OT: Fanatics' Growing Impact on Hobby
 

I thought this recent NYT piece on the growing impact of Fanatics would be of interest to Net54 forum members. If for no other reason than to sound the alarm that this company is far from finished in asserting itself in our lives. Peace.


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/b...smid=url-share

Times were much simpler when Topps just tried to bully Fleer. Now.....Fanatics will monopolize every corner of the Sports card realm and more before they are all done.

This just does not end well for the 'end user'.

And it heavily features our old friend Stephen Abbandondolo... remember him?

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Wasn't he the guy that was always buying super cheap fakes on eBay? Then asking if it was real on the memorabilia side? Then when his $5 item wasn't a priceless rare piece he called the eBay seller a scammer?

Fanatics will suck the last dollar, and breath, from this hobby - at least for new cards and memorabilia. They will burn bright and hot and will not foster a sustainable hobby.

I read the entire article, though I found the process rather devoid of entertainment value. The author may have intended otherwise; however, the piece seemed to negatively portray collectors of anything other than modern material. If I didn’t know anything about sports cards, I might have gotten the impression that collecting vintage was like visiting flea markets and modern was like going to trendy retail shops.

Topps was ruthless. They swallowed up Bowman and even wanted control of the hockey card market up here in Canada, and put Parkhurst out of business. I could go on and on.