THE ATHLETIC: Kids trading sports cards with Tom Brady and Quavo: Inside Topps’ collectibles growth strategy
“I f—ing love being the underdog.”
In a Fanatics-branded private helicopter flying over New Jersey en route to Manhattan’s West 30th Street helipad, billionaire Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin expresses his thoughts on his company, which has an increasingly ubiquitous presence in the world of sports.
“I like to think of myself as a startup,” says Rubin. “All we want to do is make things better for the fan, better for the collector.”
On Saturday, Sept. 14, Fanatics demonstrated that interest by organizing its third “Topps Hobby Rip Night” with events across 568 hobby shops around the world, including 10 shops outside the U.S. (Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, Paris, Milan, Thessaloniki in Greece, and Roermond and Amsterdam in the Netherlands). The events featured games and giveaways, including over 100,000 free packs of event-specific cards…