Fanatics Conspiracy Thread

[nowiamsad]

I’ll go first.

Fanatics is getting rid of beloved parallels and moving to a white bordered flagship card because they are aware of how bad the quality of their cards has been and they still haven’t gotten it under control.

[fabiani12333]

I do think they ruined the black Flagship parallel years ago when they changed the design to a simple bland black border -- it used to have a unique design that made them pop in appearance. It was reminiscent of an emery board that would sparkle when placed under the light.

I don't get the popularity of such a cheap looking card now. The only thing that makes it special is the numbering, as far as I can tell.

[biggsdaddycool]

Awareness and caring are not mutually exclusive.

My guess is they are out of touch with true collectors and only seeing the dollar signs of selling lottery tickets.

They need to hire more collectors that understand the long tail of the hobby.

My conspiracy is likely fact, they don’t truly care about the hobby itself, but only about 10x-ing profits.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[towerymt]

QC doesn't impact sales. That does not matter.

[auctionjmm]

Originally Posted by nowiamsad

I may be in the minority but IMO Topps was growing stale and Fanatics has done a lot of great sets/inserts/etc since they took over. Perhaps I’ll eat my words but at the moment I like what they’re doing.

Ummm....

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by biggsdaddycool

Awareness and caring are not mutually exclusive.

My guess is they are out of touch with true collectors and only seeing the dollar signs of selling lottery tickets.

They need to hire more collectors that understand the long tail of the hobby.

My conspiracy is likely fact, they don’t truly care about the hobby itself, but only about 10x-ing profits.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What's good for and popular with collectors is not necessarily what's good for the manufacturer. The manufacturer prefers to streamline and make their products more efficient and easy to produce. The end user tends to value quality and consistency, which are often not easy for the manufacturer to achieve.

At the same time, alienating a large segment of your end users can't be good for the long-term health of your business. You can grow your profits quickly in the short-term by cutting costs and targeting only certain more profitable customers, but it could also mean not having a reliable customer base in the long run.

[Osfan81]

Originally Posted by towerymt

QC doesn't impact sales. That does not matter.

I disagree with this statement to some extent. 22 Topps chrome update had Witt and Julio. However, QC was insanely terrible. Lots of cards were 70-30 or worse on centering. Some contained parts of other cards. It was available forever. I started opening it chasing Witt, but when I saw how bad QC was, I stopped quickly. When 75% of cards wont even get a 7, no thank you. I stopped quickly, and it appeared others did as well. Not saying it’s a huge factor, but when QC is terrible like that, it definitely affected sales.

[towerymt]

Originally Posted by Osfan81

I disagree with this statement to some extent. 22 Topps chrome update had Witt and Julio. However, QC was insanely terrible. Lots of cards were 70-30 or worse on centering. Some contained parts of other cards. It was available forever. I started opening it chasing Witt, but when I saw how bad QC was, I stopped quickly. When 75% of cards wont even get a 7, no thank you. I stopped quickly, and it appeared others did as well. Not saying it’s a huge factor, but when QC is terrible like that, it definitely affected sales.

Is Topps / Fanatics impacted? Or did they sell it all? I only see '23 & '24 year selection on the Topps site....assuming they weren't stuck with it.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by Osfan81

I disagree with this statement to some extent. 22 Topps chrome update had Witt and Julio. However, QC was insanely terrible. Lots of cards were 70-30 or worse on centering. Some contained parts of other cards. It was available forever. I started opening it chasing Witt, but when I saw how bad QC was, I stopped quickly. When 75% of cards wont even get a 7, no thank you. I stopped quickly, and it appeared others did as well. Not saying it’s a huge factor, but when QC is terrible like that, it definitely affected sales.

Grading of ultramodern chrome cards was a big factor in opening wax at the time -- it gave buyers the potential to make a profit or at least recoup part of their costs. With poor QC, buyers were deterred from opening wax.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by Osfan81

I disagree with this statement to some extent. 22 Topps chrome update had Witt and Julio. However, QC was insanely terrible. Lots of cards were 70-30 or worse on centering. Some contained parts of other cards. It was available forever. I started opening it chasing Witt, but when I saw how bad QC was, I stopped quickly. When 75% of cards wont even get a 7, no thank you. I stopped quickly, and it appeared others did as well. Not saying it’s a huge factor, but when QC is terrible like that, it definitely affected sales.

Sonicfractor was a great example of that as well.

#neverforget

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by towerymt

Is Topps / Fanatics impacted? Or did they sell it all? I only see '23 & '24 year selection on the Topps site....assuming they weren't stuck with it.

It presumably sold out, but Topps had to create the Buyback program to prop up box prices:

As a way to clear out the excessive amount of unsold Topps Chrome wax, and to make amends for the high-number short-print debacle, on November 23rd Topps announced the "MVP Buyback" promotion.

https://www.baseballcardpedia.com/in...2_Topps_Chrome

[ThoseBackPages]

the Buy Back Program was for regular TC, not Update

still is to this day.

ETA: and the poor sales were because they "forgot" to put cards 221 - 225 in the product

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by nowiamsad

I’ll go first.

Fanatics is getting rid of beloved parallels and moving to a white bordered flagship card because they are aware of how bad the quality of their cards has been and they still haven’t gotten it under control.

They have increased the number of parallels, and a white border highlights centering issues.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by biggsdaddycool

Awareness and caring are not mutually exclusive.

My guess is they are out of touch with true collectors and only seeing the dollar signs of selling lottery tickets.

They need to hire more collectors that understand the long tail of the hobby.

My conspiracy is likely fact, they don’t truly care about the hobby itself, but only about 10x-ing profits.

Exactly....and with breakers/gamblers buying just about everything in sight, they have ZERO incentive to improve product quality.

[base set]

Baseball Cards all suck and everything is stupid.

[OhioLawyerF5]

The vast majority of flagship cards over the years have a white border. It's strange to put forth this theory after only one year with a colored border, all the while still having MANY colored bordered parallels. This whole theory is flawed.

[Archangel1775]

Originally Posted by nowiamsad

I’ll go first.

Fanatics is getting rid of beloved parallels and moving to a white bordered flagship card because they are aware of how bad the quality of their cards has been and they still haven’t gotten it under control.

Does the border color of Topps Flagship really matter? They can still call any serial numbered color whatever they want. As for quality, you aren't always going to get sharp corners, perfect edges and perfect centering on every card. None of that was ever guaranteed since baseball cards existed. If you aren't happy with condition, Topps has a process to turn in your cards for replacement found here:

https://www.topps.com/support/produc...ct-submissions

Now if you're talking about Chrome cards, I haven't opened much since 2021 but haven't done too bad in grading. I have opened 1993 Finest recently and the boxes I opened have had a lot of surface issues. Haha. So if they haven't been all produced perfect since then, its not happening.

Now back to Topps Flagship, I've seen threads back in 2015-2018 complaining about the borders being too busy. Flagship is meant to be simple. Topps should keep it that way

[ThoseBackPages]

yes, Topps Black matters

[hermanotarjeta]

I was informed that it was 100% certain fanatics sends specific cases containing megahits to breakers of their choice.

[Archangel1775]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

I do think they ruined the black Flagship parallel years ago when they changed the design to a simple bland black border -- it used to have a unique design that made them pop in appearance. It was reminiscent of an emery board that would sparkle when placed under the light.

I don't get the popularity of such a cheap looking card now. The only thing that makes it special is the numbering, as far as I can tell.

I do agree, I like that black border better than others. They should go back to that route.

[Archangel1775]

The Topps Flagship design has been relateviely consistent. No reason to stray away from as formula that works especially with them producing numerous sets a year unlike previous years.

2010-2014


2015-2019


2020-2024

[glassofwater]

to everyone saying fanatics has ruined topps. I listend to the new SCN, and they mention that 2025 is the year Fanatics officially takes over. All the previous years where under the old topps. license. lets see what they cook up this year

[StateEx]

These are some pretty tame conspiracies.

I head that Fanatics encouraged the MLB to stop juicing baseballs, leaving the MLBPA desperate for new revenue streams and open to Fanatic's licensing pitch. They simultaneously encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine, which is the only known source of Panini's atomic parallels, to undermine their top competition.

[auctionjmm]

Originally Posted by glassofwater

to everyone saying fanatics has ruined topps. I listend to the new SCN, and they mention that 2025 is the year Fanatics officially takes over. All the previous years where under the old topps. license. lets see what they cook up this year

The original deal was to start in 2026. Topps "old license" was through 2025, not starting 2025. I don't think it matters regardless, but important to note there is nothing special about 2025.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...h-roughly-500m

[StlBen]

Originally Posted by glassofwater

to everyone saying fanatics has ruined topps. I listend to the new SCN, and they mention that 2025 is the year Fanatics officially takes over. All the previous years where under the old topps. license. lets see what they cook up this year

They took over Baseball years ago, 2025 is just the date for Football / Basketball.