Fanatics appears to be making changes to the process of how cards get into the hands of collectors.
The company has reportedly told at least two distributors that they won’t be receiving certain Topps products from Fanatics at all after this year. Distributors serve numerous hobby shop accounts as a middle man between manufacturer and retailer and also supply them with trading card supplies and other products.
It’s not known how many distributors will be impacted. Topps, which is now owned by Fanatics, wouldn’t confirm its plans for distributors, offering us only this statement from a representative:
“Over the past twelve months, Topps has prioritized working directly with hobby shops and a broad array of customers to ensure they have better access to the latest and best products and promotions. As part of that effort and to better serve the hobby and its growth, we will make strategic adjustments to our product allocation and distribution channels to create the best experience for all collectors.”
GTS Distribution is one of the distributors impacted by the Fanatics/Topps decision. The company released a statement to SC Daily on Friday, saying “While Topps will no longer provide future domestic production allocations, the company plans to fulfill all existing orders with GTS. Moving forward, Topps will continue to support GTS’ retail and international efforts.”
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A couple of changes in release dates for some upcoming Topps products.
2022 Topps Chrome Baseball is now due out on Friday, September 30. Topps had indicated last week that the product would be pushed back to October, but it’ll arrive a bit sooner now.
2022 Heritage High Number Baseball is being moved back to an as yet undetermined time in November. It was originally scheduled to arrive this month.
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Topps is offering a Mega Box version of its 2021 Chrome Platinum Anniversary edition.
They’re an online exclusive with boxes priced at $49.99 and are available (at least for now) via this page.
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eBay held its quarterly earnings call for investors earlier this week. The company indicated gross market value for its trading card listings was lower than last year’s results but “volume remains robust at more than double prepandemic levels.”
That’s similar to the general market perspective, where prices for many different cards have declined this year but remain well ahead of what they were selling for in early 2020.
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Samu Qureshi, who has been collecting memorabilia from Washington D.C.’s pro football history is ready to sell his mammoth collection. Qureshi has hundreds of game-used items along with just about anything else you can think of. It’s the best collection of its kind.
He’s not interested in breaking it up and he told WTOP Radio he’ll only sell if the price is right.
Dodgers rookie Miguel Vargas made his big league debut Wednesday night. His first hit was a ball that bounced into the stands for a ground rule double and was snagged by a fan.
Vargas is a top flight prospect who could enjoy a long, successful career so the ball probably had some decent long term value, but that Giants fan who grabbed it wasn’t hard to deal with.
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The Milwaukee Brewers will honor the anniversary of their 1982 American League championship team this weekend with a variety of events.
Many of the players are back in town, including Robin Yount. A local radio talk show host turned a greeting into a memorabilia moment for charity. Watch the short clip below.
At a 40 year reunion of the 1982 Brewers World Series team, The Kid, the one and only, Robin Yount signed this poster of @espnhomer – who has had it for 25 years. And Robin wants it to go to a fundraiser for the @maccfund
😊 pic.twitter.com/6gGWNin6AC— Lori Nickel 🇺🇦 (@LoriNickel) August 4, 2022
