The Topps Monopoly

There has been some smoke in recent days about the possibility that Topps and MLB have extended their exclusive arrangement past the expected 2020 expiration date. That would continue to allow Topps to exclusively produce baseball cards with Major League Baseball logos. 

While many are calling this a monopoly, it's not really. Any company can produce baseball cards. The others just can't use the MLB logos. But, that's really just semantics when it comes to the real arguement.

Is this good for the hobby?

Some will say it's a matter of whether or not you happen to like Topps products. Just like the best form of government is a well run dictatorship, the best hobby is probably controlled by a single well run company. The reason people view those things as negatives is that you never know if the dictator/company is going to be a good one, or if you can even agree what that would look like. I'm guessing if you were guaranteed King Arthur would be King of England, and you'd never get a Prince John, most people would think that's a good thing. So if you're like me and always favored the Topps brands, you're probably excited about this possibility. If you don't happen to like the Topps brands...what exactly are you looking for? One of the reasons I collected Topps is that they had a little bit of everything. They had/have low end brands like Opening Day and Bunt. They have their flagship set. They have retro sets like Heritage and Archives. They have high end sets like Stadium Club and Finest. They even have some ridiculously high end sets if you have too much money. So, if there isn't something that falls into your niche...maybe you need a new niche? Sure, maybe another company would happen to hit on a design you enjoy. But, they're also likely to make garbage. Remember, the reason MLB went to the exclusive license in the first place is that so many companies were making so many sets that people couldn't keep up. Companies were slinging out products whenever they could, and the products were terrible. MLB had to put a stop to it.

In addition to a perceived lack of variety, people seem to think Topps needs the threat of competition to improve its product. Like Topps is just printing out whatever they come up with assuming people will buy it because there's no other choice. It's like they think Topps fired all its editors because, who cares if there are typos...they're the only game in town. But, I'm fairly certain companies made errors when there was competition. Lots of them. Topps still knows that if the product is terrible, people won't buy it. 

People also complain that Topps needs competition to drive to to new creative heights. Again, the theory is that Topps churns out the same boring, easy stuff over and over because nothing is stopping them. But, look at the designs from the last nine years. 

Are they particularly similar? Especially with 2015 thrown in there. ..a set almost nobody was happy with. What exactly would competition have changed? If there was another company making cards, would Topps have put the player's name at the top of the card once or twice? Is that what you're looking for? Is that what competition would bring? Because, again, there is in fact competition. They just don't put logos on their product. So, if Panini was putting out great cards with great designs, wouldn't people be buying lots of them? Wouldn't Topps see that loss of revenue? 

If MLB did, in fact, extend their deal with Topps, it means they're happy with the Topps products. Are there hits? Yes. Are there misses? Sure. But, how is flooding the market with products that have previously been inferior a way to make things better?

Other than your specific tastes, what should Topps be doing to make you happy?