Sports card sets by tier: what each hobby box holds
A map of baseball, football and basketball sets from big base-set boxes to one-pack boxes, by the cards and autograph or relic cards each hobby box lists.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published 7 min read
The clearest way to compare sports card sets is by what one hobby box lists: how many cards it holds, and how many of them are autograph or memorabilia cards. Read that way, the main baseball, football and basketball sets fall into four groups. Base-set boxes hold 180 to 240 cards with one or two such cards. Chromium boxes hold 80 to 144 cards with one to three autographs. A smaller box holds about 60 cards with two autographs. One-pack boxes hold a handful of cards, or just one, and a large share of them, from three of eight up to every card, are signed or carry memorabilia. The grouping is Rip.fan’s.
How does Rip.fan group the sets?
| Tier | What the hobby box lists | Sets in this map |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Base-set boxes | 180 to 240 cards, one or two autograph or relic cards | 2026 Topps Series 1, 2025 Donruss football |
| 2. Chromium boxes | 80 to 144 cards, one to three autographs, numbered color parallels | 2026 Topps Chrome, 2025 Panini Prizm football, 2025-26 Panini Prizm basketball |
| 3. Smaller boxes | About 60 cards, two autographs | 2026 Topps Finest |
| 4. One-pack boxes | One pack of a few cards, or a single card, with three of eight up to every card signed or memorabilia | 2025 Topps Museum Collection, 2025 Topps Dynasty, 2025 Panini Immaculate Collection football, 2025 Panini National Treasures football, 2024-25 Panini National Treasures basketball |
The tiers describe what is in the box. They are not a ranking, and a set in a lower tier is not a lesser set; it simply holds more cards and fewer signed ones.
What does each set’s hobby box hold?
The last column divides the signed or memorabilia cards by the cards in the box. Where a figure is an average, the share is a typical one.
| Set | Tier | Packs and cards | Autograph or memorabilia cards listed | Share of the box (Rip.fan’s arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Topps Series 1 baseball | 1 | 20 packs of 12 (240) | One autograph or relic card | 1 of 240 |
| 2025 Donruss football | 1 | 18 packs of 10 (180) | One autograph and one relic, on average | 2 of 180 |
| 2026 Topps Chrome baseball | 2 | 20 packs of 4 (80) | One autograph | 1 of 80 |
| 2025 Panini Prizm football | 2 | 12 packs of 12 (144) | Two autographs, on average | 2 of 144 |
| 2025-26 Panini Prizm basketball | 2 | 12 packs of 12 (144) | Three autographs, on average | 3 of 144 |
| 2026 Topps Finest baseball | 3 | 6 packs of 10 (60) | Two autographs | 2 of 60 |
| 2025 Topps Museum Collection baseball | 4 | 1 pack of 8 | One on-card autograph, one autograph relic, one relic | 3 of 8 |
| 2025 Panini Immaculate Collection football | 4 | 1 pack of 6 | Five autograph or relic cards, on average | 5 of 6 |
| 2025 Panini National Treasures football | 4 | 1 pack | Eight autograph or relic cards, on average | Not worked out |
| 2024-25 Panini National Treasures basketball | 4 | 1 pack of 9 | Four autographs and four relics, on average | 8 of 9 |
| 2025 Topps Dynasty baseball | 4 | 1 card | One autograph relic or cut signature | 1 of 1 |
For National Treasures football, the box holds eight autograph or relic cards, one base card or insert and one parallel.
What else is in each tier’s boxes?
Base-set boxes
Most of the box is the base set and what grows from it. 2026 Topps Series 1 has a 350-card base set, and each hobby box adds one Silver Pack. 2025 Donruss football has a 400-card base set of 300 veterans and 100 Rated Rookies, and a hobby box holds, on average, 18 Rated Rookie cards, 12 parallels and 42 inserts. Our guides to Topps Series 1 and 2 and Donruss Rated Rookies cover both sets.
Chromium boxes
These boxes hold fewer cards, and the Prizm boxes carry a larger share of them as shiny parallels than the base-set boxes do. 2026 Topps Chrome has a 300-card base set, printed as chromium cards. For 2025 Prizm football, there are 10 numbered Prizm parallels, 3 base Prizm parallels and 1 rookie Prizm parallel per hobby box beside the two autographs, which is 14 of 144 cards, by Rip.fan’s arithmetic. For 2025-26 Prizm basketball, a box holds 24 base Prizm parallels and 12 inserts or insert parallels on average, so 24 of 144 cards are base parallels. A Donruss football hobby box holds 12 parallels in 180 cards. The 2025-26 Prizm basketball set shows no official team or league logos, because its pro images are airbrushed to remove them, a first for the brand. Our guides to Topps Chrome and Panini Prizm set out the color ladders.
Smaller boxes
2026 Topps Finest sits between the chromium and one-pack boxes in this map. Every hobby box holds 6 packs of 10 cards with two autographs, and the 350-card base set has Common, Uncommon and Rare tiers and a new 50-card Super Rare tier.
One-pack boxes
Museum Collection, National Treasures football and Immaculate are high-end, and Dynasty is ultra-premium. In these boxes, base cards, inserts and parallels shrink to between none and five per box:
- 2025 Topps Museum Collection. A box holds 8 cards against 20 in 2024, and the one-pack box is a new configuration. A box also holds three base cards and two parallels beside the three signed or relic cards.
- 2025 Panini Immaculate Collection football. Five autograph or relic cards and one base card or base parallel, on average.
- 2025 Panini National Treasures football. About eight autograph or relic cards, with one base card or insert and one parallel. Its rookie patch autographs are the RPA cards collectors talk about.
- 2024-25 Panini National Treasures basketball. Four autographs, four relics and one base card or parallel, on average.
- 2025 Topps Dynasty. One card per box. Every card is signed and numbered to 10 or fewer, and each comes encased.
What changes a box’s contents within one set?
The format. Each tier above uses the plain hobby box, and other boxes of the same set list different contents:
- Panini 1st Off the Line boxes. A 2025 Prizm football 1st Off the Line box holds one Shimmer autograph numbered to 35 or fewer, plus one more autograph.
- Topps First Day Issue boxes. For 2026 Finest, a box holds one First Day Issue autograph, one more autograph and two First Day Issue base parallels.
- Jumbo boxes. A 2026 Topps Series 1 jumbo box lists one autograph and one relic card, against one of either in hobby.
- Retail boxes. Blasters, megas and hangers are separate formats, each with its own exclusive cards. Our guide to hobby and retail boxes compares them.
The Panini box figures above are averages, so one box can hold more or fewer, while the Topps figures are counts per box.
Which tier fits what you collect?
Start from what you want to end up with:
- A base set, or many players at once: tier 1 gives the most cards per box, from 180 to 240 here.
- Numbered color parallels: tier 2 boxes are built around them. Our guide to serial-numbered cards explains the stamps.
- Signed or memorabilia cards: tiers 3 and 4 put them in far fewer cards, and in tier 4 they make up a large share of the box, from three of eight cards to all of them. Our guide to autographs, patches and short prints explains those cards.
- One particular card: a box of any tier may not hold it. Our guide to buying graded cards online covers buying the single instead.
How to read a box listing
- Find the hobby box configuration on the checklist: packs per box and cards per pack.
- Read what the box lists, and whether it is called an average.
- Note the format: hobby, jumbo, 1st Off the Line, First Day Issue or a retail box.
- Check the base set size and the parallels, which decide what most of the cards in a low-tier box will be.
- For a signed card, check whether the autograph is on-card or sticker; our guide to sticker and on-card autographs explains why it matters.
The sports cards hub lists the rest of Rip.fan’s sports guides, including how to start collecting sports cards.
Frequently asked questions
How many hobby boxes come in a case?
From 40 value blasters in a 2026 Topps Series 1 retail case down to 18 hobby boxes for 2025 Donruss football, 12 for Topps Series 1 or Chrome, 6 for 2025 Immaculate Collection football and 4 for 2025 National Treasures football.
What is in a 2026 Topps Chrome jumbo box?
12 packs of 11 cards with 2 autographs, against 1 autograph in a 20-pack hobby box. Jumbo boxes come 8 to a case.
When did the sets in this map come out?
2025 Donruss football came out September 17, 2025, 2026 Topps Series 1 on February 11, 2026, 2025 National Treasures football on February 18, 2026, and 2025 Topps Dynasty on June 17, 2026.