Shoebox Mysteries: How Will Kids Afford Cards?

Last week baseball card collecting fans, as well as Topps executives, were stunned when in a significant baseball card deal was announced by MLB and the MLBPA that, surprise, was full of conflict of interests. The deal, leaked to the press, was that Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association had announced Fanatics would become the exclusive licensee to produce baseball cards when Topps’ deal expired in 2025.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the deal also includes the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), who along with the MLBPA will have equity in this new venture, as will MLB and the NBA. Therefore, a MLB and MLBPA co-owned company will become the exclusive supplier of baseball cards. In addition Fanatics’ subsidiary Candy Digital has the exclusive MLB NFT rights, so the digital domain will have cash flow to MLB and the MLBPA as well.

The distinction between rights with a players’ union and/or a league are notable. For example, TCMA created cards during the 1981 Player’s Strike to fund the strike, but could not include MLB tam logos, so the players either have blank or no caps and no uniform markings. Topps, which has deals with MLB and MLBPA, currently produces baseball cards with players’ images and MLB team logos, and has been the exclusive licensee of MLB-backed baseball cards since 2009.

Per the MLBPA’s annual report, Topps paid the MLBPA $20.4 million in 2020 licensing fees, the largest sum from any MLBPA licensee and up roughly $1.67 million from 2019.  The announced deal is expected to generate $2 billion between 2025 and 2045.

How children, or frankly even adults, will be expected to afford cards after 2025 is left an open question, but card prices, which are running $7 per pack and over $200 per box in a recent visit to a baseball card store in the NYC metropolitan area, must surely go up as the licensing fees rise by 500%.  Topps baseball cards, a mainstay since 1951, will be no more, pending another deal in which Topps is acquired by Fanatics.