Hey, collector,

The sports card industry held its 2025 TOPPS industry conference in Atlanta earlier this week, and Topps’ team made a lot of news, including announcing that they will take over the NBA license.

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The next big event on the Sports Card Calendar? Fanatics Day will return to New York from June 16 to 23. The team will be there and we just announced that we will be with events, giveaways, content and more.

As tariffs raise the cost of imported goods, investors are turning to domestic alternatives, especially experts from Alt Ceo Leore Avidar and Alt (and Mantel) investor Alexis Ohanian. Once seen as merely a hobby, Pokémon and Sports Collections are now considered viable financial assets with 15b market value and growing credibility. Growth in the market is driven by nostalgia, savvy data-driven investments, and a desire to have assets immune to global supply chain volatility.

Alt has filed a lawsuit against the former auction house PWCC, now owned by fanatics, alleging fraud and breach of auctioneer duties. The lawsuit claims that the PWCC has orchestrated an extensive shilling bidding program to artificially inflate the auction prices of high-value sports cards. Alt estimates that due to PwC's actions, despite the unfounded and lack of evidence, the loss was estimated at $13.7 million due to PwC's actions. The lawsuit comes as PWCC suspends PWCC's eBay suspension by 2021 and involves auctions involving high-profile cards such as Patrick Mahomes and Kobe Bryant's rookie cards.

Lewis Hamilton signed a multi-year deal card and souvenir partnership with the Fanatic Collection. The deal includes the exclusiveness of the signature and will have advanced items such as a "relic" card containing racing gear. Hamilton opened a new flagship store for Fanatics in London last week and shared that he owns a helmet of about 400 races. With F1's existing TOPPS deal, this partnership positioned Hamilton as a high-end draw - given that one of his 2020 Topps cards sold for a record $9 billion, the most ever on the F1 card.

The repaired T206 Honus Wagner card is priced at $1.98 million in the Mile High Card Company, an increase of only $12,000 from its 2023 sale, which has attracted hobby attention. While technically not a loss, its compound annual growth rate dropped to just 0.37%, in stark contrast to other recent Wagner sales of 17-50%. Some speculate that the market is cooling, or that the timing of sales (another better condition Wagner intends to go to the market) dilutes demand. Although a sale did not confirm the trend, the result challenged a long-standing belief that the loader was a bulletproof investment.

Nike's latest release of Air Force 1, "Dirty Triple White", blends two sneaker culture factions that always want a pair of fresh people and those who love to wear wear. This version is pre-distributed, and over time, the transparent layer on the shoes is covered with clean AF1. The shoes also feature a unique "anti-tooth-proof" attachment that allows the wearer to start unbuttoning immediately. The shoes will be released next week on the SNKRS app for $130.

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