In an increasingly-rare piece of transactional news, online retailer Fanatics has reached an agreement to acquire renowned trading card company Topps Sports & Entertainment, per Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico. Topps Sports & Entertainment represents the trading card and digital collectible portion of the greater The Topps Co. enterprise. The deal is worth $500MM, according to Jared Diamond and Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal.
News of tonight’s reported deal comes in the wake of last year’s revelation that Major League Baseball and the MLBPA would not be renewing their longstanding agreement with Topps. Instead, both the league and players union pivoted and partnered with Fanatics on a long-term licensing deal, granting the online sports retailer with exclusive trading card licenses.
Though the Fanatics Trading Cards brand has yet to launch a single product, recent valuations for this portion of the Fanatics enterprise have skyrocketed. Thanks in part to renewed trading card interest by hobbyists during the past two years, a recent valuation of Fanatics Trading Cards now stands at $10.4 billion. Both the MLB and MLBA are equity holders in Fanatics’ new trading card venture, creating an ongoing revenue source for both parties.
In a piece by The Wall Street Journal, Jared Diamond and Andrew Beaton note that Fanatics’ original August deal with MLB wasn’t set to begin until after the 2025 season. Likewise, licensing deals with the NFL and NBA were also a few years from kicking in, slowing Fanatics’ push into the trading card space. Acquiring the Topps Sports & Entertainment division now, however, will allow Fanatics to accelerate its foray into this portion of the hobby market years ahead of schedule. In addition to immediate distribution rights of baseball cards, Fanatics also picks up Major League Soccer, UEFA, and Formula One licenses in the deal.
Implications of this acquisition will be far-reaching, though it most directly increases Fanatics hold on a growing industry. The Topps Company will now see business operations span only its candy and gift card divisions, barring further activity from the company’s ownership group. Sports leagues across the world are now primed to see increased revenue streams thanks to their newly cut licensing deals and equity stakes with Fanatics.
For baseball and its players union, this news looms against a still-stagnant lockout backdrop. The financial ramifications of this deal are unlikely to have any immediate impact on the state of the lockout, though it appears another party, Fanatics, now has its interests more wholly aligned with the 2022 baseball season being conducted as scheduled.
Good to see. hopefully this brings a degree of certainty to an otherwise cloudy transition period. Hopefully this also keeps brands like Heritage and Bowman online (two faves of mine).
Bowman is all but guaranteed to continue since it’s a staple. Most of the other signature Topps lines should continue as well.
Another positive I’ve seen people mention is that Fanatics will probably have Topps make football and basketball cards again once they officially take the license in a few years. I know a lot of people, myself included, aren’t too big on Panini so that would be great news
Equally interesting is that a couple months ago, Mets owner Steve Cohen and other investors purchased Collectors Universe and its flagship Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which grades cards. Collectors Universe and PSA were previously a public-traded company but the Cohen and friends acquisition takes the company private. PSA and Beckett are probably the best known baseball card grading services in the country. PSA had put renewal of its collectors club memberships on hold for a while before that. Card collecting and grading appears to have increased during the pandemic. I always thought it would be fascinating to do an audit of card grading companies to see if the hypothesis that persons who send in large batches of cards at the same time (the whales) get better average grades than those who send in small numbers or batches of cards.
BGS used to be the king of graded cards. PSA seems to be king now. What happened? I haven’t been following heavily the past several years, but curious.
BGS was never king
Are you kidding? They owned the 90’s, 2000’s decades.
Red Wings and Padam:
You are both sort of right.
While Collectors Universe was founded in 1986, PSA was not doing graded cards until 1991. It took a few years for them to pass Beckett in terms of reputation/volume for card grading. Probably some people still prefer Beckett. A casual customer may notice the difference in the physical shell used to encapsulate the baseball cards, but without a microscope a lots of submissions to both companies, it is hard to compare the reliability of the graders. My guess is that some variation among company employees exists, just like every other field, although I am sure they have a detailed quality control process so that most cards are reviewed by multiple staff.
I don’t think Becketts was king. They had a huge magazine, and they advertised all the prices, but I think they were a little slow on grading.
Before PSA was fully running, what grading and authentication company do you think was bigger in terms of reputation or volume than Beckett?
PSA has the database… why it’s king.
19830:
By mid-1990s, I agree. But my comment to Joe involved pre-PSA.
I like the database. It helps to figure out the underlying value. If your buying an Oliva 9 (pre-HOF), how does that compare to an Allen 9. Knowing that there are only 6 Oliva 9s, and -0- 10s, helps you when you figure out how high to go.
The set registry was one of the great marketing schemes of all time. I use to buy a few prospective HOF rookies like Oliva and Allen. It was a way of challenging myself, and if I was right, I’d make some Vegas money.
Then I realized that if I put a little more on the line, I could buy the entire basic set at a reasonable price, if I did so before they got elected. It’s kind of a competitive thing to do.
I wish I had followed thru on Minoso and Hodges, but that’s another whine for another day.
I feel that i should own a good portion of Topps myself as much of my allowance that i spent on those cards in the late 80’s/ early 90’s
Facts
@one of these days You and me both brother!
Their giving the keys to the industry to a company who’s never even done it before. Could be a massive mistake.
Hopefully this transaction will bring a better piece of gum inserted into the tops card pack.
They still do gum inserts?
Loved the 70’s Topps cards with the gum smell…..
I sort of miss the days when there were multiple companies producing cards. I remember buying Topps, Fleer, Upper Deck, Score, Donruss all at the same time. I also remember the 700+ card sets that seemed like almost everyone got a card (Bill Bathe ’91 Topps anyone?).
Good times
I agree, it was good times when the big 5 were still making cards. Different companies had different borders to the cards, different rookies to chase, some were glossy and some were more cardboard.. In 1991 I was an 8th grader that saved up money to buy all 5 sets, thinking I’d be rich at some point in the future due to this massive investment 😛
Problem is, it got so far out of hand with every company producing like 5 sets each, and there were a billion inserts to chase. It would be nice if it could go back to 5 companies, one set each, different card styles to choose from, limit the inserts to the old school days like when Fleer had the Provisions. I’d jump back in for sure given choices of what to buy, but not a BILLION things to have to figure out.. I don’t really collect anything new anymore. It’s basically the Topps set or something like Panini with no logos (which is completely lame, in my opinion). I mainly only buy old stuff from before I was born now.
The companies couldn’t produce cards fast enough at one point. I think it was the 1986 Topps Traded that really saturated the market.
You forgot Leaf
Fleer = Leaf i thought
Pretty sure Leaf was independent, Canadian?, and licensed out the cards back in the ’80s. I feel like 1986 Leaf and Donruss were the same thing with different logos. Kind of like O-pee-chee and Topps.
Donruss and Leaf were separate companies until 1983, when both companies were bought out and merged by a Finnish company. The real key to the deal was the Leaf candy biz (Rain-Blo gum, Whoppers, and Jolly Rancher). Donruss then used the Leaf name on their Canadian cards from 1985-1988 (plus a special run in the US in 1990).
The cards business is owned by Panini now, and the candy by Hershey.
Card collecting is a great hobby during this time!
Baseball card nostalgia:
I started collecting in 1968. When the second series came out, I kept getting the Ryan/Koosman rookie card while trying to complete the series. If memory serves correctly, I had a hard time tracking down Larry Jaster and Ramon Webster. I couldn’t trade for them because the kids in my class mostly stopped collecting after the first series. So I kept buying cards, sometimes switching stores in a bid to change my luck.
In the fall of that year, I was headed to a Cub Scouts meeting when I found a trail of ’67 Topps on the ground. The path led to a family’s garbage can. On top was a shoebox full of those cards. I was well on my way to collecting that set, save for the elusive high numbers. I hid the box outside the house where our meeting was, then retrieved it afterward and spent the rest of the night putting the cards in numerical order. I was well on my way to collecting that set, save for the elusive high numbers. Yes, Mantle was among them. Twice.
A while later, Jack Spector had a guy from newfound collectors magazine The Trader Speaks on his WMCA sports talk show on WMCA (the show began as a Yankees post-game show). I became a subscriber, got a boost in my allowance, and started collecting Dodgers cards (both Brooklyn and Los Angeles) through ads in the magazine. The cards later paid for my college education. I called a nearby card shop’s owner each semester, selling him enough cards to pay my tuition bill. It’s a significant reason I hung on and graduated — I wanted something to show for selling my baseball cards. Since I held back on selling the Brooklyn stuff until my final semester, he was always eager to do business. He’d come to our house with a wad of cash. It was like being a drug dealer.
I mention The Trader Speaks because, in the early days of the pandemic, a guy I used to correspond with through the publication somehow tracked me down and asked if I had any cards left. Since we had recently moved, I didn’t think I did. Later, I found some ’67s and ’68s I didn’t know I still had. I will now sell those cards to that guy.
The weirdest part of my collection is a complete run of (Arthur) Lee Maye cards on Topps. I collected them out of my admiration for Maye’s pre-MLB singing career. He fronted vocal group Arthur Lee Maye & The Crowns in the ’50s and sang backup on Richard Berry’s original version of “Louie Louie.” He’s probably the best-singing pro athlete ever. If I hang onto any cards, those will be the ones.
One tidbit on Jack Spector’s sports talk show. Unlike nasty John Sterling, who eventually became the host, Spector kept the show kid-friendly. He didn’t hang up when he heard a kid’s voice. I called quite a few times. The guy who answered the calls and screened them was hilarious. His identity? Pre-Good Times Jimmie “JJ” Walker. He had previously been a vendor at Yankee Stadium. Half the fun of calling the show was talking to the funny call-screener.
Great story Cey Hey!
@jorge78, Thanks. Like many baseball fans, my faith in the game is being tested this winter. Selfishly, writing that rambling crud reminded me of why I loved baseball in the first place. It’s been one of my two best friends for most of my life (the other being music). You’re never alone with a pack of baseball cards.
Wasn’t selfish at all, actually quite refreshing. We must be close in age, I had alot of baseball card collection stories as a youth as well.. Nothing better than weekends everyone coming over to trade from new packs we got from allowance money. What an innocent time in life, and the love of the game and the players themselves was at an all time high. We all dreamed of growing up and being MLB players…
Thanks for the story Cey Hey!
@cey hey this is probably now my fave post of all time. Would love to hear all of your old stories.
I want to hear everyone’s stories.
Awesome story! Me…grandad collected, dad collected, I started at five, I am now 61!!! Still have most all, probably close to 600,000 cards. Loved this for so many years. Used to hit the shows as well, many newspapers, programs, mags, bats, balls, jerseys, etc. Many years ago the p layers would sign forever, even say…hey, come on over here and sign this kids program!!! I still have a spring training cubs media guide from like 71, everybody signed!!! Taking over the house!! HAHAHA…send me your want lists…HAHAHA
I have stories out the kazoo…both good and bad from collecting. Answered an ad for cards one time. Lady said kid went to serve in Army. Went to the house, dresser in the garage she said was stuffed with cards, I guessed at His age and mouth was watering, thinking all of the 55-63 cards. Opened the middle drawer…paper dust and mice poop smell! Hahaha…wow…only like 2-300 clean cards in the whole thing, she let me have them for zip! Another time answered an ad for a collection, thought the cost was a misprint. Got there and the guy said no, that’s what I need. He had all of these jerseys, pennants and signed pix on the wall. I asked, what about these. He said, if you give me 250 for the signed magic Johnson Jersey, you can have everything else on the walls for 20 each!!!! I left the house looking like the who house in the grinch!!!….nothing but tacks and wire….HAHAHA
You folks all have some wonderful baseball memories. Best of all, everyone loves sharing those memories without the least bit of grumpiness. Would make for a magic book or internet series.
I remember Jack Spector on WMCA as a disc jockey in the late ’50s, early 60s.
@paule, It was appropriate for his to be one of WMCA’s Good Guys. A fantastic person. Spector later died on the air while a DJ on WHLI. He has just started playing Louis Prima’s version of “I’m in the Mood for Love.”
Great stories Cey Hey. Your recollection of the details…priceless.
Collecting in the 60’s & 70’s as a kid was a treasure hunt.
Found a shoebox of 50’s & 60’s cards at a garage sale for $1.00. A few Aaron’s, Mantles, etc in the lot. Before Price Guides & values existed.
Didn’t get an allowance so I had to ride my bike around looking for empty pop bottles. Grocery stores paid $.05/ea for them, so a couple bottles would buy a pack. Got the ‘68 Tom Satriano in spades.
Fanatics will ruin card collecting as a hobby
Red Wings: MLB, MLBPA, NFL & the NBA are “ruining” the card hobby with their exclusivity contracts for production of the cards. Competition brings choices and changes.
The card companies started “ruining” the hobby when they listened to the buying public to much and kept overproducing brands, inserts, etc. I remember when the insert craze 1st happened. If you pulled a card serial #’d to 10,000 you were ecstatic for a month. Now if you pull a star player #’d to 200 people look at it like it’s nothing special at all.
A year or so ago, my boys and I came across an unopened pack of cards from the 1980’s. We opened and I could not resist the temptation to chew the gum. That was a mistake.
@barneyfifethelegend
You’ll probably enjoy this. Pete Rose opens an old pack of baseball cards, then chews/eats the discolored gum at the end. Try not to scroll to the end as the whole things is fun for those of us in need of a baseball fix.
youtube.com/watch?v=nVIFQk89C-8
Link doesn’t work!
Darn…..
Hmmm. It works for me. Go to YouTube and google Pete Rose eats gum. By coincidence, I recently had an epiphany telling me Pete belongs in the Hall of Fame. I’ve long been one of those people against it. He’s such a great ambassador for the game, with this clip being Exhibit A. The guy had a blast opening cards and talking baseball.
try typing in “pete rose baseball cards” into youtube.
it was the second result on mine (yahoo sports, about 19 mins, worth watching)
indeed.
i checked a couple of the stories he told as he saw the players cards.
he was pretty much spot on (the 3 homers in a game one, date was a few weeks off, but everything else was correct).
@mfm4200, Getting Tim Flannery from three different years, and pointing out he was batting from the wrong side on the first one.
What really moved me was Rose mentioning the Hall of Fame on a few occasions with no hint of animosity. Fans talking baseball with Pete Rose would be amazing for MLB Network. It could be a regular thing where fans enter their names and are somehow chosen. Alas, MLB is too busy firing guys like Ken Rosenthal who refuse to bow down to the commissioner. It’s getting creepy. With all the money in baseball, one would hope these guys would do a better job being stewards for the game, CBA be damned. Everyone is so humorless. Lasorda’s baseball swami stuff was goofy, but at least it was entertaining for kids (of all ages).
Pete Rose bet on baseball and admitted to having sex with a 16 year old while a married player in his 30s. (The girl claimed she was younger.) Let’s make it clear, I am only considering the part of it that Rose admitted to, not the full allegations.
And check out his website where he sells baseballs that say he wishes he killed Bin Laden. Is Pete Rose colorful? Yes. HOF? Maybe (not for me, but it is a fair debate). But a “great ambassador for the game”? Emphatic “no”.
nytimes.com/2017/07/31/sports/baseball/woman-testi…
washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/01/…
peterose.com/product/pete-rose-robert-manfred-sorr…
peterose.com/product/pete-rose-autographed-basebal…
peterose.com/product/get-your-own-personalized-mes…
Pete Rose bet on baseball and admitted to having physical relations with a 16 year old while Rose was a married player in his 30s. (The girl claimed she was younger.) Let’s make it clear, I am only considering the part of it that Rose admitted to, not the full allegations.
And check out his website where he sells baseballs that say he wishes he offed Bin Laden. Is Pete Rose colorful? Yes. HOF? Maybe (not for me, but it is a fair debate). But a “great ambassador for the game”? Emphatic “no”.
nytimes.com/2017/07/31/sports/baseball/woman-testi…
washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/01/…
peterose.com/product/pete-rose-robert-manfred-sorr…
peterose.com/product/pete-rose-autographed-basebal…
peterose.com/product/get-your-own-personalized-mes…
Rose is only an ambassador for himself. Accomplished so much in baseball yet will be remembered more for being a dispicable human being.
Cey hey, the last thing baseball needs is having Rose become a steward of the sport.
Fully agree. The man will say or do almost anything at this point if there’s a buck in it for him. Given some of the allegations and things he’s admitted to, the only kick he deserves is one to the curb.
Watched the video.. man is Pete such a little kid still .. a treasure for baseball. He loves the game..
Thanks, Cey, that was entertaining.
I get a laugh out of Pete, watching him milk his notoriety for all it’s worth!
That said, if I had the deciding vote, he doesn’t get in the Hall without paying admission …before he passes.
“I could not resist the temptation to chew the gum.”
=========================
I had some old FB wax packs. Some had gotten ruined because we had a flood in the basement. A few years later, when they went up in price, I took them over to my apartment to sort through. The undamaged packs I was going to keep, and the damaged packs I opened to see if I could complete sets with any undamaged cards.
My future wife comes over, sees the gum on the table and starts chewing on it. I don’t remember if the gum was water-damaged, but she said it was fine.
Who is Sean Bavazzano!!??
And why hasn’t he done a chat?
Give the rookie a chance!
We need to hear what his favorite Simpsons episode is!
Can cards be issued during a lockout. MLB.com can’t show pictures of current players in uniform on its or any team website. I’m guessing players can’t appear in team uniforms on cards.
Cey Hey:
Holy issue-spotting Batman! Maybe certain trading cards could be locked out without a contract.
Of course, there are past competitors like Panini that could not use the team name on the baseball card because they had a deal with players but not with owners. In fact, Panini had pictures of the players in baseball uniforms without the MLB team name or logo. Sometimes they used a generic jersey with the city name or a college jersey for some rookies. So that could be a boon to those card manufacturers if their MLB-owned competition is delayed.
MannyBeingMVP:
Good point about Panini. As the story reads, both sides are partners in the contract with Fanatics. I’ll try to find out.. If anyone here knows for sure, please chime in.
Weird times for the promotion of the sport. I get that it’s a business. It just seems there’s a bigger picture neither side is looking at.
How many have ordered from fanatics? The site at times has offered “free shipping” only to as I recall have a handling charge. Wasn’t much but was misleading to the point that I’ve not been back to the site since.
They probably can be made as Topps has… or now I guess had… licensing agreements with both MLB and the MLBPA. Deal with MLB allows them to use team names and logos, photos from games and photos and references to stadiums. Deal with MLBPA allows for players names and likenesses. Having both is a big reason why topps cards were so much better than Panini who didn’t have a deal with MLB. They can only make bland cards with no logos, team names etc.
Back in ’94-95 card sets were still released during the strike. All the traded series and later releases for ’94 as well as new releases for ’95 still came out on schedule (even though Fleer really should have delayed to reconsider the 6 different designs for each division as they were mostly awful).
Granted that was a long time and things may be different now
And as to the article: greed reigns…..
Do you know who suffers but gets no attention? Owners of bars and eateries near ballparks that rely on baseball clientele during the season. I thought about that during the 60-game season. Players got paid for playing in empty stadiums. Meanwhile, some of those places had to shut their doors. While MLB technically isn’t responsible for the success of those businesses, such places are a significant part of the fan experience. Fans plan their ballpark trips around those spots, only to discover they’re no longer around when they get there.
Lots of bars & restaurants went belly-up last year. And it was the government shutting them down.
But, of course, that is the reason I don’t get jealous when other people make money. The bagel place near me burned down and the owner lost his business.
But he also came back with a vengeance. I was in their Sunday, and he had at least 8 people working a small place. He can get rich as Midas and I will respect him for it.
Don’t pay any attention to that man behind the curtain.
no idea if the card stuff will be any good, but the jerseys majestic (which they now own and used to sell before nike) made on the site were pretty good (well, good enough to get me to buy about 120 of them over the years, plus another 20 or so mitchell and ness ones).
Never good to see the word “exclusive.” Means no competition, sky high prices and oftentimes faulty product line. Not a fan of this change particularly with the prices that Fanatics puts on its products.
I started collecting cards in the early ’50s. Surprisingly, I still have almost 1,000 of them in boxes. Took about 50 to a local card store, and was told nobody buys cards unless they are graded.
So I gave him six ’50s era cards for him to send off to a grading service. Cost me $28.00 per card (Was I taken?).
So unless a card I have is gonna be worth at least twice that amount, I don’t see much sense in having those graded.
Fortunately, two of the cards I had graded, a ’51 Bowman Robin Roberts and a ’53 Bowman Robin Roberts fit the criteria of being worth more than twice the grading fee.
Surprised card dealers won’t buy these old cards as-is. Seems to me that the casual collector who may want to collect the players’ cards of his favorite hometown team wouldn’t be all that concerned with grading if he’s not buying as an investment.
Hard to tell if you were taken on the $28 per without knowing what company they were sent too, and when. If it was to a company that, at the time, was taking large batch orders, we’d need to know of he sent then in a batch. On a small order pre, or early pandemic, 28 bucks a card isn’t out of line. November of 2019 I sent a few orders to BVG at about 35 bucks a card.
If the store owner waited to send them out until he had a few hundred to send in, there was a time he’d have been able to do that at 8 to 12 bucks a card. That was stopped at most graders during the Pandemic as they got really behind on orders and stopped offering discounts to large orders. As they caught up, many of them are beginning to do that again.
That said, even if the guy sent them in at $12 bucks a card, unless you were prepared to send in 100 cards and drop a grand to do it, you likely wouldn’t have done better than $28 a card on your own.
When pricing them out don’t forget return shipping and insurance, which isn’t included in the grading fee when looking at their service fee schedule. Somewhere on the submission form you’ll find a box breaking it down. Usually the first 8 to 10 cards will cost the same shipping and insurance, unless there are very valuable cards in the mix. Whether you sent one card or ten in, odds are shipping and insurance is ballpark $30-$35. So 5 or 6 bucks a card.
I buy cards as is, and most dealers I know do as well. Little surprised to hear a dealer out there wouldn’t. I personally very rarely buy raw cards of superstars from that time period as there are tons of reprints and counterfeits, but a guy like Robin Roberts I’d have bought raw and sent into grade myself. It’s easy money. I definitely would have been more likely to buy raw vintage superstars from a guy bringing in a collection than I would be from a guy walking into the store with a half dozen Mantles and nothing else.
The issue is that it is fairly easy to counterfeit cards. A dealer might know, but I’ve bought some raw and Mantle was counterfeit, and three Blyleven cards were re-colored. Most were fine, but it is easy enough to get ripped off. I brought a Carlton rookie that was so spectacular, that you couldn’t see the gum stains from the shininess. I don’t think the seller tried to hide it, since it was in a screw-down case, but the card was so perfect that it just wasn’t obvious.
That said, you can still buy raw. If you go on EBay and search for 1963 Oliva, ther might be 10-15 raw cards. and only 6 that are PSA graded. But you can’t rely 100% on the verifications or the condition.
But I have bought some 1958 bulks commons raw, just because I think they’re pretty.
mlb owns, how much of Fanatics?, mlb did not own Topps, mlb forced Topps out, mlb buys Topps, ok Fanatics buys Topps…, to continue card business Fanatics knows nothing about. interesting…
I guess the counter argument to that is Fanactics just acquired the knowledge they lacked.
Let’s hope that they do better with card quality than they do with clothing quality
Upper Deck made the best baseball cards.
My favorite cards are 1951 Bowman, 1960 and 1968 Topps. But I will agree that for the years they were in production, nobody made better looking baseball cards than Upper Deck. I even think much of their current Hockey offerings are the best looking cards on the current market. Would love a new set of Baseball SP Authentic.
It’s a shame Fanatics manages to f-up half the orders they send out.
Fanatics ruined the apparel game
This is a bit interesting. Rubin was in the warehouse game, which he started out of his garage selling jerseys in bulk to sports retailers. He grew it into GSI, which was doing bulk warehousing for retailers. He was smart to bail on GSI and put his eggs into Fanatics. He seems to be building a sports based empire. He is always seen hob knobbing with team owners, especially Bob Kraft. I met the guy when GSI acquired ours and he is a true a-hole. He is Mark Cuban minus the publicity. He likes to stay behind the scenes though he did do an episode of undercover boss. Biggest PR spin ever but you could tell it was awkward for him. I always wondered if he would try to purchase a sports franchise.
The problem with collecting now is that there are like 50 different sets and each set has like 50 different inserts. I miss the days of 4 or 5 companies, each with a base set and 2 or 3 premium sets.
It’s pretty much legalized gambling now. Idk how familiar you are with gaming, but basically every video game has micro transactions where you buy digital packs to have a chance at getting something you can use in the game. Any genre of game, it’s crazy. You can spend $100 and end up with very little to show for. I seriously fear for young kids today and how many will ruin their lives to gambling
That’s a little like what the inserts are like. I think it was 1994 Bowman where 1 out of ‘x’ cards was a chrome, and then 1 out of every ‘x’ chromes was a refractor. A kid could buy 100 packs of cards looking for the Halladay or Beltre refractor.
It was also rumored that the error cards of the early ’80s was intentional Of course, it is also scarcity that drives the hobby. People want to buy things in short supply so that they can talk about it.
Parallels never interested me. Yet every company did it – just a lazy way to create an insert.
The best way to collect is to let everyone else buy overpriced packs/boxes in search of their rare Luis Robert or Ohtani insert cards, and then buy the base cards/sets for a fraction on Ebay.