Could More Topps Baseball Products Be Cut With Fanatics Adding NFL And NBA In 2026?

We reported recently that a few baseball products will be cut, most notably Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary Baseball. However, you may be overly optimistic if you thought that was a temporary problem that would soon be fixed.

The launch of more non-baseball products by Fanatics and the curtailment of products from other sports appear to be an ongoing trend.

The arrival of the NFL and NBA in 2026 will only worsen that, and the ramp-up is already occurring now. So we asked ourselves what Topps baseball products would likely be cut and when.

Why we think Topps Baseball products are likely to be cut

Topps has specialized in producing baseball cards since losing its basketball and football products over a decade ago. Those of us who collect the “national pastime” have gotten used to having many lines available to cater to our tastes.

We are also used to those releases being significantly cheaper than their football and basketball equivalents in many cases. Like most good things, this situation is unlikely to last. Fanatics is starting to cut a large amount of baseball releases.

That comes as they ramp up the production of football and basketball cards. This trend will likely be exacerbated when they get back the NBA and NFL rights in less than two years.

Topps is already showing stress at pumping out the number of products it currently has in the lineup. And that is when it has barely begun to renew its production capacity in basketball and football.

We are seeing many products coming out late. In particular, Topps Pro Debut has been postponed repeatedly. Meanwhile, others are being canceled. They seem to include Topps Triple Threads and Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary Baseball.

The dangers of the Fanatics monopoly on sports card production

The streamlining that will occur now makes perfect sense from Fanatics’ perspective. They have finite resources and want to make a maximum amount of money. Therefore, any release that is not a slam dunk in terms of profits it will make for the company is suspect.

By the way, they will use their printing and marketing capacity to promote the most profitable products and let much of the rest fall.

You can’t fault Fanatics for that. It is their job to make the most money out of their rights. But it’s a reminder of why allowing one company to have the rights to all the major sports is so problematic. The company bought up the rights to professional football and basketball at least partially to push their competition, namely Panini, to destruction.

They have also taken other efforts in that direction, namely poaching executives and even buying the printing press facility they use in Texas.

Think of the cost that presents to the average collector. There are currently many products for basketball and football produced by Panini. I counted over 30 Panini basketball products in 2023.

Football has a similar number. Meanwhile, Upper Deck has about 20 hockey releases annually. That wide variety is facilitated by the fact that there is a division of labor between the companies. Each looks at the sports they specialize in, finds the correct niche, and uses its resources to best address the needs of the consumers.

Once all of the printing and manufacturing capacity is in the hands of one company, each sport will get less attention. That is just the natural result of the broader net that Fanatics will now cast.

What we can likely expect from Topps releases in the future

With Topps controlling MLB, NBA, NFL, WWE, and a good deal of the global soccer rights (perhaps all of the important ones in the long term), we can expect fewer products for each sport.

I believe what we can be sure of is that these lines will be maintained and fostered for most of the major sports:

• Series 1 and 2
• Chrome
• Stadium Club
• Bowman and Bowman Chrome
• Allen & Ginter
• Heritage
• At least two high-end releases

There may be a couple of new products or surprises. But ultimately, we could see about ten products per sport. That would still give Topps a massive amount of releases to deal with annually. Enough to make it challenging to juggle all the release dates and have them on the marketplace promptly.

Where will the emphasis be?

Prizm for basketball and football tend to be the most successful products in the hobby. Therefore, when Topps starts to make licensed versions of Topps Chrome Basketball and Topps Chrome Football, these will likely become the epicenter of the schedule for Fanatics.

After all, those were the releases that originally inspired Prizm. Regarding the price, Fanatics has already shown that it plans to charge a very hefty price for these. Even though the

What will that mean for baseball? The 2023-24 Topps Chrome Basketball release is unlicensed, but these babies currently pay $800 on eBay. So, who knows what those will go for when Fanatics has the rights?

They could easily print fewer baseball cards and sell the boxes for more. It would undoubtedly be a better use of their resources.

We don’t know for sure, but there is reason to believe these industry changes will result in fewer baseball products and higher prices. This could be a difficult time for baseball collectors, as they know the company specializing in releasing products for them uses more of its capacity for other sports.

The plummeting number of baseball products

Therefore, fewer baseball products will likely be released annually than in years. In 2023, several products were discarded into the trash heap of history. They included:

• Archives Snapshots
• Bowman Chrome X
• Authentic
• Fire
• Gallery
• Gold Label
• Opening Day
• 1st Edition

Meanwhile, we lost several other products in 2024 without an official announcement. Based on industry rumors and the release calendar, the following brands have either been cut, or there is serious consideration of that happening:

• Pristine Baseball
• Triple Threads
• Heritage Minor League

What other baseball card products can we expect to get discontinued?

There is plenty of time until Topps receives the rights to football and basketball. Much can change before then.

But I looked at the list of Topps baseball products to try to predict what else could be on the chopping block. Here are some I would not be surprised if Fanatics considered removing:

• Archives
• Big League Baseball
• Bowman Platinum
• Bowman Sterling
• Black & White
• Brooklyn Collection
• Chrome Black
• Cosmic Chrome
• Definitive Collection
• Dynamic Duals
• Inception
• Museum
• Pristine
• Rip
• Tribute

I would not be surprised if half of these products did not exist two years from now. We might also see lower print runs for the ones that survive. Therefore, we could have a tiny selection of overpriced products.

What are the positives of fewer baseball lines?

Several elements could be improved by reducing product lines. Right now, there are hundreds of rookies for every baseball player. This is out of control and tends to lower their value.

One commenter on YouTube noted, “Yes, no one wants to pay more, but hell, we have players with over a hundred different rookie cards, which is crazy. As a collector and investor, I only want no more than five rookie cards per player because, with the way it is now, you might as well collect their auto cards and nothing else.”

Some new collectors like the idea of streamlining. Another user said, “Just got back into the hobby, but now I have to dip? I like Archive and Heritage baseball, though it is quite redundant to collect both. I hope Fanatics streamlines their baseball products as there are sadly too many to collect.”

It does make it easier cognitively when there are fewer products to pursue. However, veteran collectors already know that you should avoid it. Therefore, this is less of an advantage for us.

Therefore, the result is fewer products at higher prices, which is likely to harm collectors rather than benefit them.

Final word on how Topps baseball products are likely to be cut

We have been very spoiled as baseball collectors over the last few years. Since Topps lost the rights to the NFL and NBA over a decade ago, they have focused almost exclusively on baseball.

That helped them build an incredibly rich and robust collection of baseball cards—one that, while not perfect, has products that appeal to just about everyone. Sadly, there is now a genuine prospect that this selection will be stripped down to its bare essentials.

I do not blame Fanatics for this. They have to make tough choices to facilitate all the sports they are getting. I don’t even blame them for trying to get the rights to as many sports as possible. That is the nature of the beast. Topps tried to do the same when it was the most significant player in the hobby.

However, the anti-trust laws in this country are specifically designed to stop monopolies from forming and prevent this exact behavior. The dangers of monopolies include, according to the US Department of Justice, “Monopoly power can harm society by making output lower, prices higher, and innovation less than would be the case in a competitive market.”

That is clearly what we are starting to see here. It is a shame that competition in this market, as in others, is not enforced.