General Forum

I don't really know what this means or how it will affect my collecting habits but your side not #1 will be very interesting.  I also was "today years old" when I learned about Eisner as well.  I mean I don't keep up where people go, but had no clue he was with Topps and staying there.

As for the future of collecting, if the bubble burst around say 1994 last time, I guess we have about 7 more years before the next bubble bursts, oh boy!

It'll also be interesting to see if there's some spill over from cards to investing or visa versa.  I'm sure you've all heard what is going on with Gamestop stock.  

The bubble burst last time when there was no internet. It took people a while to realize how saturated the market was. The bubble will burst a lot sooner this time.

I'm not a financial advisor nor do I play one on tv. I do know that mot stock IPOs didnt to go down after first offering. I may grab a share here or there just because I like the hobby. My concern is that TOPPS will act like other companies and pander to the stock holder rather than the real customers that buy their product. It is already a major undertaking to simply find their product in the wild. What will it be like once stockholders money is at stake? I point to WWE as an example.

I think Topps is actually doing something really smart (but also really greedy) here. The hobby (or business) has exploded and Topps will cash in huge by selling stock. Eventually they will buy back all of that stock for pennies on the dollar for what the stock will sell for right now. They'll probably make millions of dollars off of it in the long term. They are a stock that will drop HARD when it does drop. It can't go up a bunch from where it will start. I see this as a yo-yo stock. It'll fluctuate a little from week to week, rising when new products come out, falling when something flops, rising again when an MLB or WWE product releases and so on and so forth. In the end, I only see buying stock in Topps as a break-even venture at the very best. A lot of people are going to lose a lot of money buying stock in Topps. And Topps will be more than happy to get that money without even selling cards to those people!

For all the reasons you have just stated, this may be a good stock to swing trade. Buy on the dips and sell on the peaks. I will definitely not be being at IPO

I had some stock the last time they were traded. I didn't have any intention to move it but they cancelled it out from under me. 

Honestly, Topps has been making a drastic push into Baseball and being a lover of a more simplistic yet beautifully designed card, find Topps to be far superior if you compare it to their NFL Panini counterparts. I for one am not some huge trader of cards, nor sell them on sites. I'm a straight collector and take the utmost care for the 75k plus and growing cards I have. I don't search for that must have RC.. simply enjoy finding them in the wild more than chucking hundreds for that one card. Being a collector for over 35 years and going, many companies have tried to unthrone Topps and they have all failed. The downfall of Panini can be seen in there past few year of their NFL Contenders sets.. what a damn headache and a stupid amount of variations, parallels.. I learned this the hard way by attempting to solo build the 2020 checklists. Spent more time searching for correct and corresponding numbers to actually list on the spreadsheet as they feel it's beneath them to actually release a true to the set checklist for us lowly collectors.. Topps learned from the junk wax Era of their over production and ensuing saturation of the market and seem to be far less overwhelming in size, complexity but at the same time, still produce beautiful and gorgeous sets like Chrome and also cater to those who seek a less flashy, throwback to the years that brought many of us into the hobby like there Topps redux, Heritage, turkey red type sets. I also believe that this move to go public is for them to start moving into the booming, stupidly expensive, Top Shot digital movement. I for one will make a small investment as I did the day Zoom opened and hope it pays off the same. I wish you all well!

John Barclay

Topps ONLY has baseball (and WWE)! There is no "drastic push" as they have always had baseball, at least since the 1950's. They've had the Exclusive MLB license since 2010. Everything you said is from a Topps purist mentality. Also, Topps started the parallels and the insert cards. They also started overproduction to make sure they were the cards everyone saw the most in stores when Donruss and Fleer won the monopoly lawsuit against Topps in 1980. I have also been collecting for 35+ years, so I am speaking from knowledge and experience. Topps also started the modern variation cards in the base set! Everything you said is pretty much just opinion instead of fact. Have you read none of the threads here for the past several years complaining about Topps in every single way they do business?

Panini is only doing the same thing Topps has been doing for decades and doing it better. Panini bought up everything they could by getting brands and licenses and putting out a ton of products across multiple sports. They are wiping out Topps in everything but MLB while still also making baseball cards. THAT is why Topps wants to go to public stock trading again! They need the money.