Cards
Collectors thrilled with return of Topps Chrome Football, anxiously await new NFL-licensed products
NFL legends Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Joe Namath and Tom Brady all have one thing in common: their iconic rookie cards were produced by Topps.
Rookies who entered the league in the last decade don’t have Topps Chrome or Bowman Chrome first cards. But moving forward, every draft class will have the Topps logo.
On April 2, Fanatics, Topps’ parents company, became the official exclusive football trading card licensee and will produce its first licensed cards since 2015. It’s a 20-year deal between Fanatics Collectibles, the NFL and the NFL Players Association.
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Panini had held the license since 2016, but Fanatics swooped in three years ago and worked out an agreement with the NFL and NFLPA to acquire the license.
Collectors will be trading in Panini’s staple brands of Flawless and National Treasures for Topps’ Chrome and NFL Rookie Debut Patch Auto cards.
Having officially licensed football cards from Topps is a big deal for collectors.
“People know, love and trust the Topps brand,” collector Jeremy Sharp said. “I’m curious to see what new products they’re going to come out with that maybe we haven’t seen before or what products from the past or recent with basketball and baseball that they’ve done.”
Chris Costa, co-founder and managing partner for CardVault by Tom Brady, is excited for Topps to make its triumphant return to football.
“The most iconic cards in the history of football are Topps cards, so I think that you start there,” Costa told SCD. “The foundation of the football sports card market starts with Topps and getting the license back and seeing Topps Chrome and Bowman Chrome and flagship Topps football releases and then you start thinking about all the amazing brands that Topps has created since and you start thinking about things like Dynasty or some of the higher end releases, it’s just a really exciting time.”
Topps now owns the exclusive trading card rights for the NFL, MLB and NBA. The company has had the MLB license for 75 years and regained the NBA license last October.
“It’s really exciting that Topps has the licensing for MLB, NFL and the NBA really to get some continuity between the three biggest sports from a collecting perspective,” Acquire CEO and co-founder Jesse Craig said. “Topps Chrome coming back for football, I think that’s going to be really important. I think that Panini actually did a pretty good job with Prizm and National Treasures and all those things but having some continuity between the three sports within the same brand is really exciting.
“I think it’s going to be really fun to see what they’re going to come out with there—more game-used stuff for football, hopefully. That’s always been an issue of football in the past that there’s not a ton of game-used stuff for rookies or whatever it may be. Hopefully, Topps can figure that out and make sure that we get some of those game-used pieces for rookies in their RPAs.”
Sharp, who started collecting football cards in 2004, can’t wait to dive back into Topps products.
“There’s a bunch of nostalgia for a lot of collectors, just the classic nature of a bunch of their brands,” Sharp said. “We’ve seen them do some really cool stuff in the past, and so I have high hopes that they’re going to be able to pull that off again.”
Topps first started making NFL cards in 1956, one year after its All-American, college-themed release. The company made licensed cards all the way up until 2015 when Panini took over.
That 60-year run just makes Topps special in the eyes of collectors.
“It’s just Topps; it’s just that brand,” said David Prince, president of Piece of the Game, which has three card shops in New York. “I know everybody in the last decade and a half or so has been deep into Prizm and what that represents. But remember before they took it over, Topps had it and I think it just has a great history.”
KICKOFF
In early April, Topps announced Chrome would be its first football product to come out this year. Release date for 2025 Topps Chrome Football is April 15.
Chrome, which uses premium, chromium-stock, became an instant hit when it debuted in 1996. Now, 30 years later, Chrome still consists of its popular staples, with refractors being at the top of the list.
Two weeks before the release date, Topps teased collectors on social media with sample images of its base, vast inserts and premium parallels.
“I think the base design is just classic,” Sharp said. “It makes sense for Topps Chrome. I look at that and I see Topps Chrome, like the classic version. But it also brings it into 2025, so it’s a good combination there. I like the variety of inserts.”
Topps’ two most innovative elements in the 2025 Chrome product are one-of-one (1/1) Topps Rookie PREM1ERE Patch Autograph Cards and 1/1 NFL Honors Gold Shield Autograph Cards.
The Rookie PREM1ERE Patch Autograph Cards contain patches that were worn by players the first time they suited up for an official NFL regular-season game, with members from the 2025 rookie class featured, including Jaxson Dart, Cam Skattebo, Cam Ward and TreVeyon Henderson. The patch was seen in play on the player’s right breast and features the word PREM1ERE and the player’s rookie class year below that stitching.
The NFL Honors Gold Shield Autograph Cards include Gold Shields worn in games by the 2024 AP award winners, found just at the base of the jersey collar. This set’s Gold Shield players are Josh Allen (MVP), Saquon Barkley (Offensive Player of the Year), Patrick Surtain II (Defensive Player of the Year), Jayden Daniels (Offensive Rookie of the Year), and Jared Verse (Defensive Rookie of the Year).
The 2025 Topps Chrome Football collection will feature players from all 32 NFL teams, along with select NFL legends. The set will include Fanatics Collectibles exclusive athletes such as Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, CJ Stroud, Bo Nix, Brady, Rice and more.
“I think it’s going to be amazing. I think they’re going to bring a lot of new life, marketing and eyes into the category,” Prince said. “I think it’s going to be pretty in demand as we come out of the shoot here and we see their first few products.”
BIG BRANDS
Since Topps hasn’t put out a licensed football product in 10 years, expectations are sky high for this year’s releases.
Topps has some incredible brands under its umbrella that it has used for other sports. Dynasty and Transcendent have become two of the most popular products.
Topps will have to up its game after Panini made Flawless and National Treasures household names for collectors over the last decade.
When Sharp got into collecting football cards in 2004, refractors and patch cards were all the rave. Sharp would like to see Topps continue to be innovative and release state-of-the-art products.
“I’m big into game-used memorabilia, so if they check that box, I will be super happy,” Sharp said. “I would also love to see more unique memorabilia. One of my favorite cards in my collection is actually a game-used shoulder pad swatch, which I think I’ve only seen in one set.”
Sharp says Topps will make most collectors happy if they check four “big boxes.”
“Game-used mems is one of them. On-card autos is another one—which we’ve seen in the product preview images,” Sharp said. “Cool case hits—in the last three, four years case hits have been a huge driving factor in the hobby that have become super popular and brought a lot of people in. So, if Topps can tap into some of that magic as well, I think that’s going to go a long way.
“The last one is price points with value for all. Obviously, nobody’s going to expect a $1,000 card out of every single box that they open, they shouldn’t. But just the opportunity for some cool stuff, that would be really cool as well. Whether it’s a value pack, a blaster, mega, hobby, all that good stuff.”
Costa is interested to see if some of the collector-focused products such as Heritage make their way back to the football side. Heritage has been a staple for baseball cards for 25 years. Costa always wants Topps’ popular Superfractors at the front and center of its products.
“I just think licensed Superfractors is where I start—that’s immediately where my head goes,” Costa said. “To just have a licensed Superfractor again in football is really important. I think it’s important to our industry. The Superfractor is the cornerstone of the hobby. Then you go beyond that and you just think about all the amazing products that Topps has built over the years, even post-football license.
“I would love to see a Transcendent football, that would be incredible. Imagine if the invite in Transcendent football was an invite to the Fanatics Super Bowl party, instead of the Transcendent baseball party. Dynasty football is going to be really, really exciting to look forward to and see what that looks like. Or what would a Diamond Icon football product look like, and does it remain the Diamond Icons brand and does Topps decide that Diamond Icons is no longer a play on the baseball diamond, it’s more about the gemstone.”
Prince agrees that Dynasty and Transcendent are products that Topps needs to take advantage of for football.
“Dynasty football could be absolutely insane, a Transcendent football,” Prince said. “Just those high-end brands, Diamond Icons baseball going into some form of football like you’ve seen with Royalty Collection and some of these other formats. I think they’re going to put real hard work into putting their spin on what they feel it’s all about. If it’s anything like basketball, I think collectors are going to be pretty damn excited.”
Craig hopes Topps keeps making all the high-end products that collectors have grown to love.
“I think the designs are critically important,” Craig said. “People still from a collecting perspective go back to what we believe is one of the heydays for designs, which is the ’90s. A lot of those cards are just beautiful. It looks like there was a lot of time and energy put into them. From a patch auto perspective, I think Exquisite did a phenomenal job. I think Flawless from Panini did a really phenomenal job, just clean, a lot of holofoil, high-end looking designs for these products. I think that’s the stuff that people really want where the good patch quality with game-used, really good autographs, just clean designs where the cards pop.”
COMPLETING TOPPS RUN
When Tim Samples was a kid in the mid-1980s, he would ride into his small town in North Carolina to buy football cards.
On the way home one day from picking up cards, Samples stopped by a house that was having a yard sale. An older guy who lived there saw Samples with football cards in hand and asked if he wanted to buy some older football cards. A short time later, without any interested buyers, the guy offered to give the cards to Samples. He gladly took them—boxes upon boxes containing over 10,000 cards.
“I had my skateboard and I remember stacking shoe boxes of cards and putting them on there,” Samples recalled. “I was looking through them and I was like, these are all old and they don’t have like cool action shots and none of them have their helmets on and things like that. So, after I got home and looked through them, I was like, ‘Oh, these are boring and I just kind of put them away.”
The cards had been at Samples’ parents’ house for about 25 years when his dad asked if he wanted the old boxes. Thumbing through the cards this time was different. Samples thought he could start building vintage sets with the cards he was given, which were in really good condition.
“I realized that I had from like 1955 to probably late ’70s and early ’80s there were a couple sets completed, and this is what that old fella gave me,” Samples said. “Then I combined all of that stuff with what I had when I was a kid collecting and I realized that I had near complete sets from 1955 all the way up to the late ’90s.”
Samples was able to add some complete sets from the 2000s via eBay auctions. He also found out large retailers such as Target and Walmart were selling complete sets on clearance for around $10.
Right before the pandemic hit, Samples picked up a Joe Namath rookie card in an SGC 5.5 to finish off the 1965 Topps set. It also wrapped up his run of complete Topps football sets from 1955-2015. It’s quite an accomplishment to have the entire 60-year history of Topps all in Samples’ house.
“I couldn’t have done this after COVID. I wouldn’t have pursued it,” said Samples, who plans to continue his Topps football run by going after a set when the next flagship product is released. “I wasn’t really that into it. I just thought it would be kind of neat to complete all of the sets. I went and completed it, and I owe it all to this old fella that I didn’t even get his name, don’t know who he was. He wanted to give them to a kid, and that was pretty cool. At the time, I didn’t really appreciate it.”
