Antitrust issues are not new to the sports-card industry. In 1980, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that Topps had attained an unlawful monopoly after it signed more than 6,500 baseball players to exclusive agreements; the ruling briefly broke the company’s decades of dominance over the industry. That decision was later overturned by a federal appeals court, but two rival companies managed to enter the market in the interim and exploit loopholes in Topps’ exclusivity contracts. Upper Deck, an upstart company that pioneered higher-quality cards, joined the fray in the early 1990s. While baseball cards have always led the way, football and basketball cards are now almost just as popular.
In today’s market, licensing agreements are negotiated between the cardmakers, the league, and the players’ unions. The leagues control the license for each team’s marks, logos, and identifying colors, while the players’ unions generally control their likenesses. (Players can also negotiate these deals individually, as we’ll describe later.) It’s possible for a company to release sports cards without these licenses, but they have to airbrush out the players’ uniform and team logo and they won’t be printed with a player’s autograph already on them. As you can imagine, these cards are far less desirable among collectors.
Consolidation had already happened over the last two decades, especially after Panini acquired some of the major licenses. But Fanatics’ rise in the sports-card industry still reads like a tale of ruthless conquest. In the summer of 2021, the company suddenly announced a series of long-term licensing agreements with MLB, the NBA, the NFL, and their respective players’ unions after the current licenses expire in 2025 and 2026. This represented a major step towards consolidating the sports-card market. Fanatics capped off their acquisition spree and its metaphorical conquest a few months later by buying Topps, which held the MLB license for almost seventy years, and absorbing its operations.