Fanatics to acquire Topps.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Has Fanatics talked about issuing graded new cards? Seems crazy to sell cards to middlemen who deliver them unopened to PSA for grading and then auction them off to "collectors". Why not slab them as uncirulated, or something, and sell them directly?

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

I'd already brought up the idea in earlier posts, months ago, when word of Fanatics taking over baseball licensing from Topps first came out, about the possibility of Fanatics maybe issuing cards encapsulated as "uncirculated" to customers sometime in the future. Figured that Fanatics might also look to take over direct distribution of cards to the public one day, cutting out the online breakers. And if so, and they're willing to go that far, why not then offer those customers buying directly from them the option (at an additional cost of course) to have Fanatics encapsulate a card certified as "uncirculated", and make even more money for themselves? Supposedly all these modern cards are perfect when first coming off the printing line, so immediately encapsulating them before they get handled, like sending them in to get graded, would/should ensure they are in perfect condition. And it would also ensure no card doctors have a chance to mess around with such cards either, which would likely be viewed by many as a very good and positive thing for the hobby.

Pure speculation, but not an impossibility. Could severely impact TPGs going forward then. And who knows, maybe it would even be done as a calculated move by Fanatics to damage existing TPG businesses to then swoop in and acquire one when they're down. Kind of just like what they did to/with Topps. Once again, it's probably all about the money.

[GeoPoto]

Originally Posted by BobC

I'd already brought up the idea

Sorry, I didn't mean to infringe on your intellectual property rights, he said good-naturedly. But isn't it the case that PSA was buried under an avalanche of "circulated" current-year cards that were sold by Topps (et al) to "specialists", who immediately and with as little handling as possible submitted them to PSA for grading in anticipation of selling them as soon as they were returned as PSA 10s? Unless I'm wrong about that, it seems like common sense (and basic free-market capitalism) for Fanatics to address the tsunami of demand for PSA 10 (which is essentially a euphemism for uncirculated) current-year cards directly.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Sorry, I didn't mean to infringe on your intellectual property rights, he said good-naturedly. But isn't it the case that PSA was buried under an avalanche of "circulated" current-year cards that were sold by Topps (et al) to "specialists", who immediately and with as little handling as possible submitted them to PSA for grading in anticipation of selling them as soon as they were returned as PSA 10s? Unless I'm wrong about that, it seems like common sense (and basic free-market capitalism) for Fanatics to address the tsunami of demand for PSA 10 (which is essentially a euphemism for uncirculated) current-year cards directly.

But a big (huge?) factor in the tsunami of demand for PSA 10s is that not every, or anywhere near every, uncirculated card gets a 10. PSA goes to great (ridiculous, arbitrary) lengths to create artificial scarcity of 10s by "finding" undetectable flaws that result in a 9 or an 8.

Shipping out pre-slabbed "uncirculated" cards in any robust number would kill the (arbitrary, perceived) scarcity, which is the real source of the demand, not the condition itself. On the other hand, if they ship out few enough pre-slabbed for them to be scarce, it probably wouldn't be very profitable. If they tried to charge too much, people would just buy the regular version and hope to get the blessing of the PSA wizard. Or I guess they could do a very limited-edition release of a pre-slabbed card that isn't replicated in a non-slabbed version, but there the slabbing would be only a minor selling point above and beyond the scarcity of the card itself.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by ASF123

But a big (huge?) factor in the tsunami of demand for PSA 10s is that not every, or anywhere near every, uncirculated card gets a 10. PSA goes to great (ridiculous, arbitrary) lengths to create artificial scarcity of 10s by "finding" undetectable flaws that result in a 9 or an 8.

Shipping out pre-slabbed "uncirculated" cards in any robust number would kill the (arbitrary, perceived) scarcity, which is the real source of the demand, not the condition itself. On the other hand, if they ship out few enough pre-slabbed for them to be scarce, it probably wouldn't be very profitable. If they tried to charge too much, people would just buy the regular version and hope to get the blessing of the PSA wizard. Or I guess they could do a very limited-edition release of a pre-slabbed card that isn't replicated in a non-slabbed version, but there the slabbing would be only a minor selling point above and beyond the scarcity of the card itself.

That would/could probably still be done to such factory "uncirculated" cards. Weren't/aren't some people/groups putting stickers and other markings on previously TPG graded cards to further separate them from similar graded ones already? So why not just do the same with these. And how long is PSA's registry going to keep driving their inherent price advantage over other TPG's graded cards? It seems that more and more of the young people jumping into the"hobby" with their new money are of the investor/flipper ilk, and don't really care that much about having their cards listed on the PSA registry. If that turns out to be true, I can see down the road where that could start to turn some collectors off on PSA, and maybe have them start embracing the factory "uncirculated" concept. You only need a few people/collectors to start it off, and then maybe have it snowball from there. And who's to say people from Fanatics couldn't be going into the secondary markets online to light that spark themselves. Past market manipulation has been discussed on here and other sites numerous times already, so what's one more?

Or what about this idea? What if Fanatics came along and set up their own registry, but incorporated all the major TPGs in it? Everyone on here's been complaining about SGCs lack of a registry for quite some time now. I don't believe Beckett has ever had a registry, am I right? And of course, PSA's registry is king! It wouldn't necessarily be easy to convince everyone to join in, nor have the info fully loaded overnight. But over time, maybe as more and more people accepted the idea and would send graded collection info in, the fact that collectors could used graded cards from different TPGs to get their collection rankings, without having to cross everything over to, or sent in for grading by, PSA, could end up proving to be attractive to an awful lot of collectors. Not to mention maybe taking down PSA a notch or so. And Fanatics could include their factory "uncirculated" cards somewhere in their registry as well.

Before anyone says it is too far-fetched, and will never will occur, just consider of everyone else out there already in this industry, who has a greater economic drive, motivation, and wherewithal to maybe make something like any, or all, of this happen, besides Fanatics? And again, before you just flat out say no way, think and look back over the last few decades at all the things you swore or never dreamed would eventually happen.....................but did!

[Snowman]

The Fanatics ownership group also owns CSG. Any cards that they distribute already slabbed will almost certainly be in CSG slabs.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Sorry, I didn't mean to infringe on your intellectual property rights, he said good-naturedly. But isn't it the case that PSA was buried under an avalanche of "circulated" current-year cards that were sold by Topps (et al) to "specialists", who immediately and with as little handling as possible submitted them to PSA for grading in anticipation of selling them as soon as they were returned as PSA 10s? Unless I'm wrong about that, it seems like common sense (and basic free-market capitalism) for Fanatics to address the tsunami of demand for PSA 10 (which is essentially a euphemism for uncirculated) current-year cards directly.

LOL

George, Wasn't picking on you, and my apologies if it came across that way. Just mentioning it in case you wanted to go back and see what others may have already said in the earlier thread(s). I'm bad at finding and attaching old thread links myself.

I get your point about PSA and trying to get 10s from them, but seems like after listening to all the talk and criticism their grading gets, it sounds like it is really getting harder to get 10 grades from them. Plus there's the additional dissatisfaction with the backlog issue and submitters waiting months and months to get their graded cards returned, not to even mention the increased fees. But why would Fanatics/Topps be so concerned about PSA? The way things are working now, what does Fanatics/Topps make off people buying their cards, and then submitting them right away to PSA (or any other TPG)? Far as I can tell, nothing. So if Fanatics/Topps were to decide to start marketing directly to their customer base, and basically begin taking distribution over from the breakers, why not try something like also offering their customers the opportunity to have cards they win from them encapsulated as "uncirculated" right from the factory? Fanatics/Topps can then charge their customers extra for this service, and make money that otherwise would just be going to TPGs. It also eliminates the possibility that customers buying cards through breakers, or from other sources, could inadvertently do damage to them in handling and sending them off for grading, regardless of how careful they are, and thus end up with a lower grade. Heck, the TPG they send their cards to could mishandle and damage someone's cards, ever so slightly, also resulting in lower grades. And any submitter would probably never know it. And you sure as heck know the TPG likely won't admit to damaging someone's cards. Don't know about you, but I honestly can't really tell the difference between a 9, 9.5, or 10, with the naked eye. And if the cards are encapsulated at the factory, people buying them in the after-/secondary markets won't have to worry so much about card doctors having gotten their hands on them before they sent off to TPGs for grading. So if given the opportunity, I could see some people, at least in the beginning, possibly embrace the idea of a factory issued "uncirculated" designation. And as you said/asked, isn't a PSA 10 card more or less considered the equivalent of an uncirculated card? To that statement I agree and say yes. But then what's to stop the possibility in the future, if the practice becomes more and more accepted by even just some collectors, that a Fanatics/Topps factory encapsulated "uncirculated" card now in people's eyes becomes the equivalent of a PSA 10?

If Fanatics/Topps could pull that off, I could even see them possibly looking to later on acquire one of the established TPGs that possibly took a hit from such actions. That would help Fanatics to add to and expand their vertical market even further. Just look what they've done to the sports card manufacturing business as a whole, and Topps specifically, in a relatively very short period of time. If Fanatics has already gone this far with the card manufacturing part of the industry, what makes you think they'll stop there, and maybe not try to get into (and possibly take over) the distribution/wholesale sales, breaking, and grading parts of the industry next? Fanatics, ergo the major U.S. sports leagues and their accompanying player's associations and unions, is all about making as much money for themselves as they can. How they intend to do that, and how it will end up affecting our little niche of the collecting universe, remains to be seen.