’25-26 Topps Flagship Pacers set (in progress)

Key:

Black oval: Topps Flagship (TF) Black Rainbow /10

Orange oval: Orange Rainbow /25

Grey oval: Blackout /25

Black Diamond: Black Diamante /25

About a month after Topps flagship (plain cardboard) was released, I started scouring the Interweb for low number variations, to create team sets. Whatever one thinks of Fanatics, I think they hit it out of the park with the first licensed Topps basketball set in 16 years. As a collector-investor, I think this will be up there with 2012 Prizm, Panini's first year of what become their flagship set. Set collectors bid up even common gold /10s to crazy prices on that one.

With the Pacers, the cost has been reasonable, I would say I sunk around $700 into this, the Tyrese black rainbow /10 being the most expensive at $179. .

After some testing of variations such as Pacers team color, I settled on true Black Rainbow /10 (there are like five black /10 variations specific to various products, from Diamante to Basketballs, but most collectors consider Rainbow "true."). Thought about gold rainbow /50 but it tends to be hoarded, overhyped, and expensive. For b-ball, "true basketball" orange /25 thus made sense.

Topps released the black & white photo Blackout product on Black Friday, which included the /25 Cartload. Nice circular pattern flash (interestingly, there is no /10 variation for Blackout).

Regarding the pictures: Love them, much better than Prizm, though arguably Topps Chrome elevates the concept with more in-your-face action shots. I particularly like the team card photo, with Bradley and Furphy absolutely elated, Haliburton like a five year old on a birthday sugar high, and Myles, Aaron, and Obi getting in on the group hug.

Regarding my player personal collection (PC): Nesmith actually does not have a regular base card in either Topps product, but he has a 1980-81 Topps autograph in flagship and another auto insert in Topps Chrome. The former is extremely rare, 81 copies printed total, with /50 the highest. Couldn't find a black /10 so settled on a red /5). With those production numbers, AA first-year Topps may prove to be the ultimate grail.