Fanatics' Topps is putting Tom Brady on a Montreal Expos trading card

When sports activities platform Fanatics acquired trading card company Topps in January 2022 for roughly $500 million, a part of the funding thesis for Fanatics was that there was a possibility to not solely create extra merchandise for the already passionate collector, but additionally for the broader group of sports activities followers that had little publicity to trading playing cards and collectibles.

That has included some new gross sales experiments not historically seen within the trading playing cards market, like jersey patches for distinguished rookies and livestream shopping, with high-profile collectors opening packs on the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

One of probably the most anticipated yearly releases for baseball card collectors is the Topps Bowman Draft set, the primary time MLB draftees are featured on a card. While the chances of a prospect making the majors are traditionally low, the possibility for collectors to get the primary card of a potential Hall of Famer makes it one of the common trading card units beneath the Topps umbrella.

But there was one MLB draftee who was a lock for the Hall of Fame, albeit in one other sport: Tom Brady.

Brady, well-known for his NFL profession, was drafted within the 18th spherical of the 1995 MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos. When Mike Mahan, CEO of Fanatics Collectibles — the arm inside Fanatics that oversees Topps and its playing cards and collectibles enterprise — heard that Brady by no means had a baseball card, it match completely into what the corporate is making an attempt to do with trading playing cards.

“When we take into consideration our merchandise and types, we actually take into consideration product segmentation; we take into consideration one thing for everybody,” mentioned Mahan, who was beforehand the CEO of Dick Clark Productions previous to joining Fanatics in June 2022. “But as we take into consideration what we need to do, we simply need amassing to be enjoyable. … have enjoyable and achieve this in a approach that we predict is genuine and suits inside the narrative and storytelling that we do,” Mahan added.

Releasing on Tuesday, the Topps 2023 Bowman Draft set could have 162 Brady playing cards randomly dispersed throughout packs, with 81 of these that includes autographs. Fanatics Collectibles is additionally creating a number of Brady-related content material linked to what his profession would have regarded like if he had chosen baseball as an alternative of soccer.

Leaning additional into the broader Fanatics ecosystem, retro jersey producer Mitchell & Ness (acquired by Fanatics final yr) can even be promoting No. 12 Brady Expos jerseys. “We need to do issues which are distinctive and differentiated, and once you achieve that belief of the athletes, leagues, and companions, it simply completes the circle and that helps us make issues really feel larger and extra essential to essentially provoke not solely the amassing group however the sports activities group at massive,” Mahan mentioned.

Fanatics Collectibles is on monitor for a document yr, Mahan mentioned, pointing to the power and development of the card amassing trade at the same time as there are bigger challenges within the economic system. While Mahan declined to remark additional on the financials of Topps, the corporate had beforehand reported document gross sales of $567 million in 2020 (at a time when it was getting ready for a later scrapped preliminary public providing), then a 23% year-over-year enhance.

“I feel that this trade is rising; it might not really feel prefer it in comparison with Covid, however for our enterprise specifically, the issues that we’re doing are working throughout our portfolio very nicely,” Mahan mentioned.