The news: Fanatics Collectibles will open its first flagship store this spring, which will primarily focus on trading cards.

• The store will feature apparel from Fanatics-owned brands like Topps and Mitchell & Ness, memorabilia such as signed kits, jerseys, balls, and equipment, and trading-card supplies.
• The retailer wants the 8,647-square-foot store on London’s Regent Street to become a collectors hub by offering exclusive products, community-building events like trade nights, and athlete signings.

The opening comes about a year after Topps secured exclusive trading-card rights to the Premier League, with products expected to launch for the 2025-2026 season. Topps also holds exclusive rights for UEFA national and club competitions and plans to debut licensed NBA products later this year.

The strategy: Fanatics sees significant growth potential for trading cards and collectibles in the UK and other international markets.

• However, opening a flagship store in prime central London real estate comes with risks given the market's modest size—there are just five Topps-partnered hobby shops in the UK and fewer than 30 scattered across Europe.
• The retailer plans to position the store as an experiential billboard to ignite interest in collecting. It will feature sleek visual elements, including a central display of the rarest, most-desirable cards, a breaking studio where people can open card packs live, interactive customer education touchpoints, and a personal card creation suite.

Our take: It’s curious that Fanatics Collectibles didn’t opt to find its footing by opening a flagship store in the more established US market before venturing to London.

Building demand in the UK was always going to take time, and that challenge is all the more difficult given the precarious state of the UK economy.

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