2026 Topps Flagship Football...Obviously

They’re baaaccckkk….

That is, until Friday, August 21^st, 2026, I hadn’t opened a pack of Topps football cards in 35 or 36 years. I don’t even know if that’s correct. It may be longer. I know that when I was a teen, I stopped collecting football cards at least a few years before I did baseball. It made sense to quit collecting football cards first, what, with needing the money for CDs, movies, and wherever else my limited cash flow was going. It certainly wasn’t to building a savings account when I was sixteen or seventeen.

Look, I’m married to baseball.

I’d struggle to even call football my mistress.

But cards being cards and kids being kids; I’d been a regular collector of football cards since probably 1984. When this set was out.

I still remember opening packs on Michael’s front porch. Looking for the Elway, Dickerson and Dan Marino rookie card. Me really wanting that last Terry Bradshaw. Opening packs on the walk home from Thrift Drug, shoving stale gum in my mouth, discarding the wax pack onto the street like some hooligan. The summer winding down. A Nerf football resting near us instead of the usually ubiquitous wiffle ball and bats. Thoughts of returning to school. I never wanted to go back to school. I’m no fan of summer weather. But I was a big fan of summer freedom.

The coming of football cards meant school.

But the coming of football cards meant the coming of fall. Curfews. Bedtimes. Homework. Shorter days. Longer nights. Yes. But also, crisp weather. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Sneaking out to play tackle football in the park without pads. Jackets. Long pants. Anticipating the first flakes falling.

You get the idea.

Well, unless you’re living under a collector’s rock, Topps is back with it’s first flagship football set in 15 years.

And I’m pretty excited for it. I held out when they did the un-licensed-jump-the-gun 2024 design, and I just bought some singles of 2025 Topps Chrome.

I’m not a modern football card novice.

I’d bought some Panini product when they held the football license, but I just don’t like Panini. I find everything they do to look generic with no real thought put into the design.

I don’t like it when you feel the need to put retired players in your base set.

And Panini, it just…it’s not Topps, okay?

It’s funny, or maybe it’s hypocritical; I know that I, and a lot of other older collectors, have bemoaned the fact that Topps/Fanatics are the only game in town with league licenses. I honestly do miss Fleer and Donruss as baseball card producers (You can keep Upper Deck and Score). But I don’t with football. Or I don’t have that same nostalgia. By the time Fleer et al were making licensed football cards, my football card era was coming to an end. Topps was the only game in town for me as a young football collector. Topps is where all the football nostalgia, for me, resides. Since I got back into collecting in 2019, I’ve been waiting for a Topps flagship football set.

And the results are…all right?

Considering Topps’ football card offerings in 2024/205, and their 2025-26 basketball flagship release; I should’ve assumed that they were going to go with the standard Topps design for football flagship as well. I’m not bummed about it per se, and I’m not saying that Topps standardizing their designs in 1991 (for awhile at least) is the reason I stopped with football cards; I’ll just say that it was nice having a whole new design to look forward to up release. Now, if I’m not wild about the Topps baseball design in February, that’ll temper the anticipation for football come August. And this year’s designs are…all right? Honestly the last Topps design that had me truly excited was 2024.

Still love that neon.

And coincidentally 1991 Topps is the 35^th anniversary insert.

My theory on the design is…if you can spend all of that time air brushing college players into their pro unforms, maybe you could’ve come up with a different card design than your other flagships brands. Clearly Fanatics has the money.

Also, I’m a stats man.

It would’ve been cool to see career stats on the back of Topps first flagship set in 11 years.

Very Panini, Topps.

But I digress.

To date I’ve bought a Topps 2026 Flagship hobby box and some blasters.

I’ve pulled some good bells and whistles stuff.

I’m not unsatisfied with my haul. Far from it. It’s been exciting opening 2026 Topps football. Being a Giants fan that Malik Nabers has me quite pleased.

But….

Here comes the dark side to all of this.

When I got back into collecting in 2019, I believe I paid $70 for a hobby box of 2019 Topps Series 1 baseball. I believe pre-sale at my local LCS for Series 2 Topps baseball was $180 for a hobby box and $380 for a jumbo box. 2026 Flagship football was $200/hobby $400/jumbo. That is…well, that’s QUITE the increase in cost over a 6-year period of time. The biggest increases have come over the last few years, or since Fanatics began running the show. The increase in costs also comes with a decrease in packs in hobby boxes, a decrease of cards in those packs, and no real new and flashy inserts in the packs. In fact, it feels as though there is less bang for your buck with the increase in cost.

Because my job is sedentary in nature, I’ve had the chance to watch a lot of collectors rip 2026 Topps football flagship and…a lot of collectors are pissed. As is seemingly the standard now, when I watch someone rip card product, most of them fly passed the base looking for the inserts. Even if it is their first time seeing the product. Base doesn’t seem to matter. Base is an impediment toward the big payoff. The flashy stuff that almost (but never really does) justifies dropping $200/$400 for a box. The payoff is rarely, if ever, there. The frustration mounts as these videos progress. Perhaps it’s easier to be less frustrated with the type of inserts in an $80 box as opposed to those in a $200 box.

While I’ve never opened up card product expecting to profit from it, I can understand collectors’ frustration.

I expressed this to a clerk in a card shop and his answer was a touch…flippant, maybe? He expressed that football collectors maybe don’t have a reason to be upset with the cost of Topps 2026 flagship because Panini product was always sold at a higher cost. And that is true from what I remember. $200. $250 for hobby boxes. And that WAS 6 years ago. The cost of Panini Donruss hobby football kept me away from the product. When I bought any Panini football it was Score. Usually, blasters when I could find them. But here’s the thing with making such a comparison: Panini guaranteed collector’s 2 autograph cards per hobby box. Topps continues to make its standard autograph OR relic in its $200 hobby boxes.

And, let’s be honest, most of the time it’s a relic.

When you’re a collector and you’re opening a $200 hobby box and you get some 4^th round draft picks jersey relic card, along with maybe another numbered card and bunch of unnumbered foil cards and other not-too-exciting inserts…

Yeah…

I don’t really know what the solution is here. For years I’ve listened to a lot of collectors on podcast, blogs, on social media instructing collectors to stop buying wax. Stop wasting money. Buy singles instead. Stop buying wax? You and I know that’s not going to happen. A lot of collectors like opening wax. I like opening wax. Opening wax is a major part of collecting. There’s still that thrill of the unknown when opening wax.

But…$200/box.

Expensive Hobby boxes/Jumbo boxes make lot of modern collecting akin to gambling now. Flying through base cards. Looking for the insert. Scratching the itch. The irritation when it doesn’t happen. There’s a real addiction factor to collecting now. What should happen but won’t is that Topps/Fanatics should lower the cost of base, or offer more of the bells and whistle type cards that they’ve trained so many modern collectors to covet. There’s already have enough high-end product out there for the Seth Meyers and Tedd Lasso’s of the world to buy.

Again, Topps should lower their costs…but they won’t.

I don’t know what that says about their attitude toward the average collector.

It’s sad that this continued increase is going to dampen the experience for a lot of collectors.

Because Topps football is back, baby!

This morning…I feel a small autumnal chill in the air.

And I have a set I’m trying to build.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy collecting!

 

 

  

FOMO Tour 2026

 

8.5 miles

                At least that’s what my “smart” phone told me I’d walked when I checked it at the end of a warm and humid day in the city. By then I was home. On the couch. The first of a few ice-cold double vodka and club sodas in my hand, the White Sox and Rays duking it out on TV, beginning a binge of 6 hours of baseball on the couch, bachelor to the wife not being home, she enjoying a weekend of swimming, conversating, kvetching, eating, drinking, and whatever it was women did on the so-called girl’s weekends.

                8.5 miles.

                It had to be right.

                Smart phones are always right…right?

                My body felt like I’d done 8.5 miles. I tend to walk a lot, but I do not like being outside in hot and humid weather in a borough of the city where there are nearly as many tourist roaming around as rats running around in darkened subway tunnels. But there I’d done it. 8.5 miles. I had the proof on the phone. The proof in the dried sweat on my brow. The proof in the sore back, sore hips, sore knees, and whatever other soreness that this ungodly age of 52 throws at a man who is just trying to get through his day.

                And I did it all....for baseball cards.

                I had concocted the idea of visiting local sports card shops right around the time that my wife mentioned that girls weekend would be happening on the last weekend of July, the weekend of The National, that treasured sports card convention that I wouldn’t be attending; the one that has left me with a small bit of FOMO each year that I’ve been back at collection.

                So I’ll label this little jaunt the MOFO Tour 2026.

                The goal was to visit three sports card shops:

                Bleecker Trading in Greenwich Village

                Alex’s MVP in the Upper East Side/Yorkville section of the City

                Bleecker Trading Upper West Side…or Bleecker Trading UWS…as the Zoomers like to refer to areas of the city now by acronym.

                I began my trek in The Village. Because Greenwich Village began as a rural hamlet in 17^th century New York, today’s Village does not adhere to the rigid grid plan laid out in the 19^th century and then subsequently put into place over the years. That means the streets can be as unruley and varied as the ones in downtown Manhattan. That means a man can get lost strolling around, even one such as myself who boats of having a Beat Generation lineage/connection with the likes of Ginsburg, Kerouac, Corso and anyone else you had roaming those Village streets. And being of that lineage means I don’t use GPS to get around.

                So, I got lost.

                I found myself walking up and down Village streets thinking, no it’s the corner, no it’s that corner. I was getting a little stressed. But not terribly stressed. You can come across some cool things in The Village if you’re just walking around looking for a sports card shop.

                Like the home of some old Friends....like of the Rachel and Monica variety.

                Or the place folks rioted for their rights and sparked a movement.

                I eventually found my first destination, Bleecker Trading.  Or stumbled upon it, if I’m being honest.

                I had only been to Bleecker Trading one time before. Being a regular is kind of hard, living in the back end of Brooklyn and usually going over to the city for a purpose/reason with a wife who, for some strange reason, doesn’t want to spend part of her afternoon in a sports card store. Full disclosure...she has endured many a sports card store for me...just not a whole day of it. Bleecker is a touch small. It’s got a small store front with a few display cases and some shelving for boxes, blasters, etc. They do have some back rooms and a patio, which, I believe, are used for breaks and for trading nights and the card shows they’ve been doing for the last year or so.

                The staff are incredibly nice and knowledgeable.

                That will be a continued theme throughout the day at all three locations.

                Also…for the purpose of this trip, I decided that I would purchase something in each store I visited. It didn’t need to be an extravagant purchase. Just something.

                Most of the items in the display cases were of the graded variety and mostly newer product…although there was a 1980 Topps Rickey that was calling to me a little bit. I don’t do graded. I have my opinions on graded cards, which will remain with me. But, like most collectors, I believe you should collect what makes you happy. Grading is a big part of The Hobby, so it must be making tons of collectors happy. So be it.

For a collector like me, who likes to dive through quarter, dollar, etc bins, Bleecker Trading had a few sports card and Pokemon cards to look through.

I bought the following cards.

Nothing fancy or crazy.

The Bart is gold and the Junior is chrome.

All three are players that I collect.

My stomach was beginning to rumble from the hungry attributed to getting lost.

And I knew EXACTLY where I wanted to go to take care of that hunger.

It was so long Greenwich Village and Hello Soho…it’s great to be back.

After a thirty-minute walk in the heat and humidity.

But it was worth it for this.

If you ever come to NYC…yes, yes, by all means try and do eat as much NYC style pizza as you can. I indulge at least once a week as I’m a noted pizza-holic who even owns pizza socks and two pizza related t-shirts. But it can’t be NYC style all the time…or can it? Yes, it can. But if you are ever looking to try something different in the realm of pizza, you can’t go wrong with Prince Street Pizza. It's Sicilian style or a suqare or whatever you want to call it. The way the pie is made is cheese/then sauce on top. Prince Street's specialty is their spciy pepperoni square. They use char pepperoni and if you don't know what that is, it's those pepperonis that are smaller, get really crispy, kind of bend like a chrome card and have the smallest little pool of oiil in them. Really healthy I'm sure. The fear of looking like a toursist kept me from taking a photo but you can see what they are all about right HERE.

While I was in SOHO/Nolita, and since it was right around the corner from Prince Street Pizza, I made it a point to stop by St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mott Street, otherwise known as The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, or simply Old St. Patrick’s. 

This was the cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York City until that other one was built on 5^th Avenue. I’ve been reading a lot about 19^th century New York lately, and I’d really wanted to stop by here at some point and see the old church. I do wish that I’d gone inside.

But it was after noon.

And getting hotter.

And swampy.

And if you’ve ever been in hot and swampy NYC…..

It was time to go uptown via air conditioned subway.

To this place.

...only I forgot to take a damned photograph of the store front.

Alex’s MVP is on York Avenue in the Yorkville/Upper East Side section of the city., once a former enclave for German immigrants. Alex’s does both card and comics, and I’ve been coming here off and on, mostly off because of how long the journey is, since about 2019. Alex’s is an old school card shop. Display cases. Boxes of cards. Packs of cards. Old packs. New Packs. In between packs. You name it. The place has probably twenty (probably more) monster boxes filled with cards ranging from $1-$5 boxes, as well as boxes filled with vintage cards (that I only saw after I made my purchases and had to leave because my middle-aged back was killing me from spending an hour looking through said card boxes). I don’t know how many I looked through. Enough to need a chiropractor.

I purchased these.

I’m at the point now where if I see a Murakami card/I buy a Murakami card. I’ve always been fascinated by Japanese baseball, even more so since I’d been to Japan and was able to watch as much of the game as I could on TV on nights after walking the great cities of that amazing nation. When a Japanese player comes to the states, I tend to collect them. And Murakami, being the single-season HR leader in Japan, just makes him more special to me.

There was one card that really caught my eye at Alex’s. It’s a card that I’d wanted since my childhood.

The 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly.

But I balked at the $75 price and didn’t get it.

As for the rest of Alex’s MVP…had my back not given out on me…I could’ve spent hours in the place. There was just that MUCH to look through.

But there was still one more shop to visit.

And that was this place.

Just a quick M79 bus ride across Manhattan and through Central Park and I was at Bleecker Trading Upper West Side (UWS).

                Bleecker Trading UWS is the newer of the two Bleecker stores, and their storefront is decidedly bigger. They still have that display case in front of the store full of graded and numbered gems. What Bleecker Trading UWS does have is a lot more bins for collectors to go searching through. And these nice round tables to sit at while doing so. It was honestly nice to take a load off the back and the legs and just look through cards in a friendly air-conditioned sports card store while the world did what it did in the heat and humidity outside.

                I found this.

                I’d been looking for one of those.

                Yeah, it’s a little bit off center.

                But a Tony Gwynn Fleer rookie card is a Tony Gwynn Fleer rookie card.

                I was all set to make my Tony Gwynn purchase when it suddenly hit me that I hadn’t spent nearly the money that I’d set out to spend on that glorious day. So, reason and sanity having left me I went and added this.

                I don’t know why.

                I have notoriously bad luck opening blaster boxes…unless they are ones that my wife has purchased for me.

                The one pictured was no different.

                It was a complete and utter bust and I'll leave the gory details out of this post.

                And what’s even worse…taking the value of that blaster along with the value of the Tony Gwynn card, I was only about $16 shy of the cost of the Don Mattingly 1984 Donruss. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was exhaustion. Maybe sometimes I don’t like to admit it, but I can be a quantity over quality type of collector. Having more is never better than having what you want.

                I’m going to go ahead an blame the heat for that one.

                Anyway, that was the FOMO Tour ’26.

Thanks for Reading! Happy Collecting!