Founded by the Shorin brothers in Brooklyn, New York, the Topps Company has been a manufacturer of trading cards and collectibles since 1938. Topps is best known for being the oldest current producer of baseball trading cards and for holding the exclusive rights to produce Major League Baseball (MLB) cards since 2010. Currently, Topps is celebrating the 75th anniversary of their 1951 card set, marking 75 years of making licensed MLB cards. However, baseball is not the only sport for which Topps manufactures cards. From 1956 to 2015, Topps produced licensed football trading cards for the National Football League (NFL). They also began producing licensed National Basketball Association (NBA) cards in 1957, continuing until a hiatus in 1982. In 1992, Topps resumed manufacturing NBA cards, but in 2009, the Panini America company acquired the exclusive rights to produce NBA cards. In 2015, Panini America also gained the exclusive rights to NFL cards, limiting Topps to licensed MLB cards. 

Although Topps lost the licenses for NBA and NFL cards, they still produced basketball and football cards; however, under copyright law, these cards could only feature players’ names from the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and the NBA Players Association (NBAPA), not team names and logos. Unlicensed cards generally don’t sell as well as licensed cards because their after-market value is lower. Consumers tend to value licensed cards more because they usually display more color, flair, and authenticity than unlicensed cards. Topps was aware that their unlicensed cards weren’t selling as well, so when the opportunity came, they conquered. 

In 2022, Topps was acquired by Fanatics, and under their new ownership, they immediately started fighting back against Panini America. Fanatics Incorporated is a global sports apparel brand that is the largest manufacturer of jerseys, headwear, and other related merchandise for sports leagues worldwide. Fanatics is also involved in E-commerce, trading cards, collectables, sports betting, live events, prediction markets, and entertainment. 

Michael Rubin, the CEO and founder of Fanatics, was raised Jewish and used his Bar Mitzvah money to open up a ski shop in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Rubin would use the profits he made from his ski shop to create the GSI enterprise, which he sold to eBay, and then used the proceeds to create Fanatics in 2011. From 2022 to 2024, Fanatics and Topps worked behind the scenes to create a lucrative deal with the NFLPA and NBAPA to get them to terminate their partnerships with Panini America and sign new ones with Topps. In 2024, it was announced to the public that the NFLPA and NBAPA would be ending their partnerships with Panini America following the 2024-25 NBA season and 2025-26 NFL season. On October 23, 2025, The Topps Company released its first licensed basketball cards since 2009, and on April 15, 2026, they released their first licensed NFL cards since 2015.

Although the separation of Panini America and licensed NFL and NBA cards wasn’t peaceful (Panini America and Topps sued each other, but the case was dismissed in March 2025), the public was very receptive to the idea of a different company manufacturing NFL and NBA cards.

Panini America had a slew of issues when they were the license holders of the NFL and NBA. When they first started producing exclusive NFL and NBA cards, they were an unknown Italian trading card company that stumbled into those licences by acquiring the longstanding yet failing card companies Score and Donruss in 2009. Panini America’s issues started in the 2012-13 NBA and NFL season with the introduction of Panini Prizm. With this new set of cards, Panini America dramatically increased the number of base cards and parallels. This overproduction of cards caused the number of parallels of a certain card to go from 5-6 to 10-12. The creation of more parallels made them less valuable because they weren’t as rare, while also creating the illusion of rarity in unaware customers who weren’t familiar with the change. The lack of rarity led to less excitement in cards because it became increasingly difficult to pull a card of actual value. 

Panini America continued its overproduction in 2020 when the sports card market was at its peak. Panini America began doubling its production of cards, leading to a massive supply of cards that were supposed to be rare. When collectors pulled a LaMelo Ball or Justin Herbert rookie card, they thought they hit the jackpot, but in reality, those cards were mass-produced. Lastly, Panini America’s overprinting led to poor quality in their cards. Panini America worked fast and spent less time ensuring the quality of cards to increase production and meet the demand of the market, which led to off-center cards, surface scratches, printing lines, dings, soft corners, sticker autographs, and non-game-worn memorabilia in relic cards. These production errors spread fast throughout the trading card community via TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit, calling for a change in Panini America’s manufacturing of NFL and NBA cards. Many fans of trading cards were excited to hear that Topps was taking over as the licensed manufacturer of NFL and NBA cards. However, Topps and Fanatics have had issues in the past, and are currently experiencing many issues with NBA cards, so what can Topps do to ensure that it won’t become the next Panini America?

Emery/Weiner School junior Bryce Dunn-Kahn, an avid card collector and enthusiast, shared his sentiment about what he thought Topps could do to retain their legacy and not falter. 

“Trading card companies are like car companies; Topps and Panini (America) are like Chevy and Honda. Chevy has a reputation for making cooler cars, while Honda has a reputation for making reliable cars,” said Dunn-Kahn. “Topps needs to be like Honda and focus on the reliability and quality of their product. You can sell more by innovating, but if you don’t focus on quality, you won’t have a product to innovate with anymore. They can make the cards cool later, but right now they need reliability.”

Topps can also avoid Panini America’s failures by having Fanatics stop pushing Fanatics Collect and Fanatics Live through Topps’ website. Fanatics Collect is an online marketplace and auction house where consumers can purchase and bid on sports cards, trading cards, and other memorabilia. Fanatics Live is an online live video auction platform where you can live-bid on sports cards and memorabilia during live-streamed events. Fanatics’ poor merchandise quality poses a threat to consumers when bidding live on cards. Perhaps renaming the websites to Topps Collect and Topps Live would increase customers’ interest and trust in Topps and Fanatics.

Topps could also lessen the amount by which they raise prices. Topps raised the price of their hobby boxes year after year for three years and stopped guaranteeing hits in mega boxes, but kept the price the same. They also started pricing their MLB and NBA products differently, with NBA cards averaging $10-$15 more than MLB. When they start releasing NFL cards, they need to create more uniform and transparent pricing to keep up with the budgets of their target demographics.

Topps’ success doesn’t necessarily depend on addressing these issues; they have had over 75 years of success and are a multi-billion-dollar corporation. However, Panini America had the same relative success and reputation as Topps currently has before the rug was pulled out from under them when they lost their manufacturing licenses. On the contrary, addressing these issues could help Topps separate itself from Panini America and continue their success with the NFL and NBA licenses.