

Arthur T. Shorin, Chairman and CEO of Topps, stated, "The strong performance of U.S. sports cards reflected the continued momentum resulting from our strategic initiatives to reverse industry trends in the sports card market. Additionally, our sports card sales benefited from an improved product line-up and increased marketing and promotional support. Importantly, we realized margin improvement as increased volume per release offset higher investments in marketing."

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