Saw this over at Blowout. Topps is going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/0...rough-spac-deal.html

Thoughts? Is this good or bad for non-sports?

From what I have seen, whenever a company goes from private control to a public offering its a double edged sword. The Board of Directors love it because they get options and that comes out to lots of free money for them. The new shareholders bring in lots of money, so the company can grow and expand.

The trouble usually comes in about 3 years later when the Board and Management have to appease shareholders who want higher dividends or stock increases for their investment. If someone buys a large block of stock, they might even want a seat on the Board. A private company can do whatever the owners want, but a public company has to be more transparent, gets outside pressure and can be set up for a hostile takeover.

It has been my experience that much of the old Board and old Management wait around awhile to get their rewards and then leave one way or another a couple of years later, if not sooner.

Most of the news stories about this call Topps a sports card company. They are more than that. It's non-sport products have always gotten less attention, but more money and expansion could improve that if they choose.

Can't say if they will go more in the non-sport direction now or not, but Michael Eisner is the current Chairman and he ran Disney at one time. Topps has the big pro sports licenses and that market is exploding. Moves like this always mean corporate restructuring and they either build areas up or cut them out depending on who's in charge.

I haven't been buying much Topps' product in recent years because I don't follow Star Wars or GPK, so for me, any expansion in mon-sport licenses would be welcome.

Who knows? It's not like Topps has a vast string of non sports titles now.

Maybe with it being public, license stock holders will ease the stupid costs and allow for more titles to be released. Entirely too many films (ie Godzilla vs Kong) are getting by without a card set.

Also seems to be a reason to market trading cards more aggressively......which means more production numbers.

quote:

Also seems to be a reason to market trading cards more aggressively......which means more production numbers.

As an industry, we have a problem to deal with regarding advertising.

If Topps wanted to advertise aggressively, where exactly do they tell people to go for their product? They are fairly good about stocking in Target, and to a lesser extent in Wal-Mart, but for hobby boxes there is no "go here to get yours" option available.

Diamond does good with their Comic Shop Locator Service. Topps should have a hobby shop directory on their site. But it won't help much for those looking for Mandalorian cards, as 99.9% of those shops will be sports card shops and what percentage of those support the entertainment arm of Topps?

It's a very basic, core problem. And one that is not easy to fix.

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

quote:

Also seems to be a reason to market trading cards more aggressively......which means more production numbers.

As an industry, we have a problem to deal with regarding advertising.

If Topps wanted to advertise aggressively, where exactly do they tell people to go for their product? They are fairly good about stocking in Target, and to a lesser extent in Wal-Mart, but for hobby boxes there is no "go here to get yours" option available.

Diamond does good with their Comic Shop Locator Service. Topps should have a hobby shop directory on their site. But it won't help much for those looking for Mandalorian cards, as 99.9% of those shops will be sports card shops and what percentage of those support the entertainment arm of Topps?

It's a very basic, core problem. And one that is not easy to fix.

Ed

Great point, Ed. . .

The industry definitely has advertising and distribution problems. After I moved I checked Rittenhouse's dealer locator and they wrote me back to indicate they don't have any local dealers selling product in my area -- despite being one of the 25 largest metro areas in the country. The local sports card stores do sometimes carry small supply of non-sport cards, but to Ed's point you can't count of them having anything specific, and they likely won't have any 'hot' product in stock as it sells out fast -- it may never hit the shelf if they are able to pre-sell their entire allocation.

I guess that means there is also a supply problem. There are lines at Target in the mornings when there are card deliveries. They limit the amount of product people can buy and they sell out immediately. . .

I think there is kind of a fine line between too much and too little supply making it a bit of a sensitive problem to tackle.

The simplest and most obvious play is to increase supply at mass merchants -- but that really only helps Topps. . .

I hope the rising tide in the industry can also raise up companies like Rittenhouse -- selfishly so I can find products in local stores.