Fanatics Corporate Greed & Spite For Panini Hurting NBA Collectors This Season
Player exclusives are nothing new to the hobby and have been around for decades, however what we are experiencing this year is unprecedented and has been catastrophic for the hobby. Upper Deck was known for having the best exclusives during their reign; with most notably LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, & Kevin Durant to name a few. Topps signed exclusive deals of their own but unfortunately Emeka Okafor, Yi Jianlian, Brendan Wright, & Greg Oden did not pan out. It was a healthy system with multiple company being able to produced NBA licensed cards and sign exclusive players.
However, what happens when an unlicensed company signs a top NBA rookie to an exclusive deal? In 2012, Leaf signed an exclusive deal with Damian Lillard who went onto win rookie of the year. Leaf put Lillard in every product and had a wide variety of autograph cards supplying the market. Panini was able to overcome this obstacle thanks to the prior-seasons lockout forcing them to combine the loaded 2011 and 2012 draft class into products.
Now what happens when a company with no licensing signs 12 of the top 20 picks to an exclusive autograph deal? While collectors would be disappointed they would never be able to get a rookie auto of a player in an NBA uniform. At least they could get an unlicensed rookie autograph like collectors did in 2012 for Lillard. Right? Right? Wait no?
Topps signed 12 of the top 20 picks to an exclusive autograph deal & has done absolutely nothing with 11 of the 12 players. Topps is very pro-active with #1 pick Victor Wembanyama putting him in Dynasty & frequent Topps now releases.
However what about everyone else? Since October 1st, 2023 (start of 23/24 season) Topps has done absolutely nothing with their autograph exclusives. They have released 1 card across the 11 players over the last 182 days.
Above is a chart of Topps' autograph exclusivity activity with how many autograph cards they've released and the outcome is concerning. They've released one Brandon Miller Topps Now autograph card commemorating his 1,000 career point but outside of that... Nothing, not a single card.
Here are the 11 autograph exclusive appearances or lack there of since being drafted in June:
Brandon Miller: Topps Now Draft (6/22) & Topps Now (3/16)
Scoot Henderson: Topps Now Draft (6/22) & Allen & Ginter (9/22)
Anthony Black: Topps Now Draft (6/22)
Jarace Walker: Topps Now Draft (6/22)
Taylor Hendricks: Topps Now Draft (6/22)
Jett Howard:
Gradey Dick: Topps Now Draft (6/22)
Jordan Hawkins:
Jalen Hood-Schifino:
Jaime Jaquez Jr:
Cam Whitmore:
It is hard to make the argument Topps cares about its collectors after their non-existent effort to produce autograph cards of Topps exclusive athletes.
Jaime Jaquez is not only one of the most popular rookies but also is easily an all-rookie first team player. Topps has yet to produce an autograph card of his? Why is that? It seems Topps is more focused on acting out of spite towards Panini than actually producing basketball cards.