Quote:
Originally Posted by The Detroit Collector
Fanatics is becoming a monopoly in the industry. You can decide yourself whether its good or bad.
They got their cards.
They got their Vault.
They got their auction site.
They need there grading company.
I dont see them "buying" any breakers, breakers are a subcategory of this hobby in my opinion.
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Don't disagree. They are more or less looking to take over a substantial portion of the industry and put more of the profits others are making off cards into their own pockets. However, a monopoly is usually considered more applicable in cases where you have control of a horizontal market, such as when the American Tobacco Company (ATC) owned virtually every big/major cigarette or tobacco brand/seller there was. What Fanatics, and the major U.S. sports leagues and players associations that are invested in them, is doing is what is known as a creating more a vertical market. This is where you acquire different businesses/companies involved in all the aspects of a business from the creation/manufacture of a product, all the way through its sale/final distribution to the public. This way you do away with having to deal with "middle men", wholesalers, retailers, and the like, and can potentially pocket at least some of the profit those others used to make off selling/distributing your products. It doesn't necessarily create a monopoly, as there are still (and will be) other card manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers, Breakers, TPGs, and so on. It does potentially provide some advantages to the business that can set up such a complete vertical marketing enterprise though, by way of allowing more flexibility, control, quicker decision making, cross-utilization of duplicated work or functions, taking advantage of economies of scale, better overall planning and projections, and so on.
And also keep in mind when mentioning a potential "monopoly" situation that MLB has the somewhat unique position/status of being exempted from the applicability of the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the same law that originally took down the ATC in 1911, via a SCOTUS decision back in 1922. This decision came about as a result of the lawsuit filed by the Federal League against MLB back in 1914, seeking to break MLB's stranglehold on the professional baseball market in the U.S. (And also why I've always felt MLB may have eventually made Kennesaw Mountain Landis its first Commissioner, as a sort bribe/payoff for his efforts in initially squelching this lawsuit as a federal judge himself, and maybe "assisting" through his federal court connections to the eventual favorable ruling by the SCOTUS.) So even if Fanatics, which is partly owned by MLB, were to end up in a more "monopolistic" situation, not sure how this exemption and MLB's ownership would ultimately impact anyone's ability to attack that business situation.
And as an FYI, ever since the exemption was passed just over 100 years ago, occasionally over the years different members of Congress have tried to present legislation to have the exemption removed, but all to no success, so far. The most recent unsuccessful attempt I'm aware of was just a couple of years ago as a matter of fact.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/04/14/ml...duced-congress
So, I don't think a potential monopoly issue is anything that Fanatics/Topps/MLB is worried about as being anywhere near the top of their current list of concerns.