Fanatics Instant Rips and Topps Instant Packs explained
How Fanatics Collect's Instant Rips and Topps Instant Packs work: what each pack holds, the Instant Credit offer and its math, the vault and the cost to ship.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published Updated 6 min read
Instant Rips and Topps Instant Packs are both sold through Fanatics Collect. Both reveal the cards on screen, and both let you keep the cards in the Fanatics Collect vault, ship them or list them for sale. The difference is what is inside. An Instant Rips pack holds one graded card from a published checklist. A Topps Instant Pack holds several Topps cards from one release: the 2025-26 Topps Pristine Basketball packs held four cards each. Fanatics may offer to buy an Instant Rips card back for site credit.
How do the two compare?
| Instant Rips | Topps Instant Packs (2025-26 Topps Pristine Basketball) | |
|---|---|---|
| What a pack holds | One graded card | Four cards |
| Where it is sold | Select countries; some packs are limited by location | US only |
| What you can read first | A checklist on each pack’s page, grouped into tiers | Release details on Topps’ own product page |
| After the reveal | Keep it in the vault, list it on the marketplace or ship it | Keep it in the vault, ship it or list it |
How does an Instant Rip work?
- Pay for a pack on Fanatics Collect, or while watching a Fanatics Live stream.
- The card is shown at once, on the stream or on your screen in the app.
- The physical card moves into the vault and appears in the Collection tab of your account. Holding it there takes a Fanatics Collect account; if you already have one, the card is added automatically.
- You then decide: leave it in the vault, list it on the Fanatics Collect marketplace, request shipping or, where offered, accept Instant Credit.
Each pack holds a single graded card. Each card is verified, authenticated and graded before sale, the cards come from all the major grading companies, and for Instant Rips the cards are supplied and managed by Fanatics. Seller-packed Instant Rips are treated differently for Instant Credit.
Our guide to how online pack opening works covers the reveal and the steps most rip sites share.
What does the checklist show?
Every Instant Rips pack has a checklist on its product page before you buy, with every card that can appear in that pack, broken down by tier. The tiers are usually named Base, Chase and Grail. The card rates Fanatics publishes are worked out from how many cards remain in each tier, so they can change as cards are revealed. See card pool for the term.
Note when the values were set. Card values come from guide pricing at the time the packs were sealed, and by the time you open the pack, the card may be worth more or less on the market. Values can move within a single day. A figure on a pack page is only a starting point.
How does Instant Credit work?
Instant Credit is the platform’s instant trade-in offer: after a rip, Fanatics may offer to buy the card back for site credit.
| Step | Example card |
|---|---|
| Card’s market value at sealing | $100 |
| 90% of that value | $90 |
| Less the 6% fee ($5.40) | $84.60 in credit |
So the offer works out to 84.6% of the seal-date value. The rules that come with it:
- The value is fixed at sealing. The offer is based on the pack-time value, even if the card’s price has moved since.
- The window is short. Offers usually stay open 24 to 48 hours. Eligible cards show a countdown timer on the Collections page, so go by the timer.
- It is site credit. The credit goes to your account and can be used for future purchases.
- You give up the card. The card goes back to Fanatics, and the choice cannot be undone. To keep the card, let the offer expire.
- Not every pack qualifies. Offers apply to Fanatics-owned packs, not to seller-packed Instant Rips.
Should you take the credit or list the card?
Start from what the card sells for today. The value on the pack page was set at sealing. Fanatics Collect’s Buy Now marketplace charges sellers 6% when the listing price is below 120% of the card’s Card Ladder market value, and 12% at or above that line. Buyers pay no fee.
That gives a clean break-even. At the 6% fee, a sale nets 94% of its price, and Instant Credit nets 84.6% of the seal-date value. The two meet when the card sells for 90% of its seal-date value.
- The card now sells for more than 90% of its seal-date value. A listing at the 6% fee should net more than the credit offer, if it sells at that price.
- The card now sells for less than 90% of its seal-date value. The credit offer, fixed at the older value, is the larger figure. It comes as credit for future purchases on Fanatics Collect.
A listing takes time and may not sell at your price. Our guides to judging a trade-in offer and selling a card from a vault go further, and how to find what a card sold for shows how to get today’s figure.
How do Topps Instant Packs work?
Sales of the 2025-26 Topps Pristine Basketball Instant Packs opened on Thursday, September 24, 2026, at 4pm ET. Each pack held four cards, each collector could buy nine packs a day, and only US buyers could purchase.
Every pack came with an instant 3D reveal, and the cards could then be kept in the vault, shipped home, or sold or listed on Fanatics Collect. Topps’ own product page has the release details.
Instant Rips packs hold graded cards, so read each Instant Pack release’s product page before you assume its cards are graded too.
What does it cost to get an Instant Rips card out of the vault?
Instant Rips purchases carry no storage fee, and you can keep them in the vault as long as you like. Shipping a card out has two costs:
- A fulfillment fee. Fanatics Collect charges 1% of an item’s insured value when it leaves the vault, or 3% if it leaves within 90 days of entering. Ask support when those 90 days start for a card from a pack before you ship one soon after the rip.
- Postage. Shipping costs a small fee and uses standard vault shipping. The final price is on the shipping invoice.
Orders are packed within 10 to 15 business days after you pay the fulfillment invoice. Every shipment is insured for the card’s appraised value. Our guide to what it costs to ship a graded card home sets out the postage chart and the signature rules, and vault or ship it home? compares the choices. The fulfillment fee and vault entries define the terms.
What should you check before you buy?
- The checklist. How many cards sit in each tier, and when were their values set?
- The format. One graded card in an Instant Rip, or several cards from a Topps release in an Instant Pack.
- The release terms. For an Instant Pack: the price, the card count, the daily limit and where it is sold.
- Your exit. The Instant Credit window, the Buy Now seller fee, and the fulfillment fee if you ship a card early. For Instant Packs, check the storage and shipping terms for each release.
For what other sites charge, see rip site fees explained and our comparison of trade-in offers. Rip.fan does not recommend Fanatics Collect, and our ranking of rip sites lists the sites we do.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Fanatics Collect keep Instant Rips cards?
In the Fanatics Collect vault in Tigard, Oregon, a climate-controlled site watched around the clock. It was the PWCC vault before Fanatics Collect replaced that brand in July 2024.
Does a card shipped from Fanatics Collect need a signature?
At $750 or more, yes. Within the US, Fanatics Collect sends a parcel under $750 by USPS with no signature, one from $750 to $999 by USPS with a signature, and one of $1,000 or more by FedEx with a signature.
What if the app closes during an Instant Rip reveal?
The card is not lost. At Fanatics Collect, a card is assigned to your vault even if the app crashes during the reveal, so look for it in your collection.
What happens when a Topps autograph in an Instant Pack is not ready?
Fanatics Collect puts Topps' redemption card in your vault in its place. You retrieve that card and redeem it with Topps, which can take 15 weeks or more.
Where does the money from a Fanatics Collect sale go?
Money from a Fanatics Collect marketplace sale goes to a US bank by ACH, free once a week, or by wire for $50. You ask for it on the website, not in the app.