THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED INTERACTIVE STORE WILL FOCUS ON SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT TRADING CARDS, OFFER EXCLUSIVE PRODUCT AND HOST EVENTS, ATHLETES AND CLUBS
Included in Its Unique Footprint: An In-Store Breaking Area, a State-of-the-Art Trading-Card Singles Experience, Card Opening and Trading Areas and Customer Education Touchpoints
Today (Jan. 22, 2025), Fanatics Collectibles announced its first-ever flagship store, to open in the spring of 2025 on iconic Regent Street in London. The focus: sports and entertainment trading cards and trading-card games, featuring Fanatics Collectibles’ brands, including Topps, Merlin, Match Attax and Bowman. Last year Topps secured the exclusive trading-card rights to the Premier League, with product launching in time for the 2025/2026 season. Topps also currently has the exclusive rights for UEFA national team competitions and club competitions and will begin making licensed NBA product later this year.
The much-anticipated store will span 803 square meters (8,647 square feet), and give collectors a one-of-a-kind experience seven days a week. The stunning visual centerpiece: a central display of the rarest and most-desirable cards, all with a giant suspended circular screen above. The flagship will offer exclusive product and have thousands of unique items, inclusive of single cards, retail boxes and high-end hobby releases. It will also see highly trafficked community-building events from monthly trade nights, kids rip events, athlete signings and appearances, partner activations and grading drop-off. Along with retail space, the store will feature a state-of-the-art breaking studio (live and taped opening of card packs), interactive customer education touchpoints, and a personal card creation suite.
We are incredibly excited to cut the ribbon on this amazing community-building retail space, one that we hope will delight collectors and be a true home for the hobby in Europe.”
said Topps President of Trading Cards, David Leiner.
“It’ll be a destination for millions of fans as well as our own internal partners – and team and club partners, the latter using our dedicated space to launch and showcase new products in a way that has never been done before.”
Speaking to internal partners, the new store will serve as a drop-off point for users of Fanatics Collect, a dynamic marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of trading cards. To the flagship being a home for fans and collectors, currently there are less than five Topps-partner hobby shops in the UK, and less than 30 in all of Europe. The annual footfall of south Regent Street is more than 70 million people.
While the store will focus primarily on trading cards, other items will be sold, including apparel (both Topps-branded and Fanatics-owned Mitchell & Ness) and memorabilia (signed kits, jerseys, balls and other equipment) and trading-card supplies. Types of trading-card products in the store: sports (soccer, football, baseball, F1, basketball, UFC, WWE), sports gaming cards (Match Attax) and entertainment (Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Garbage Pail Kids, Stranger Things).
About Fanatics Collectibles
Fanatics Collectibles is a new model and vision for the hobby fundamentally changing the experience for current and future collectors, leagues, and players across many professional and college sports. The organization secured long-term, exclusive rights to design, manufacture and distribute trading cards for several sports and entertainment properties, including MLB, MLBPA, the Premier League, MLS, UFC, Formula 1 as well as Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, among others. In January 2022, Fanatics Collectibles announced the acquisition of Topps, establishing the preeminent licensed trading card brand as the cornerstone of Fanatics’ trading cards and collectibles business and jumpstarted its MLB and MLBPA rights to design, manufacture and distribute trading cards.
