Koi Perich jersey on fanatics

[forever a gopher]

Who doesn't love consolidation?

Watch how terrible sports cards get, and they're already awful now.

My son is now old enough that he wants football cards. So last year we go out to get some and I’m looking at them and realizing they’re all made by the same company and just dumbfounded. I suppose line you said “consolidation”. Like Fanatics just buying out the market so they can spread their crappy business mode unencumbered.

 

[TruthSeeker]

My son is now old enough that he wants football cards. So last year we go out to get some and I’m looking at them and realizing they’re all made by the same company and just dumbfounded. I suppose line you said “consolidation”. Like Fanatics just buying out the market so they can spread their crappy business mode unencumbered.

Yep, Panini and Fanatics. Panini bought Donruss, Score, and others. Topps was bought by Fanatics. They're still Topps and Bowman.

Fanantics is about to lose all their exclusive NBA and NFL licensing to Fanatics, so Topps will be the cards to buy.

I would say that's good because Panini is awful, but Fanatics will be just as bad or worse.

They really need multiple competitors in the market so someone creates a quality product.

It's also just turned into gambling, which is disgusting. Packs of cards have become lottery tickets, and breakers feed into it and drive up prices. I suspect Fanatics will try to capture the breaker market.

 

[mggoph]

Yep, Panini and Fanatics. Panini bought Donruss, Score, and others. Topps was bought by Fanatics. They're still Topps and Bowman.

Fanantics is about to lose all their exclusive NBA and NFL licensing to Fanatics, so Topps will be the cards to buy.

I would say that's good because Panini is awful, but Fanatics will be just as bad or worse.

They really need multiple competitors in the market so someone creates a quality product.

It's also just turned into gambling, which is disgusting. Packs of cards have become lottery tickets, and breakers feed into it and drive up prices. I suspect Fanatics will try to capture the breaker market.

Dumb question. What are breakers?

 

[TruthSeeker]

Dumb question. What are breakers?

They're box breakers. Breakers sell lots on a box or boxes of cards. They sell all the lots, break the box open, and send the cards to the people who bought the lots. Use the NFL as an example.

A breaker will sell a team's lot for $40 a box. That means you get every card from that team in the box. If you buy the Vikings, and there's a Justin Jefferson autograph card in the box, it's yours. The breaker in this scenario makes $40×32= $1,280. The box cost them hundreds to purchase from the Panini distributor. The buyers are gambling that the 3 or 4 good cards in the box is a player on the team they bought, hoping to flip the card as a single.

Most boxes are filled with junk, and the "guaranteed" autograph cards are almost always from journeyman players.

Panini gives all the volume to the breakers, because the breakers can purchase massive volume due to the gambling addicts who can't quit it. So your kids and average consumers cannot get the good product. The good product is hobby boxes that used to retail for $200 and under a few years ago. Now they cost $500 or even more than $1,000 a box because there isn't enough supply to meet demand.

The stuff at Target is full of crap that doesn't even contain the best cards and are double the price they were 5 years ago.

Degenerate gambling has turned a fun hobby, targeted at kids, into a toxic lottery.