Michael Rubin

The entrepreneur reshaping the business of sports cards

Few executives have had as much influence on the direction of the modern sports card industry as Michael Rubin.

As founder and CEO of Fanatics, Rubin oversees a sports platform that has expanded far beyond its roots in licensed apparel. Today, Fanatics operates across merchandise, collectibles, events and other areas of the sports economy, reaching more than 100 million fans worldwide.

For collectors, however, Rubin's most consequential move may have been his decision to make trading cards a major part of that vision.

From ski shops to a sports empire

Rubin's entrepreneurial story began remarkably early.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, he started selling vegetable seeds door-to-door as a child, opened a ski-tuning operation in his parents' basement at 12 and, two years later, opened a ski shop. He eventually left Villanova University after one semester to concentrate on business.

He went on to build GSI Commerce into a major e-commerce company and sold it to eBay in 2011 for $2.4 billion. As part of the transaction, Rubin bought back several consumer businesses that eBay didn't want—including Fanatics.

That decision ultimately gave Rubin the foundation for something considerably larger.

Rather than viewing Fanatics simply as an online retailer of jerseys and team merchandise, Rubin set out to build a company that could participate in multiple parts of the relationship between sports organizations, athletes and their fans.

Trading cards eventually became a central piece of that strategy.

A major bet on the hobby

Fanatics' arrival in sports cards changed the industry's competitive landscape almost immediately.

In 2021, the company secured long-term trading-card rights involving several of America's largest professional sports leagues and players associations. Then, in January 2022, Fanatics acquired Topps' trading-card and collectibles business.

The acquisition was significant for reasons extending well beyond its size.

Topps had been part of collecting culture for generations. Instead of creating an entirely new flagship card brand, Fanatics suddenly had one of the most recognizable names in the history of the hobby as the cornerstone of Fanatics Collectibles.

It also gave Rubin and Fanatics an established global operation with physical and digital collectibles businesses and broad international distribution.

The result is an unusually powerful combination: Fanatics' relationships and enormous reach within professional sports paired with the heritage of the Topps name.

Changing more than the cards

Rubin's impact on the hobby isn't limited to which company logo appears on a box.

Fanatics has increasingly attempted to connect collecting with the larger experience of being a sports fan—bringing athletes, collectors, card shops, breakers, manufacturers and fans closer together.

That strategy can be seen in initiatives such as Topps Hobby Rip Night, which has brought coordinated events to hundreds of hobby shops, and in the rapid growth of Fanatics Fest.

The 2026 Fanatics Fest illustrates the scale of Rubin's ambitions. According to Fanatics, the four-day event attracted approximately 200,000 attendees, more than 400 athletes and celebrities and 250 hobby shops across more than one million square feet of New York's Javits Center.

Cards and collectibles weren't treated as a niche gathering tucked away from mainstream sports culture. They were part of the larger show.

That's an important distinction.

For decades, much of the hobby existed in its own ecosystem. Rubin's Fanatics is betting that collecting can become an even more integrated part of mainstream sports fandom.

What's next?

Fanatics' influence over sports cards is still unfolding.

In April 2026, Topps officially returned as the licensed trading-card partner of the NFL and NFLPA. A month later, Fanatics and FIFA announced an expanded relationship under which Topps is scheduled to become FIFA's exclusive trading cards, stickers and trading-card-games partner for FIFA events beginning in 2031.

Those developments add to an already formidable portfolio of relationships across sports.

And they place Rubin in an unusual position.

He isn't a card-company executive who gradually expanded into sports. He's a sports entrepreneur who recognized collectibles as an important part of a much larger fan ecosystem—and then committed enormous resources to the category.

Why Michael Rubin matters to the card industry

Rubin's legacy in collecting won't ultimately be determined simply by acquisitions, licensing agreements or company valuations.

Collectors will judge the Fanatics era by the hobby it produces.

Are the cards compelling? Are products accessible? Do hobby shops thrive? Are new collectors entering and staying in the hobby? Does innovation make collecting more enjoyable without losing the traditions that made people love cards in the first place?

Those questions will take years to answer.

What is already clear is that Michael Rubin has helped bring sports cards closer to the center of the sports business than they have arguably ever been.

From a teenager running ski shops in Pennsylvania to the CEO overseeing one of the world's most influential sports companies, Rubin has built his career around identifying industries he believes can operate differently—and then moving aggressively to change them. At a January 2026 retail conference, Rubin described Fanatics as a $13 billion-revenue company, while the company says it operates more than 80 offices and facilities worldwide.

Now, a significant part of that ambition is focused squarely on the hobby.

For collectors, dealers, card shops and everyone else whose livelihood or passion revolves around sports cards, Michael Rubin isn't simply someone to watch from outside the industry. He's become one of the people helping determine where the industry goes next.