September Topps NOW: Bigger Month, Smaller Typical Run
September nearly doubled finalized Topps NOW print volume, even as the median release fell and demand concentrated around a few breakout cards.
September was a bigger Topps NOW month in almost every aggregate sense. More buying windows closed, more official results arrived, and finalized print volume climbed from 577,588 cards in August to 1,141,167.
But the typical release did not get bigger. The median fell 10.7% to 1,243, while one Lionel Messi card supplied nearly three of every ten finalized copies. September's real story was expansion at both extremes: more blockbuster volume at the top and far more low-run releases at the bottom.
September in three takeaways
The headline total looks explosive, but three numbers explain what actually happened.
One card changed the shape of the month
Lionel Messi's Argentina release finished at 335,283 copies. It was more than three times the month's second-largest release and represented 29.4% of all finalized September volume by itself.
That breakout pushed the average print run to 4,583 even as the median declined. The top ten cards captured 58.9% of finalized volume, compared with 44.3% in August. September was not a broad demand surge. It was a larger calendar with a much heavier top.
The market widened at both ends
September produced more blockbuster cards and more genuinely scarce releases at the same time. Forty-eight finalized cards finished below 500 copies, four times August's count, while 13 cleared 10,000.
That split is why the total and the median moved in opposite directions. A few enormous releases lifted the month, while a growing low-run tail pulled the typical outcome lower.
Finalized releases by print-run band
Counts use official positive print runs only.
Soccer supplied scarcity, MLB supplied scale
Soccer created most of September's low-run tail. Forty-two of the 48 releases below 500 were soccer cards, and the sport's finalized median landed at 536.
MLB played the opposite role. Its 114 finalized releases were the deepest completed sport cohort and generated 353,333 cards, led by Pete Crow-Armstrong's 93,587-copy release.
September's breakout releases
The month's five largest finalized releases crossed sports and properties, but four of the five were driven by a major name, autograph format, or both.
What we are watching next
Forty-four September releases were still waiting for official print runs when this report was frozen. They remain unknown, not zero, and will be added when Topps publishes them.
NFL carries the largest gap with 18 unresolved releases. That means September's final sport mix can still move, even though the central story of a more concentrated, wider market is already visible in the completed cohort.
Frequently asked questions.
How many Topps NOW releases closed in September 2026?
PrintRun tracked 293 card rows whose buying windows closed during September 2026.
How many September print runs were official when the report was published?
Topps had published 249 official positive print runs, equal to 85.0% of the tracked September closing-window cohort.
What happened to the other 44 releases?
Their official print runs were still unknown in the frozen snapshot. They remain excluded from distribution and concentration calculations rather than being treated as zero.
What was the median September print run?
The median among the 249 finalized releases was 1,243 copies.
Sources
Check an individual official result.
Open the PrintRun results archive to compare recorded forecasts with the official print run card by card.
Browse official results ↗Get next month’s report.
Monthly Topps NOW benchmarks, standout releases, and recorded prediction results.