Fanatics Collectibles enlists the services of KPMG, a top-tier auditing firm, in response to growing concerns about the distribution of high-value cards within its product offerings. This step reinforces their promise of transparency and aims to allay common fears among card collectors and dealers regarding the fairness of high-value card distribution. The announcement, made at the recent Industry Conference in Atlanta, rings loud and clear: Fanatics/Topps is committed to fairness and is taking proactive measures to ensure it.
Over the years, collectors have voiced suspicions about the possible preferential treatment of large volume customers or prominent card breakers by Fanatics/Topps. Social media platforms further amplified these speculations, as videos frequently showcased breakers pulling several high-value cards from packs.
The CFO of Fanatics Collectibles, Greg Abovsky, put this matter into perspective. He accentuated that high-value card pulls by major breakers are statistically more probable due to the sheer volume of cards they handle, and not an outcome of manipulating the packing process.
To quell these doubts, KPMG conducted a thorough examination of the card production process at the company’s Texas-based printing facility. The audit scrutinized the collation process and the production logs of each job, ensuring the randomness of card distribution as claimed by Topps. Speaking to this first-of-its-kind initiative within the card industry, Fanatics hoped the audit would counter misconceptions and vouch for the integrity of their distribution practices.
Abovsky went a step further to debunk another common lore among collectors—the theory of Fanatics seeding boxes with high-value cards for promotional outcomes. In a strong rebuttal to the speculation, he clarified that his company never engaged in such practices.
Looking ahead, Fanatics intends to make the randomness audit a yearly ritual, thus ensuring an ongoing commitment to fairness and transparency in its modus operandi. Through this, they aim to keep conspiracies at bay and maintain the trust of their customer base, regardless of the volume they handle each year. With the assurance of randomized high-value card distributions and the promise of continued scrutiny by KPMG, Fanatics lays down a new, transparent path for itself and the card collector industry at large.
