Anyone changing their collecting plans when Topps is gone?

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

So a couple of predictions:

• The Topps name will live on, either bought out by Fanatics or licensed by them. It has value, but only if it is producing cards
• Fanatics will not produce cards for the demographic on Net54
• Fanatics will not produce cards for kids
• Fanatics will go in directions that Topps has started, but with vigor - severely limited releases, shiny stuff, NFTs, electonic cards, etc.
• We (Net 54ers) will clamor for the good ol days, but it is demand from collectors that forced the market to where it is today

Pretty much. The only thing I might quibble with is the use of the terms "demand" and "collectors". The hobby has created at least some of the demand themselves in the same way the tobacco industry creates "demand" for that next smoke or the gaming industry creates "demand" for that next spin of the wheel or roll of the dice. Like an earlier commenter said, few if any "collectors" were sitting there saying - "what this hobby needs are some hyper expensive offerings and an end to real distribution". Though I have strong personal feelings on this, I really don't mean it prejudicially when I say the people in the market for these $$ things and for the lottery mentality aren't collectors in any sense of the word as it's been used in this hobby. They're investors or, perhaps less kindly, if not more accurately, gamblers. A Venn Diagram would should show some overlap between them and the traditional collector base, but I'm not certain it's significant.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if, after Fanatics takes over and does whatever they're going to do, some company could get the rights to produce a single, comprehensive (say, 800 or so cards) with wide and varied distribution channels, a handful of inserts, a few autos, a few parallels, and a traditional, almost Topps Heritage-like quality - I think there'd be a HUGE market for it.