Most people didn’t even have time to refresh the page before it was over. Pre-orders for 2025–26 Topps Chrome Basketball went away in about two minutes on Wednesday morning. Not hours. Not by the end of the day. For two minutes. There was a lot of demand for a product that hadn’t even been shipped yet. People in the hobby world are still trying to figure out what it means.
Hobby boxes that were supposed to cost $369.99 were selling on eBay for as much as $580 just 24 hours after the pre-order window closed. People were seen selling Hobby Jumbo boxes for up to $1,400 when they were first released for $699.99. Those are not mistakes. The secondary market moved quickly, and the difference between retail and resale opened up almost right away. This happens a lot in the hobby, but it still hurts.
There’s an irony here that you should notice. Some collectors were very upset when Topps first announced how much this set would cost. The baseball boxes were cheaper than these—2025 Topps Chrome Baseball Hobby boxes cost $239.99 and are now selling for an average of $213 on the secondary market, which means they trade below retail. From the start, basketball cost more, which not everyone liked. On forums and social media, some collectors spoke out against it, calling it a reach. But the sellout quickly answered that point of view.
A lot of collectors pointed out that baseball isn’t the best comparison. This is Panini Prizm. For many years, Prizm Basketball has been the best in the hobby. It’s expensive, very sought after, and has a history of being easy to sell again. Even though most collectors think this year’s rookie class is weak, hobby boxes of 2024-25 Prizm Basketball are currently selling for an average of $567 on the secondary market. The draft class for the 2023–24 Prizm was more like this year’s NBA draft class in terms of talent, and boxes are still going for more than $1,400. With this in mind, Topps Chrome’s prices start to seem a lot more reasonable.
The weight of this release is one of the things that sets it apart from a normal product launch. Topps took over the exclusive rights to make licensed NBA trading cards on October 1. Panini America had been doing this since 2009, which is 16 years. That’s a long time for one company to have a license, and folks who collect have always used Prizm. In this case, Topps Chrome Basketball isn’t just a new product; it’s a statement about how licensed NBA cards will look in the future. It looks like prices on the secondary market are set in that range.
Collectors also make a structural case about the value of each box. Topps Chrome’s Hobby Jumbo configuration has about the same number of cards as a Panini Prizm Hobby box, but each box usually comes with an extra autograph. That’s not nothing, especially if you want to get Cooper Flagg’s first car or another top pick from a really good draft class. The set up gives buyers more chances to get the cards that matter, even if those autos don’t hit.
The problem with the secondary market is already being worked on by Topps. After the first batch sold out, the company said that the pre-orders for Topps Chrome Update Basketball Mega Boxes on Friday would come with the plastic seal taken off, leaving the cards unopened but the boxes open. The idea comes from something the Pokémon market realized earlier in 2026: taking off the factory seal makes people less likely to sell it again, since most people on the secondary market won’t pay more for an opened item. We still don’t know if it will work. There are collectors who will do anything to get a Flagg car. Most likely won’t.
It’s still not clear how this pricing system will work when the product comes out and case studies start showing up on YouTube. But the way this is going makes it seem like Topps Chrome Basketball has arrived in a way that goes beyond a single sellout. There’s a new leader in the hobby. The question is whether Topps can keep enough products in the hands of collectors and out of the hands of re-sellers to build the kind of long-term loyalty that took Prizm ten years to achieve.
