Swinging dicks is fun and all, but looking at the industry and the market itself...it's safe to assume that Topps isn't doing nearly as well as they would like. Or as well as they were doing say 5 years ago when the industry was stronger.
While Topps has the arguably the largest market penetration in the industry, it's still a shrinking industry.
As to Tim's question, "Honest question, do you think chris is saying that because he knows or just because he's guessing?" The truth is that Chris is guessing, perhaps with information from others with implied insider knowledge, but still "guessing" nonetheless. Not a slam in the slightest, but if Chris had a downfall, it would be assuming and acting like he knows more than he does about the hobby. All with good intentions, but still misinformation.
As for Topps versus Leaf or Panini...lop a $1 million or so off of the top of Topps for MLBP licensing and that's a hearty chunk of the Net.
Try $8 or so million a year for MLBP!
That is a haircut!