Collectors thrilled with return of Topps Basketball, eagerly await new hoops releases
After a 16-year hiatus, Topps is once again producing licensed basketball cards.
Topps’ parent company Fanatics took over the exclusive NBA license on Oct. 1. Panini had held the license for the last 15 years.
Fans of Topps flagship, Topps Chrome and Topps Finest are in for a real treat when those products are released. It’s been a long time coming.
“I’m excited in general,” Sports Card Investor founder Geoff Wilson said. “I feel like the Panini products have run their course to a degree. We had a great run of Panini Prizm, but in recent years it has not been as high of a quality. In recent years, Panini in general has gone away from game-used patches in a lot of their higher-end sets and the quality hasn’t been there the same way it used to be.
“I think it’s time for a change. I think it will be good for the sports card market to shift the license over, and I think Topps is going to come with a lot of enthusiasm. I think it’s going to bring in a lot of excitement.”
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Growing up in Seattle, Mill Creek Sports owner Scott Mahlum collected Topps basketball cards. He’s been looking forward to Topps basketball coming back for quite a while.
“It’s greatly missed,” Mahlum said. “We’re very excited for the licensed Topps products. There are so many avenues they can go. The Topps Chrome is going to be great, Finest, just flagship Topps is going to be good.”
“Topps is synonymous for a lot of people with trading cards,” said Brian Dwyer, president of auction house REA. “I think for people to come into the hobby and see now that Topps is offering basketball cards again, I think it just brings them back to the nostalgic roots of where Topps used to be.”
The 2025-26 Topps Basketball set will be released on Oct. 23 with NBA rookie and No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg on the cover.
To celebrate its basketball return, Topps will hold launch events at select locations on Oct. 23, including the New York City and Los Angeles NBA stores as well as other select locations. Stores will feature giveaways and appearances from such NBA players Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, and Late Night host Seth Meyers in NYC and Chris Paul in LA. 2025-26 Topps Basketball will be available for purchase at each event.
This is fourth time Topps has restarted producing basketball cards. Topps’ first release came in 1957. Its next product didn’t come out until 1969-70. After manufacturing the flagship cards all through the ’70s, Topps shut down again after the 1981-82 season. In 1992-93, Topps was back and produced cards until 2009-10. Panini had the exclusive NBA license from 2010-11 until this year.
WHAT COLLECTORS WANT
Since Topps hasn’t produced licensed NBA cards since the 2009-10 release—which included Stephen Curry’s rookie card—the company could go in so many different directions with its monumental return.
Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) President Ryan Hoge would like to see Topps come out with throwback cards.
“Put out an original Curry rookie, Topps base paper, and have him autograph it and do five of them serial numbered,” Hoge said. “What a cool chase. Do something like that.
“No sticker autos. Keep the push for no sticker autos.”
Dwyer would also like to see Topps get innovative and offer some new sets. Dwyer is a big fan of Topps Heritage baseball, and he believes a Heritage product for basketball would be huge for the company.
“I think that they could do some pretty cool stuff with Heritage and basketball,” Dwyer said. “You do a ’69 Topps tall boy style with the modern players, I think that would be really cool. You start talking about new draft prospects on trifold cards, I think that’d be pretty cool. I don’t think you have to look too long and hard to find some nice concepts that might be worth bringing into the modern day.”
When asked what he would like to see from Topps when it starts producing cards, Goldin founder Ken Goldin didn’t shy away from offering Topps some advice.
“Number one, do whatever you have to do and pay whatever you have to pay to Upper Deck to get a licensing agreement to use their Exquisite on your basketball products,” Goldin said. “If you want to make sure you’re successful for many, many years, even if you want to throw up after writing them the check, write it. Whatever it is, do it. That’s what will make basketball.
“Piece of advice number two, you’ve got new licenses kicking in, you’ve got the NFL and you’ve got basketball, I think they got a 20-year deal. This is for me and everybody in the hobby: don’t overprint, the first year especially. Figure out what demand is and make half of it, because you want everyone to remember how in demand your products are when they go to buy them in the future. Yeah, you might miss budget in your first year of doing it, but it’s going to pay dividends to collectors and everybody who buys it and to you as a company for the next 20 years.
“You need to not give all the breakers what they want, not give all the athletes who own stores what they want. You need to figure out what the demand is and you need to drastically reduce production on key products of basketball and NFL football.”
Mahlum would like to see Topps make some products at lower price points to allow kids to buy cards.
“I would hope they can find a sweet spot to where they can produce enough to keep the base levels, the Topps Chrome and the regular Flagship Topps at affordable levels to try to get the collectors back in,” Mahlum said. “The demand has been so much greater than the supply the last five years in wax, and that’s going to be a really big issue.”
Derek Grady, Heritage Auctions’ executive vice president of sports auctions, is also on board for Topps to make every effort to have affordable products for collectors of all ages.
“I see kids and adults buying boxes for $300, and pulling out $40 in cards,” Grady said. “I’d like to see a lower price point for kids, but also let people get stuff that’s worth it where they don’t literally have to just throw out the base cards. Now it’s all about [rookie] cards and inserts and game-used patches and signed cards and 1-of-1s that are very difficult to get. I think at some point if people keep losing money when they open boxes, you’re going to start selling less boxes. So, I would like to see people get hits. Make the odds a little bit better to get something.”
Last year, Fanatics signed NBA superstar LeBron James to a multi-year exclusive contract. James had been with Upper Deck for two decades. When James autographed cards hit the market, they are going to be massive chase cards.
Michael Jordan has also had an exclusive deal with Upper Deck since 1992. Mahlum noted if Fanatics could somehow sign a lucrative, exclusive contract with Jordan that would really take the company to the next level.
Wilson believes that when Topps releases its first licensed basketball product, it’s going to be massive for the hobby.
“I think Topps is going to absolutely explode on the scene in October when they start releasing the licensed sets,” Wilson said. “One thing that Topps and Fanatics have really proven over the last couple of years is that they really know how to market, and they really know how to bring attention and excitement around new product releases. I think you’re going to see a lot of that on display this fall when we get the officially-licensed Topps basketball.”
Topps is jumping back into basketball at the perfect time. This year’s No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg has been deemed a generational talent. His Topps rookie cards are sure to make a big splash when they come out. Add in top draft picks Dylan Harper, V.J. Edgecombe, Kon Knueppel and Ace Bailey and this year’s rookie class has the makings of being phenomenal.
“The rookies drive the product cycles, so the timing is good that there’s an exciting rookie class,” Hoge said. “Fingers are crossed. I think there’s going to be insane demand for it.”
Topps will also be integrating Rookie Debut Patch Auto (RDPA) cards into future basketball products. Three years ago, Topps started implementing RDPA cards in baseball. In their first big-league game, baseball players wear a special patch on their jersey. The patch is then removed and turned into a true 1-of-1 card. This invention has taken Topps baseball cards to another level. Pittsburgh Pirates phenom pitcher Paul Skenes had his RDPA card sell for $1.11 million in March of this year.
“I think the Cooper Flagg NBA Debut Patch card will challenge the Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch card in terms of value,” Wilson said. “That will be really interesting to see if the Cooper Flagg will outsell the Paul Skenes.”