Topps has taken its first steps to discourage trading card vendors and hobby shop owners from using CT scanning technology to reveal what’s inside packs, boxes or cases without damaging the packaging and potentially reselling them to the public.
A new section within Topps’ MVP direct buying program agreement added an “Intrusive Device Policy” as part of its code of conduct, according to the agreement document obtained by The Athletic from an industry source who was not authorized to share the document publicly. YouTube channel NEO Cards and Comics was the first to reveal the document.
The policy states that Topps will “permanently suspend” all direct accounts with a vendor or hobby shop that uses or has ties to the practice of CT scanning products. Topps includes the use of weight scales as a violation of the new policy, according to the agreement.
The document also said that Topps will ban the person or entity from all Topps-related platforms and “recover any and all direct and indirect damages” if caught breaching the policy.
The code of conduct also states that if a vendor or shop becomes aware of anyone else using or being associated with CT scanning of trading cards that they should “promptly” provide written notice to Topps.
“Blind packaging is a core tenet of the trading card collecting experience and is a practice that goes back to the creation of trading cards,” the document says. “Topps uses significant time and resources to ensure that collectors can experience the joy of the hobby, including by randomizing trading cards products so that the contents of any factory sealed pack, box or case are unknown until purchased and opened by the end-collector.
“To protect this foundational feature of the trading card hobby and to prevent consumer fraud and other harms, Topps strongly discourages and strictly prohibits the use of any tool, method, technology or other means, including, without limitation, CT or any other scanning technology, weight scales, or other means of any kind (each an intrusive device) on any trading card product.”
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The use of scanning technology became one of the most notable topics of 2024 within the hobby. A Michigan-based company, Industrial Inspection and Consulting, which originally specialized in industrial X-rays and CT scans within the medical and aerospace fields, began a service publicly to scan trading card packs, boxes and cases. The service caters to high-end products manufactured by Topps, Panini and Upper Deck.
Using scales to weigh unopened packs to find which ones might contain heavier, potentially higher-end cards is not a new practice — it’s something that has been done by more unscrupulous collectors right in the aisles of stores like Target and Walmart for years now. It recently gained further prominence with Topps’ Shohei Ohtani 50/50 commemorative set, though. Since the base cards in that set are made from a thinner paper stock and the more valuable parallels are made from thicker, heavier glossy stock, with an average of just one pack per box containing a parallel card and all the other packs containing only the thinner base cards, weighing packs to find the difference was made particularly easy. So much so that eBay listings for “heavy” packs accompanied by photos of them on a scale as proof have sold for hundreds of dollars.
Recent sales of Shohei Ohtani 50/50 “heavy” packs on eBay.
Catching someone breaking the policy presents challenges for Topps, though.
There’s no way to know whether a pack or box has been scanned without the person or company divulging that. There’s no database kept by IIC for what’s been scanned, nor is there an indicator placed on the product to show it’s been scanned by IIC.
Additionally, the company doesn’t know the true identity of everyone sending in products to be scanned.
“We’re not verifying our clients,” IIC general manager Keith Irwin said in an interview with The Athletic a few months ago. “A lot of them we assume are using fake emails. And so we don’t know who they are. Fake emails, fake names, and then we use Square for credit card processing. So we don’t know who any of these people are, honestly.”
Fanatics Collectibles, the owner of Topps, declined to comment Thursday on the new policy and declined an interview for a December story by The Athletic about the increased use of CT scanning technology in the trading card hobby. But people inside Fanatics Collectibles told The Athletic at that time: “While we believe that CT scanners aren’t currently being widely utilized, we take any issue that potentially harms collectors very seriously. As such, we are working on innovations and solutions to address the issue.”
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IIC specifically pointed to Topps Dynasty, one of the card company’s premier products containing only one autographed patch card encased in a plastic holder and carries a retail price anywhere from $900 to $1,200 depending on the sport or year, as one of the easiest products to search through CT scanning. Dynasty’s baseball product is typically released in the spring before the start of Major League Baseball season.
“Dynasty is our favorite, I’ll say that,” Irwin said late last year. “It’s probably the easiest to detect, I’m guessing. It’s a single (package), it’s one to two cards, typically one card. It’s just a dream, and those are very expensive products. We sent out a quote to somebody with a Dynasty box, and they’re like, ‘God, this is a no brainer, I’m sending it over.’”
IIC has patented a process that would make the scanning much more challenging as the slightest vibration can get in the way of an accurate scan. Irwin said the company hopes its solution would either be licensed or outright purchased by a card company.
As for thwarting the ability of a CT scanner to reveal the identity of cards inside packages, though, the industry doesn’t yet seem to be in a place to do so.
In an interview earlier this week on the Sports Card Nonsense podcast, Upper Deck president Jason Masherah said, “I think for us, we’re in fact-finding mode still trying to figure out exactly what is going, how prevalent it is, what is the effect on the people that are doing it, what is the effect on trading cards themselves. There’s a lot to know here.
“I don’t see any of the manufacturers putting lead in their boxes to prevent the CT scanning. So that’s the basic preventative. So I think everybody is doing their due diligence in how do you prevent it, can you prevent it.”
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(Top photo of a trading card package inside an industrial CT scanner: Craig Custance)
