Last August, online sports-merchandise retailer Fanatics Inc. upended the trading-card industry in a single day by swooping in to make a series of deals with the longtime licensing partners of Topps Inc., the company synonymous with baseball cards for more than 70 years.
Now, Fanatics has struck a $500 million deal to purchase Topps’ trading card business itself, people familiar with the matter said, furthering its breathtaking takeover of the trading-card landscape that Topps had been a leading figure in for decades.