The CEO of the company now in charge of the longest running brand in sports trading cards says the deal to buy Topps came together without much of a hitch and again pledged to grow the sports collectibles market.
“We’re always thinking about how we can reinvent a business that’s going to be better for all of the constituencies involved,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told CNBC in an early morning interview Wednesday.
“It’s not unusual for us to say, ‘hey, we’ve got a new vision, a big idea. It’s going to be better for the fan, better for the collector, better for sports properties and we will buy pieces to move more quickly and that’s exactly what we did here.”
Rubin said buying Topps gave the new Fanatics Trading Cards business the ability to hit the ground running with a popular brand and a team of employees already in place.
“We looked at this as the best brand in trading cards. They’ve been in business for 70-plus years. Collectors love the brand. We wanted to have the continuity of the Topps brand.”
He also strongly hinted that once Fanatics Trading Cards takes over the NBA and NFL licenses, the popular Topps brands would be used in those sports.
Rubin said after Fanatics acquired the future licenses for all three sports last August, it was Topps and CEO Michael Eisner who approached him about the idea of selling. The agreement to sell, reportedly worth about $500 million, was far less than the proposed deal that would have taken Topps public last year had Fanatics not swooped in and grabbed the baseball license. Faced with the inevitable, Topps opted to turn the keys over to a company that promised to respect its tradition.
“They said ‘look, we want the Topps brand to continue. We want this to be great for our employees. We think this is going to be a really good foundational part of your business’,” Rubin said. “And we very quickly got to an arrangement that I think made sense for everybody. I think they got to a good place. They still have not only the candy business but they also have the gift card business as well.
“I think we paid a price that they were happy with and we were happy with that allowed us to start four years earlier so I think this really was a win-win deal for everybody.”
Rubin says Fanatics Trading Cards will be focused on growth.
“I think the card business has grown a lot by luck not by strategy. I’d like it to be many, many times the size of the business than it is today. It’s already had great growth but I think there can be great growth going forward. I think the most important this is this will be a much bigger business supported by a tremendous amount of marketing. That will make everybody more successful in the industry.”
He also pledged to support local stores that sell cards.
“The hobby shops are still critically important to us. They’re always going to be a vital part of this business forever.”
Rubin briefly touched on Fanatics’ plans for both the company and its partners to participate in secondary market concepts but nothing definite has been revealed as of yet. Fanatics’ primary website currently sells a variety of sports-related items, including cards.
Collectors and fans can also look for Fanatics to work the digital space.
“A year ago, I barely knew what an NFT was,” Rubin joked. “This year we’ll have a massive business in NFTs. Both have grown so well together and that’s what we’re so excited about.”
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