The first week of March 2022 has already brought on major news announcements for the collectibles industry. Where the collectibles industry expansion ends up is anyone’s guess, but so far the lack of an MLB/MLBPA isn’t holding the collectibles industry back. Fanatics has taken on even more capital and bolstered its valuation even further, and the Collectable fractional ownership platform has brought on one of the sports collectible industry’s top names.

Collectors Dashboard has been tracking the vast consolidation, key hires and partnerships within the collectibles space. And for disclosure purposes, the owner of Collectors Dashboard has used and will continue to use the Collectable platform and other fractional ownership platforms for investing in collectibles.

FANATICS FUNDING

Fanatics has been widely reported to have raised an additional $1.5 billion funding round with a reported valuation of $27 billion. Investors in the deal are said to be BlackRock, Fidelity, and MSD Capital were included in the round, a source close to the deal told Front Office Sports. The company raised $325 million in August at an $18 billion valuation.

Initially known for its sports merchandise and memorabilia, Fanatics has gained footholds in other sports sectors with the help of its databases, which include more than 80 million reachable sports fans.

Fanatics had already acquired The Topps Company in 2022 to lock up the sports card market, crushing a SPAC that was supposed to be closing an acquisition of Topps — and Fanatics has secured the trading cards rights for the MLB, MLB Players Association, the NFL(PA), and the NBA. The company had raised $350 million more in September at what was roughly a $10 billion valuation. And more recently, Fanatics had closed a deal with other celebrity investors to acquire Mitchell & Ness for a valuation of around $250 million.

COLLECTABLE KEY HIRE

The Collectable app has been expanding over the last year. Now it has brought in industry veteran Joe Orlando as its new President of Collectable, Sports. This was confirmed by the company. Most of our readers know Joe Orlando, but for those who do not he was the longtime President & CEO of Collectors Universe (PSA) before and into its 2021 acquisition for $850+ million by Nat Turner.

Joe Orlando knows sports cards and sports memorabilia front and back. His 35 years as an advanced collector of sports cards and memorabilia also includes him being behind collecting guides, hundreds of articles, and contributing to and writing books.

The Collectable platform is where clients invest in sports collectibles in fractional ownership via share offerings. In short, smaller amounts of cash can be used to own some of the most iconic pieces of sports memorabilia. The company currently represents that it has over 60,000 users who have collectively made more than $50 million in combined transactions.