Fanatics Collectibles Aims to Innovate With Tom Brady’s First Baseball Cards

For many collectors, Tom Brady getting his first baseball cards in the 2023 Bowman Draft Baseball release is old news. However, the scale with which Fanatics Collectibles is pushing the product, especially Brady’s inclusion, is something all new.

Fanatics Collectibles announced Brady would have baseball cards in a Bowman product back in February during the Topps Industry Conference, and since then the company has put together a marketing campaign unseen for years in a sports card set, if ever. Bowman Draft, released Tuesday, has had its marketing completely built around the Brady collaboration and his imaginary baseball career.

Drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1995, Brady went on to choose football over baseball and attended the University of Michigan instead. Though Brady told Dan Patrick in 2022 that he probably would be selling insurance today if he had chosen baseball, Fanatics Collectibles has created an entire “What if?” narrative to support Bowman Draft. 

Titled Geaux Brady, Fanatics Collectibles released a video Tuesday morning that explored a universe where Brady chose the Expos over Michigan and saw the same success that he had in the NFL. It even features multiverse Expos teammates Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero Sr. and Larry Walker.

The Brady cards and the marketing push behind a product like Bowman Draft is about bringing in new collectors while remaining committed to the current ones, according to Fanatics Collectibles CEO Mike Mahan.

“What can we do that’s different?” Mahan told Sports Illustrated. “What can we do that’s innovative? From there, it’s how can we service the existing collector? How can we market this industry to bring in new collectors and have some fun while doing it?”

The main chase will be Brady's autographs, including numbered variations. Bowman Draft will feature top prospects, too, with Paul Skenes, Max Clark, and Wyatt Langford all having 1st Bowmans to track down.

For Fanatics Collectibles, the strategy recently has been creating interesting chases for its major products. Topps doesn’t have issues selling products, but finding new collectors is the challenge.

Rookie Debut Patches finally arrived with 2023 Topps Chrome Update Baseball in November, featuring one-of-a-kind memorabilia from a player’s first MLB game. First Milestone Relics debuted in December with 2023 Topps Inception Baseball and feature pieces of the base from a player’s first hit.

“Doing the same thing year after year with no innovation, no imagination, no fun is not acceptable, nor is that the right answer for us,” Mahan said. “So we are going to try to do new things. Not everything’s going to work, I’ll concede that, but we want to innovate and do things differently.”

Although this wasn’t Brady’s first collaboration with Fanatics Collectibles—he just spent time with collectors at the MLB Store in New York for Topps’s Hobby Rip Night back in October—it was their most complicated and comprehensive joint project yet. It started with Brady agreeing to sign cards and evolved into Brady adding inscriptions, according to Mahan. One variation features “Allons Aux Expos,” while another says, “If this baseball thing doesn’t work out there’s always football.” From there, Mahan said, Topps kept pushing to “bring it to life.”

Along with the cards and multiverse video, Fanatics Collectibles partnered with Mitchell & Ness for a retro No. 12 Montreal Expos jersey. The Baseball Hall of Fame got involved, too, and created a plaque for Brady to celebrate his imaginary baseball career. Eli Manning even made a video congratulating Brady on the induction.

“The logistical complexity, making sure that we are thoughtful around this, that we are kind of checking all the boxes, that’s been a comprehensive effort,” Mahan said. “And this isn’t something you’ve really seen from Topps or the card collecting community. But you don’t see this type of content. You don’t see this type of differentiation. We want to change that. But anytime you’re doing those things for the first time, there’s going to be some complexity.”

Although the run of recent innovations has been mostly well received by collectors, not everything has been a hit. A $15,000 gift card to Taco Bell was awarded to collectors holding a TacoFractor card of the player who stole the first base in the World Series. Results for the TacoFractor were mixed, though many gave credit to the company for trying something new.

Fanatics’s shocking takeover of the sports card hobby has been met with skepticism from some collectors. The effort to grow the hobby has been undeniable, but many wonder how long it will last. Mahan says Fanatics Collectibles hopes to view major marketing campaigns such as the Brady collaboration as a long-term investment.

“Well, I think it’s really not thinking about this business transactionally and thinking about a lifelong relationship and partnership with collectors, athletes, stores and breakers,” Mahan said. “And when you think about it, over the long term, when you have something to celebrate, you want to celebrate it in the right way, right?”

Fanatics Collectibles doesn’t currently have another major campaign or innovation publicly planned, and although Mahan wouldn’t offer a hint at what’s next, he confirmed that concepts such as the Brady cards and the Rookie Debut Patches can be expected to continue.

“I think where we go from here is we are going to continue to tell great stories,” Mahan said. “Whether that’s the story of Brady’s career or the story of your first milestone card. We’re just going to tell great stories, and we’ve got a lot of great stories yet to come.”