For the first time since the 2009-10 season, Topps, a worldwide leader in trading cards, is returning to the NBA.
And they’re doing so with a bang.
Fanatics Collectibles, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) announced on Wednesday the launch of Topps Basketball for the 2025-26 season, which will be released on Oct. 23 on its website as well as in hobby shops and major retailers worldwide.
The Topps Basketball collection will feature players from all 30 NBA teams, like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Victor Wembanyama, as well as NBA legends including Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and many more. Through its collaboration with Fanatics Collectibles, which has direct partnerships with more than 300 current NBA players and legends, Topps Basketball will be delivering a whole new experience for collectors throughout the NBA season.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Mike Mahan, Fanatics Collectibles CEO, told FOX Business. “I’ve been at the company almost three-and-a-half years now, so I look at this like the feeling I had when I got my driver’s license. Like a teenager saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is taking forever.’ And now we’re here. When you’re a kid and you get your driver’s license, your life changes and I kind of feel for the company, it’s the same thing. Our lives now change and the way that our responsibility and our mandate for collectors has expanded. We could not be more excited.”
“The products we have coming, the marketing we have coming, the events that we have coming. The way we expect to engage with collectors, not just here but all around the globe, we’re fired up for this and we’re ready for it.”
Mahan stressed the importance of enhancing the collector experience, which he says begins with a great product. But it’s also connecting those collectors to certain moments in their favorite athletes’ career.
For Topps’ MLB collection, a perfect example was the MLB debut patch card, a one-of-a-kind autographed card featuring a debut patch worn on their jersey during the player’s big league debut. Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes’ debut patch card sold for $1.11 million at the Fanatics Collect March Premier Auction earlier this year.
Skenes is a generational talent, leading to that price tag. This year, the NBA also has someone who many believe is destined for greatness – Dallas Mavericks first overall pick Cooper Flagg.
Topps will launch its Rookie Debut Patch when the regular season tips off on Oct. 21, and the one-of-one card will be available to be pulled.
“Cooper has a chance to be a seminal star of the game,” Mahan, who said he’ll be chasing the card along with the other collectors, stated. “He really does have the pedigree for this next-generational star. So, if he achieves that and there’s a debut patch, that will be one of the most important cards in the history of collecting. If you think about what a Michael Jordan debut patch would be, or a LeBron James debut patch, or a Steph Curry debut patch, you can just imagine what those cards would mean or represent. So, look, Cooper’s got a long way to go before he’s in the same conversation as one of those guys. But if he does get to that elite level of player that people think he can be, this card will be exceedingly important. Therefore, because he has a chance to do that, people are going to be really excited about this card.”
Flagg is just the beginning. The launch will also have Gold NBA Logoman Patches, which will be on the jerseys of the 2024-25 KIA NBA Most Valuable Player, Kia Rookie of the Year and Kia Defensive Player of the Year award winners. Those patches will be inserted into trading cards later and the program will continue for seasons to come.
“The way I think about it is you want to have this nostalgic component. You want to honor the traditions of the past, you want to honor the stars of the game. Then, you want to have this modern sensibility and fresh approach around it that says, ‘OK, what’s new? What’s fun? What’s different.’ If we can get the balance of those things right, that’s when you have something special. We’ve been able to successfully do that time and time again with baseball, and now it’s our time to shine for basketball,” Mahan explained. “We’re up for the challenge.”
While the product is the focal point, Mahan also touched on Fanatics Collectibles’ priority of building community, which includes events allowing collectors to interact, trading packs and cards, and continue their love for the hobby.
That will continue with a series of fan celebrations at NBA stores across the globe in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and the Fanatics Collectibles store in London, where giveaways and other surprises will be present for basketball fans.
Then, Topps Digital, the digital home for trading cards, will be releasing its NBA Collect by Topps app, which will also Topps NBA’s collections to come to life with interactive features throughout the season.
“First of all, collecting should be fun,” Mahan continued. “So, part of fun is coming out and having these events and celebrating the launch of what we’re doing. I think it’s befitting of the moment. But there’s also something fundamental to collecting that doesn’t get talked about often enough, which is community. You have to have community to have collecting. You wouldn’t be the only card collector in the world, that wouldn’t be that exciting. You want other people to collect and have people to chase cards with and buy and sell. That’s part of the ecosystem and the magic in this industry that we officially know as the hobby.
“When you have these events and you bring that community tout and you have people trading with one another, trading packs, athletes coming in and participating and connecting with fans and collectors and telling stories, that community is strengthened.”
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