New Year, New Deals in Collectibles 🤝
Topps gets acquired, OpenSea is valued at $13B after a new round
Cultured is a newsletter by Otis that gets readers up to speed on the most interesting things going on at the intersection of finance, art, collectibles, NFTs, and more.
🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY
Fanatics has acquired trading card company Topps for an estimated $500M
Sports e-commerce giant Fanatics has purchased Topps’s name and its sports card line. Fanatics’ CEO called Topps an iconic brand that would help the company build out its sports cards segment.
For 70 years, Topps’s licensing agreement with Major League Baseball made it the go-to name in baseball cards. That all changed last year when Fanatics signed an exclusive contract with MLB, forcing Topps to cancel its IPO.
With the Topps acquisition, Fanatics now has a long-established distribution network for its trading cards. This will help the company meet its goal of expanding into the direct-to-consumer market.
Our Take: As the collectibles industry grows, continued consolidation seems inevitable.
Fanatics put Topps in a position where acquisition was the only viable way forward. But similar moves have been happening across the collectibles world. Well-heeled giants like Fanatics and collectible grading giant Collectors Universe have been snapping up smaller brands in a bid to become the dominant player in an increasingly lucrative market. However, consolidation can attract the attention of antitrust regulators — a major concern in the Fanatics/Topps acquisition.
OpenSea sees valuation skyrocket to $13.3B after new funding round
The NFT marketplace announced it closed a $300 million Series C round, bringing its total valuation to $13.3 billion. OpenSea was valued at $1.5 billion less than 6 months ago, making it one of the startup world’s fastest-growing companies.
OpenSea had a banner 2021, seeing transaction volume increase more than 600x. In the past 30 days, it turned over $2.4 billion in transactions.
The new valuation signals that investors believe OpenSea can continue to grow its user base and transaction volume.
Our Take: OpenSea has capitalized on the NFT wave and has the business model to back up its growth.
As NFTs grew in popularity over 2021, a host of startups popped up to capitalize on the trend. While there are dozens of NFT marketplaces out there, OpenSea is by far the largest. Its flat fee approach (it takes a 2.5% commission on transactions) brought in an estimated $60 million in revenue last month alone. With a significantly lower commission than traditional auction houses, OpenSea likely has a bright future ahead.
✨ AROUND THE INTERNET
The future of crypto might look a lot like the music industry. Here’s why.
A stolen Aston Martin DB5 used by Sean Connery in Goldfinger has been found after 25 years. The car was purchased by a collector for $25 million in the 1980s, but was stolen from an airport hanger shortly after.
TR Lab, a new auction venture run by a Christie’s exec, is working with artists and collectors to educate them about NFTs before they buy.
For the rare BlackBerry lover among us, Jan. 4 was a sad day. Older models stopped working, forcing die-hards to switch to newer devices with crazy features like…touchscreens.
The NFT heists are just beginning: a gallerist lost four Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs in a phishing scam that cost him $2.2 million.
Starbies fiends know the mark of a real one: owning a rare reusable cup. There’s a whole world of Starbucks cup collectors, and some go for upwards of $2,000.
