CLEVELAND — While tens of millions of dollars will change hands between dealers and collectors this week, the biggest deal at the 2024 National Sports Collectors Convention might be between a storied card shop and a new marketplace.
Just 11 days after officially launching, Fanatics Collect has agreed to an exclusive deal with Burbank Sportscards to list the shop’s full inventory of 40 million sports cards on the platform.
One of the largest sellers of cards in the world, Burbank also has been one of eBay’s largest power sellers, regardless of category. Since joining in 2003, Burbank has sold more than 6.8 million items on the platform.
Burbank has sold another 7.2 million cards on the Beckett Marketplace since 1999.
“From the perspective of Fanatics, we’ve got this kind of belief of working with the best, and Rob [Veres] was at the top of the list,” Fanatics Collect president Chris Lamontagne told cllct. "I was lucky to be able to go and visit the store, and I remember walking out of the store after Rob gave us the tour, and there was just this feeling of, ‘OK, we need to be in business together.’”
For Burbank Sportscards owner Rob Veres, Fanatics Collect presents the best opportunity to grow his business.
The goal is for trading cards to be listed on Fanatics team shops alongside caps, jerseys and more, and Burbank can provide the massive inventory needed to ensure a large number of players and teams are represented.
“Having a conversation that included exclusivity away from eBay, that's a terrifying thought," Veres said. “[eBay] is such a large part of our revenue, and there’s also the relationship that we built there over the years with just tremendous people. But sometimes you’ve got to take a leap of faith.”
The leap of faith for Burbank comes alongside a move into a 14,000-square foot facility where it aims to deliver cards-on-demand via in-store kiosks. Those kiosks are expected to have access to 25 million cards that can be pulled by the staff while customers wait.
There’s also the immediate challenge of getting all 40 million cards ingested into the Fanatics Collect platform. Burbank’s robust in-house inventory system will play a big part, and cards are expected to begin hitting the platform within the next month — cards purchased by Burbank in-store will be exclusive to the shop for one or two days before being listed on Fanatics Collect.
But unlike vaulted cards that will be shipped by Fanatics, cards listed by Burbank will be fulfilled by Burbank. Veres says his current staff of retail and e-commerce is around 25 people, but he wouldn’t be shocked if it grew to 50 within the next six months.
Though the upcoming months will be difficult, Veres believes the move is worth the risk. There’s the potential to curate specific card drops on the platform, and Veres is poised to be an influential voice at upcoming Fanatics events, too.
“I always feel that there’s a glass ceiling with any marketplace I’ve been on,” Veres said. “You keep working, you keep pushing, you keep adding inventory and it doesn’t seem to move the needle in a lot of cases with some of the places that we’ve been. I feel for the first time that I have an unlimited opportunity on a platform.”
Fanatics Collect and Burbank view the deal as a long-term partnership, but both believe there are expectations they hope to meet soon. For Fanatics, new and repeat customers will be a key metric monitored early. For Burbank, Veres wants to see a rising trajectory week-over-week and month-over-month.
In addition to millions of low-end cards being added, Burbank will aim to increase its spend to add a number of high-end cards to the platform as well. Historically, the company was best-known for dealing in lower-end items.
The investment from Burbank will be heavy, and in return Veres wants to see his reach increase in a major way.
“I want people coming from all over the world that are sports fans that did not know I existed,” Veres said. “I think the only company we can pull that off with is Fanatics.”
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.