The world of sports collectibles can often be a hotbed of contention, with collectors and dealers alike always on the lookout for any sense of unfairness. This time around, Fanatics has gone to extraordinary lengths to reassure its clientele, roping in none other than KPMG, the leading audit firm globally. Their mission? To scrutineer and confirm the fairness and randomness of Topps card distributions by Fanatics, a move calculated to address long-standing concerns in these circles.
This proactive step, announced by Fanatics Collectibles’ CEO Mike Mahan at the Industry Conference in Atlanta, underscores the company’s commitment to transparency. He reported that KPMG’s thorough review spanning several months had substantiated the effectiveness of Fanatics/Topps’ procedures to guard against preferential allocation of high-value cards to finite customers.
The collector community has long debated whether Fanatics/Topps show a soft spot for large volume customers or prominent breakers. Such concerns gained traction when social media videos emerged, showcasing breakers ‘luckily’ pulling multiple valuable cards, stirring speculation about the randomness of pack contents. Yet, as Greg Abovsky, Fanatics Collectibles CFO, makes clear, this frequency of high-value pulls by major breakers is more about statistical likelihood and less about rigging the packing process, given the enormous volumes they handle.
The commissioned audit by KPMG hinged on an exhaustive review at the Texas printing facility responsible for the production of the cards. The auditor’s fine-toothed comb worked its way through the collation process and each job’s production logs, on a quest to verify if the cards were as randomly distributed as Fanatics’ Topps claimed. With the clean chit from KPMG, Fanatics can claim to be the first in the industry to undertake such an initiative to bust myths and bolster confidence in the integrity of their practices.
Abovsky made yet another revelation: Fanatics has never resorted to seeding boxes with valuable cards for promotional gimmicks, debunking a common suspicion. In the spirit of leading with transparency, Fanatics is making this randomness audit an annual event and is all set to establish a new precedent in the industry.
In a nutshell, this proactive commitment to transparency by Fanatics, of providing evidence of the randomness and fairness of their Topps card distribution, sends a strong message to the doubting Thomases in the collector community. Going the extra mile to verify the integrity of their practices through an independent audit by no less than global leader KPMG, certainly makes a strong case for Fanatics’ commitment to fair play and impartiality in the world of sports collectibles.