Upper Deck has lost Marvel to Fanatics.

[Ehawk89]

According to Spidey Hits that's the word going around SDCC.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Ehawk89

According to Spidey Hits that's the word going around SDCC.

That was what a lot of us thought was going to happen after 1) the Marvel glut of products, 2) acquiring the DC license, and 3) the boatload of Marvel sales on ePack.

When UD lost the ND license it sold out the ePack stock at discount prices. Will something similar happen with the Marvel overstock on ePack? Or can they keep selling existing products forever until they are sold out? If the latter, that explains printing recent Marvel products to the moon.

Crazy times!

[LittleJimmies]

I absolutely hate this news. I can only pray that they find a way to keep Epack as a part of Marvel cards. Chances are basically zero though that Fanatics has any awareness on the value of Epack to Marvel collecting.

[BJohns015]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

That was what a lot of us thought was going to happen after 1) the Marvel glut of products, 2) acquiring the DC license, and 3) the boatload of Marvel sales on ePack.

When UD lost the ND license it sold out the ePack stock at discount prices. Will something similar happen with the Marvel overstock on ePack? Or can they keep selling existing products forever until they are sold out? If the latter, that explains printing recent Marvel products to the moon.

Crazy times!

I would guess that they can sell stuff through a certain date only. Existing purchases I would imagine are fine to live on ePack indefinitely or at least for a longer period of time, but I imagine the sales of new packs will need to stop as of the contract expiration. Just my guess on the subject though, I could be wrong.

[Archangel1775]

We get DC though, with all the UD legacy inserts, so I'm good with that. Not sure what Fantaics will bring to the table aside from mass production. Topps Chrome will be sweet the first few rounds

[Carrbeaz]

I look forward to PMGs of Batman, Joker, Harley Quinn, Cat Woman, Power Girl and more.

All the highly desired inserts belong to upper deck. Topps/Fantatics wont be able to produce PMGs, Jambalaya, Battle Spectra Gems or all the other iconic inserts that upper deck is known for.

I guess we can look forward to Beam Team Marvel and Hometown(Homefields) Spider-Man and other street level characters.

[DynaEtch]

Oh mannnnnnnn.

Major news if true, and this could be the end of the road for my Marvel Masterpieces collection, unless Fanatics finds a way around making those with UD having the fleer brand. Guess it’ll be DC Masterpieces going forward, if I do continue it.

This will certainly shake up the epack scene. My gut is a lot of the epack crowd is attached to epack almost more so than marvel specifically- it’s the gamble, trading, collecting achievements, etc. So I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the marvel crowd just transitions into DC sets on there. However it could push out the hardcore marvel character collectors for obvious reasons.

Maybe this upcoming situation is why MM22 on epack is so ambiguous right now. Sure hope we get that soon.

[finfangfan]

I still haven’t seen an official Fanatics announcement but maybe that will come shortly.

Thinking allowed. I wonder if the MM16 XL sized cards could potentially fall under a different licensing arrangement than the “normal” sized cards? I have no idea, but it could be that might be a way for UD to keep putting out Marvel stuff in the event rumors that it is losing the Marvel trading card license to Fanatics are true. I’m not a fan of XL cards though.

[Bunny Hop]

I don't love Fanatics holding so many licenses. I know that's a not new thinking. Simply chiming in.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by LittleJimmies

I absolutely hate this news. I can only pray that they find a way to keep Epack as a part of Marvel cards. Chances are basically zero though that Fanatics has any awareness on the value of Epack to Marvel collecting.

Very good point about the importance of ePack to marvel collecting. I mean we did we have pre-2016MM marvel sets, Im thinking specifically Rittenhouse and early UD sets, but it’s just such a different collecting world now and epack seems to dominate a lot.

There will be $ from marvel collectors being siphoned to DC now…making the marvel community spread even more thin.

I guess we’ll see Marvel topps chrome. Refractors and such. It’ll look like Disney Chrome I guess. Maybe Marvel Sapphire. One of my biggest questions is will Fantatics continue UD’s legacy of trying to get original art sets out for many sets. And not just do rehashes from comic art that looks more cheapo to me.

I do think this is bad for marvel cards, and not thrilled about it. I try to look at all sides though, and *maybe* there is a silver lining in that it simply mixes things up. We can’t have a metal marvel set with PMGs, Fleer Ultra set Medallions continuing forever, every year in and year out. Or MM sets with the same template (mirage, holofoils, battle spectra)…this really does open up the field quite a bit for Marvel and we get totally new types of sets and refractors and such. I do wonder if this will affect secondary prices of existing UD Marvel cards going forward….

[DynaEtch]

I wonder what channels like Spidey Hits do with this kind of transition…not sure if he said anything but I assume stick with Marvel and not change to DC, or even include DC?

But for a lot of Mavel collectors, I think they are going to have some decisions to make…are they in it for the pure marvel aspect and mainly only collect Topps marvel then…or is it the inserts (PMGs, jambalayas, etc) and epack that they like and go DC now. If anything it just fractures the marvel community a bit.

Perhaps more people from sports take notice in marvel now with Fantatics. They seem to love Topps chrome anything, look at Disney chrome. It’ll be part of the Montgomery club etc.

[Zeldafanatic15]

If true, not happy with the move. Have not been happy with Fanatics at all since they took over Topps, and can't see this as a good thing for Marvel. Look at Star Wars, it's pretty much non existent now, not even sets for the shows anymore. I'll be done with epack, which I guess is a good thing for my wallet. I mostly did it for Marvel anyway.

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[DynaEtch]

Me personally….Im a marvel guy, and will go where it takes me. So if Fantatics/Topps makes Marvel cards now, so be it there’s where I’m going. I just hope they do original art sets.

I may dabble in DC Masterpieces, but overall…DC Metal and such….I just don’t collect DC cards really. Don’t have as much connection with the characters especially outside the few main ones.

[finfangfan]

I do like the ease of use (and less clutter) benefits of ePack. So if Fanatics does start putting out Marvel cards it would be nice if they could also create an ePack-like website. I guess I could always do live breaks and have hits shipped to COMC but it’s not the same as ePack.

[newhobbygeek]

I barely buy Star Wars compared to Marvel. I haven't bought stuff on ePack in ~2 years, but I'm very regular buyer on COMC because almost all modern Marvel cards are available from ePack transfers.

I don't see me doing any set building from eBay with Topps/Fanatics.

Also, I've been disappointed in Topps with their recent lack of Star Wars. Where is Andor S1 or Mando S3 trading card sets? I don't need all this repeat annual Chrome stuff.

Recently I've been focusing on older MCU movie sets, so I guess I'll just keep doing that.

I guess we will wait and see if Fanatics finds a way to make Marvel MCU cards with costume/set relics and sketch cards again, but I suspect not. Maybe Fanatics will put some their $$ into relics/costumes?

I think it will be bunch of stuff like recent Dune set which doesn't appeal to my collecting habits at all or Marvel MCU Sapphire... not as interesting to me.

Original art Marvel fans I think are in for some real pain. No more Masterpieces, Flair, Fleer, yikes!!!

[Angus Con]

This is sad news. The monopoly for Fanatics is very troubling for the card market in my mind. I'm not as attached to Marvel as many others are because my Marvel heyday was Conan and GI Joe mainly. haha But it's not good for one company to have all the licenses for collectors.

I much prefer DC anyway, but at this point, what licenses DOESN'T Fanatics have now?

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Angus Con

This is sad news. The monopoly for Fanatics is very troubling for the card market in my mind. I'm not as attached to Marvel as many others are because my Marvel heyday was Conan and GI Joe mainly. haha But it's not good for one company to have all the licenses for collectors.

I much prefer DC anyway, but at this point, what licenses DOESN'T Fanatics have now?

Upper Deck now has DC!

[Tim]

Horrible, horrible news. About the only positive I can come up with is that now we will at least have a finite number of PMGs and really there aren't a ton so I like that.

Going forward, Fanatics doesn’t have a clue so they will overproduce everything and ruin Marvel the same way they have ruined baseball.

[BipolarBear]

I'm bummed about this. Despite the glut of recent products and some issues during the pandemic, I've been very pleased with what UD has been doing with Marvel in the last 10 or so years. I feel like they really reinvigorated collecting 2013 Retro and then had a string of massive successes (MM16, Spidey Ultra, FUXM, Flair 19).

[PrinceVegeta]

Horrible news..upper deck treats dealers decent and fairly with pricing. Fanatics is the devil and rips everyone off.

At least upper deck will start pumping out DC

Marvel is now dead

[newhobbygeek]

When the news Upper Deck came out, some members of community voiced concerns of Upper Deck managing DC + Marvel at same time. I didn't have concern. I think Upper Deck has the best platform for getting cards to collectors, UD ePack. The only issue I have with UD distribution is their Diamond Dealer program which I guess it harder for LCSs to get UD product.

Do the same community members think Topps can manage NBA, NFL, MLB, F1, Star Wars, what else am I missing? and now add Marvel...

Fanatics to me is just a company that is buying other companies. I don't see much in terms of innovation for collecting from them.

[Zeldafanatic15]

Originally Posted by newhobbygeek

Fanatics to me is just a company that is buying other companies. I don't see much in terms of innovation for collecting from them.

Couldn't have said it better. Original art sets are almost 100% dead. Topps can't even bother paying their artists a decent price PLUS remember they took the APs away from artists, which is the main way they make money. No way will they hire actual artists to make new sets. They have a huge backlog to cut and paste pretty pictures from.

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[Marvel Card]

I am not disappointed in hearing this news, I’m hopeful they can re-imagine things when they obtain licensing rights again in the future. Maybe they’ll realize thick stock cards are a waste of space and are prone to many manufacturing issues that affect the quality of the card.

I do think fanatics obtaining the license is a good thing for marvel card collectors long term. The problem with UD has always been distribution. Marvel cards should be mainstream and they are far from that. It shouldn’t be this hard to buy cards, nor should it be this expensive. Though the two go hand in hand.

What fanatics will do is bring more of an audience into marvel card collecting. I have no doubts we’ll see marvel cards in big box retail stores again just like in the 90s. The print runs will be massive comparatively, but it’ll get cards into the hands of children again, who will grow up, and be interested in the sets that upper deck has been releasing for the last 8 or so years.

For the hobby, you need an audience. UD continuing to have the license would’ve ensured marvel cards were a millenial-gen x thing. Fanatics getting the license ensures the new generation can get into the hobby and ensures that when our generation starts reaching retirement age, our current collection of cards will be worth something. I think short term, people who are UD loyalists will panic their cards will decrease in value (which I believe they will). UD needs to have premium content to make their inserts desirable and they remain in the comics space by securing the DC license, and thus securing the value of inserts like jambalayas.

Does anybody know what happened to epack when UD lost licensing rights to other brands? I’d assume existing collections can stay on epack as they represent digital images/cards no longer distributed for profit on behalf of UD. But as with all things legal, who knows.

This certainly makes sense as to why we haven’t seen a set like fleer ultra midnight sons reach epack yet.

[Brobocop]

I hate Fanatics but I also don't love Upper Deck. They take FOREVER to get product out, I think their MCU offerings have been very lackluster, and they really got insane with what they count as a box hit in most of their products. They also price gouge on ePack like it's nobody's business.

Fanatics is going to price stuff even worse though. This hobby has just turned sucky since the pandemic boom. I find myself having a hard to enjoying it. I'm going to the National tomorrow and it may be the first time I go and not spend a penny outside of what I paid for my ticket.

[finfangfan]

I agree with Marvel Card that distribution of Marvel cards will likely be better if the license moves to Fanatics which might broaden the Marvel card market. Walmart and Target tend to stock waaaaay more Topps products than Upper Deck, so maybe it’s possible to get a steady stream of Marcel cards to a new collector base.

I still haven’t seen the official Fanatics announcement though… so maybe we are jumping the gun a bit with this thread. It seems plausible that Fanatics would want to buy Marvel and could easily outbid Upper Deck… but it’s not 100% until Fanatics posts the news. We also don’t know how much time left under UD if the license switches. Could be a couple years.