For the first time in modern trading card history, one company effectively controls the biggest licences in the game: NBA, NFL, MLB, WWE and UFC. With Fanatics behind Topps, this wasn’t accidental. It’s scale, leverage, and money doing exactly what money does.
On the surface, this looks like a golden age for collectors. More products. More hype. Faster releases. More “moments.” And in the short term, that’s probably true. Fanatics is very good at extracting value quickly, and Topps will absolutely lean into that.
But here’s where I think the hobby is getting this wrong.
The Immediate Reaction: “Panini Is Dead”
If you’ve spent any time in card groups, comment sections, or hobby forums lately, you’ve seen it. As soon as the licence announcements dropped, the tone shifted hard.
“Panini is dead now.”
“Only Topps matters going forward.”
“Why would you hold Panini if they can’t make cards anymore?”
This sentiment is everywhere — Reddit threads, Facebook groups, YouTube chats during breaks. It’s become shorthand for the idea that future relevance equals future production.
That reaction is understandable. Collectors are trained to chase what’s next. But it’s also lazy thinking.
Because when a company stops producing cards, the supply side of the equation doesn’t get weaker — it locks in permanently.
What a Topps Monopoly Actually Means
Fanatics is not a charity for collectors. It’s a vertically integrated sports business designed to maximise revenue. In the short term, that’s exciting. More releases, more parallels, more limited sets, more exclusives.
Long term? Monopolies don’t innovate for the hobby. They optimise for margin.
When there’s no real competition:
- Print runs creep up quietly
- Product lines blur together
- Differentiation becomes cosmetic, not meaningful
- The incentive to “protect collector value” fades
We’ve seen this before in other industries. It never ends with restraint.
Topps doesn’t need to be careful anymore. They don’t need to win your loyalty — they already own the licences.
Why Panini Cards Might Age Better Than People Expect
Here’s the uncomfortable counterpoint.
Panini cards — especially NBA and NFL — now exist in fixed supply forever. There will be no “next year’s version.” No reprint. No continuation.
That’s not a weakness. That’s forced scarcity.
Collectors tend to undervalue this at first. Then time passes. Players retire. Generational careers get reassessed. And suddenly, the only officially licensed rookie-era cards for entire stretches of players’ careers are… Panini.
Scarcity doesn’t need hype to work. It just needs time.
Competition Is What Keeps the Hobby Healthy
The real issue isn’t whether Topps is good or bad. It’s that the hobby works best when there’s tension.
Panini vs Topps drove:
- different design philosophies
- competing insert ideas
- real innovation in flagship products
- value checks on print runs
Without competition, you don’t get better cards — you get more cards.
A strong Panini mattered, not because they were perfect, but because they forced Topps to care. The moment that pressure disappears, the hobby becomes a content factory instead of a collector ecosystem.
The Long View Most People Aren’t Taking
Right now, the crowd is chasing what’s loud. That’s normal. But collectors who think long-term tend to move against the emotional flow, not with it.
Panini cards aren’t disappearing — they’re fossilising. And in this hobby, fossils eventually become artefacts.
Topps will dominate the present. Panini may quietly own parts of the past that can never be recreated.
The hobby doesn’t need one winner. It needs friction. And the absence of it might be the most important thing collectors should be paying attention to right now.
PS, And if you believe that Panini is dead, feel free to hand over your NT and Flawless Autos or your Prizm 1/1 rookies cards, or you Select Animal Prints I’ll make sure they go to a caring and loving home 😅