Players income from trading cards

r2d2 · Aug 2, 2017

Hello, I'm sorry if this has been discussed before. Unfortunately can't visit the boards as often as I used to and as I'd like.

How much does Topps and Panini pay players to appear on their cards? How much per auto? Do they get compensated also by the MLBPA?

Thank you

BunchOBull · Aug 2, 2017

I haven't seen a modern contract in awhile, but the Topps Vault contracts from the '90s tend to be for $50-100, and sometimes goofy things like a jumbo bag a sunflower seeds or green M&Ms, silly stuff.

tramers · Aug 2, 2017

r2d2 said:
Hello, I'm sorry if this has been discussed before. Unfortunately can't visit the boards as often as I used to and as I'd like.

How much does Topps and Panini pay players to appear on their cards? How much per auto? Do they get compensated also by the MLBPA?

Thank you

good to see you post

mchenrycards · Aug 2, 2017

The players make the better money through the use of their likeness through the players association. I know when I worked in MLB in the 80's the players were all getting around 80K per year as their cut of the licensing agreement which was negotiated by the union. As for today I have no idea.

tramers · Aug 3, 2017

Low "A" players here make about $1000.00 a month before expenses . Signing bonuses $50,000 to one million on same team.

smapdi · Aug 3, 2017

The money paid on individual contracts from Topps are still fairly small, I think $100 or less to start and going up on a sliding scale every couple years, so that someone who's been around forever like Bartolo Colon might be up in low 4-figures. At least that's the way it used to work up through the 90s, probably still does today, but certain players really play hardball (heh).

The real money, though, comes from royalties from MLBPA. I recall hearing 20 years ago that all players who are union members got something like $90K a year from that, and surely that's gone way up by now. Licensed items of individual players with a team logo and player name, like a Trout jersey or Ichiro bobblehead and whatnot, earns the player more. So Topps pays the players individually for their rights to appear on a card, and they pay MLB and MLBPA for the rights to use team names and logos, some fraction of which goes to players also. No idea what Panini's deal is, though.

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Players income from trading cards

r2d2

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