Since its debut in 2016, Topps has produced more than 10,000 different cards as part of the Topps NOW program.
And since then, no card has sold more copies than a recent release commemorating San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, who was voted the unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year on Monday.
With a total print run of 113,777, that Wembanyama ROY drop edged out a card highlighting Shohei Ohtani signing a record-breaking 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Ohtani card sold 107,541 copies.
Considered two of the most popular stars in their respective sports, Ohtani and Wembanyama are also two of the most collected athletes in the sports-card hobby, so it should be expected they are also the subjects of the two most popular Topps NOW cards.
But beyond massive print runs from Ohtani and Wembanyama, are collectors buying other cards?
Based on a study by cllct of recent Topps NOW releases, the majority of the program is propped up by a small percentage of hits while a vast number of cards ship with underwhelming print runs.
Including the record-breaking Wembanyama card, cllct studied 1,000 recent releases from the Topps NOW archive, and more than half of the cards with listed print runs failed to sell 500 copies.
Short-printed, autograph and memorabilia cards with fixed print runs weren’t included in the 1,000 cards studied.
Available for a limited time, Topps NOW cards are printed to demand after the order window closes. Meant to capture important moments throughout the season, Topps NOW has covered everything from record-breaking home runs to oddball moments collectors might not see in a traditional set.
In total, the cards that cllct analyzed shipped with a reported print run of 2,311,679 through the print-to-demand format.
Of that total print run, the top 5% of cards accounted for 1.4 million total sales, with 47 cards shipping with print runs of 10,000 or more.
Based on print run, the 30 most popular cards outsold the other 970 combined.
Along with Ohtani and Wembanyama, Caitlin Clark, Jackson Holliday, Elly De La Cruz and Connor Bedard were also featured on multiple cards with 10,000-plus print runs.
Several pop culture-related cards also proved to be major successes. Released alongside the launch of his Netflix roast, a card featuring Tom Brady shipped 12,969 copies, which ranks No. 38 among the cards studied.
A card commemorating a Solar Eclipse shipped nearly 24,000 copies, and a card highlighting a beekeeper that removed a problematic swarm of bees delaying a Diamondbacks game sold nearly 17,000 copies.
Collectors even splurged on a “Dollar Dog” card celebrating fans at Citi Field consuming more than 44,000 hot dogs during a promotion. That card shipped 44,270 copies, though for $1 apiece rather than the normal $8.99.
At the other end of the Topps NOW spectrum, a large number of cards account for a small number of sales.
The total sales for the cards studied delivers an average print run of about 2,300 copies per card — but just 134 of the 1,000 cards analyzed hit that mark behind a top-heavy lineup.
In fact, just 291 of the 1,000 cards studied finished with a print run more than 1,000 while 59 shipped with a print run below 100.
While Ohtani and other superstars dominated at the top, many of the underperforming Topps NOW cards featured a variety of moments from soccer and hockey and didn’t feature the major stars of the sport.
Of the cards studied, a drop featuring a Bundesliga goalkeeper delivered the lowest print run with just 49 copies sold.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.