Will Fanatics Cutting Out Distributors Benefit The Consumer?
It’s no secret that Fanatics is dead set on consolidating and controlling every aspect of the hobby—from manufacturing to distributing to primary and secondary marketplaces, and likely eventually to grading. And while, historically, monopolies are universally awful for everyone involved (except the company at the top!), Fanatics’ latest bombshell to eliminate distributors and business-to-business selling may result in lower prices for the average collector. We said MAY.
Other things that caught our attention
There are currently 150 different cards (not counting variations) featuring Victor Wembanyama in a Spurs jersey, with plenty more on the way. The time to sell might be now.
This fantastic deep dive on the rise of repacks from Sports Cards Uncensored even highlights a few positives they’re contributing to the hobby—and looks to the future, when they could also be controlled by Fanatics.
This Instagram account is tracking all the Superfractors unearthed in Bowman so far. It also looks like Topps has avoided a repeat of the embarrassing multiple Superfractor issue that plagued Bowman Chrome Draft last year.
2023 Donruss Optic Football blasters were released ahead of the planned hobby release for June. One problem? The checklist wasn’t published along with the release, so PSA was temporarily refusing to grade cards from the set. They’ve since received the checklist.
That’s our roundup for a wild May—thanks for tuning in!