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摘要

While its actual product―limited edition baseball, football, and hockey cards―is physical, most of its buyers never take possession of its products. You see, for Topps collectors, it's not about owning the cards; it's about buying and selling them on eBay. "It's all about speculating on the performance of the player," says director of Internet technology Bill Blair. "Once you take delivery of a card, there's not much of a market for reselling it." Topps might print as few as 100 copies of a card; buyers have the opportunity to buy only a certain number of cards during a one-week period. Only around ten percent of buyers take possession of the cards; most allow Topps to warehouse their portfolios. While Topps sells the cards for $4 to $12.50, the price of a card can zoom sky high if the player it represents has a great season. Trades at $500 are not uncommon. As they buy and sell cards, Topps keeps track of the transfers using proprietary software.