Fanatics Expands Trading Cards Beyond the Sports Realm

Sports trading cards are no longer just a cute hobby for kids. The global sports trading card market was valued at $13.8 billion in 2019, according to Research and Markets, and is projected to reach $98.7 billion by 2027. While interest in sports trading cards has existed for decades, there's little knowledge about how similar cards in the worlds of entertainment and art would perform. Fanatics Collectibles co-founder and chief vision officer Josh Luber thinks culture is the next frontier for the industry to cross, and his company is betting on it with the launch of zerocool, the first trading card company focused on pop culture. The idea of trading cards inspired by art and entertainment has been on Luber’s mind since the former CEO and co-founder of online sneaker marketplace StockX left the company in 2020. "I basically had two ideas leaving StockX, which was, 'Can we make a trading card set for culture?'" Luber told Adweek. "'And can we figure out how to go after the licenses for baseball, basketball and football?'" Fanatics surprised the sports trading card industry last year by agreeing to licensing deals with the NBA and MLB and the players associations for both leagues and the NFL. Zerocool answers the other question. zerocool is debuting a highly limited set of cards based on Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT Project, VeeFriends. It all started in early 2019 when Luber—then with StockX—had a conversation with trading card producer Upper Deck's president, Jason Masherah, about why there weren’t any trading cards for categories like culture, sneakers, streetwear or fashion. Masherah’s response was simple: If you can get the people for a set, Upper Deck would print it. Luber took on the challenge as a side project for StockX, and through his connections in the industry and the celebrities that had invested in StockX was able to secure appearances from Eminem, Mark Wahlberg, Billie Eilish, J. Balvin and Jerry Lorenzo. The process was arduous, taking two years to negotiate with their various lawyers and managers. Luber left StockX before he could release the set. Masherah confirmed the unreleased project to Adweek in an email, noting that StockX and Upper Deck collaborated on a charitable trading card project in the sneaker, culture and fashion space for several years. Luber joined Fanatics Collectibles after a conversation with Fanatics owner Michael Rubin around Thanksgiving 2020. The chat largely centered on how the trading card space was continuing to grow, but was fundamentally antiquated. Trading cards were treated solely as CPG products. But things have changed, Luber contends. These fan-focused products should be viewed as true financial assets. Rather than a cheap commodity, trading cards are now subject to supply and demand—and should be priced the way. "They've been sold the way that you might sell a box of Cheerios," Luber added. Dr. Fauci’s Disastrous Opening Day Pitch Just Became a Home Run Trading Card for Topps An untapped market for culture The zerocool card set will be launched through a direct-to-consumer, blind dutch auction, which allows the market to set the price for an item. No one can see anyone else’s bids and the lowest winning bid—also known as the clearing price—becomes the set price that everyone pays. The brand's first release will be a highly limited set of cards based on Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT Project VeeFriends. Buyers can place their bids on zerocool.com beginning today through March 10. "Anyone who knows me in any shape or form knows that this is an absolute dream come true,” said Vaynerchuk in a statement. “I am very excited for zerocool, a new super-premium card brand for culture, and I'm incredibly humbled that VeeFriends gets to be the first one.” zerocool's first release will be a blind dutch auction. Luber sees these culture-centric trading cards as an untapped market. In a press kit shared with Adweek, a 2009 Kim Kardashian Upper Deck autograph card and a 2006 Jay-Z Topps autograph card are available for $60,000 and $100,000, respectively. Luber believes that creating scarcity and long-term value with the releases are important to establishing the business. Vaynerchuk has personally signed or sketched some of the cards in the set. An industry in transition Luber sees Fanatics Collectibles as a marketing and technology company, rather than a CPG brand. "Our primary goal as the torchbearers for card manufacturing across all the major sports—baseball, basketball, football—and now culture is to grow the market and to grow the whole industry," Luber said. "In order to do that, we have to truly become a marketing company. And we have to market the entire industry. This industry has never truly been marketed. Cards have never really been marketed. You've never seen ads on TV for trading cards." Luber sees sports betting as three or four years ahead of trading cards, based on its integration into games and teams. Luber envisions trading cards following suit and becoming marketable in the same way, where fans could potentially make live bets at games and buy valuable trading cards instantly. zerocool's new cards will feature special inserts and limited autographs. A Fanatic pursuit In January, Fanatics purchased Topps business for $500 million. Last year, Fanatics Collectibles raised $350 million in capital and was valued at $10.4 billion. The NBA, NBPA, MLB, MLBPA and NFLPA all hold equity in the company. Topps exists under the Fanatics Collectibles umbrella and had record sales of $567 million in 2020, a 23% rise from the previous year. Fanatics Collectibles' parent company Fanatics was valued last week at $27 billion. Sports Trading Cards Are Trending, and eBay Wants To Do More Than Facilitate Transactions

Branding

Fanatics Makes Culture and Entertainment Collectible With Zerocool

Trading cards, once a cheap CPG product, are now seen as a financial asset

Rafael Canton

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Rafael Canton