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Basketball Card Release Calendar: 2025-26 NBA Season

Every NBA card set of the 2025-26 season and the seasons before it — when it came out, how big its base set is, which sealed formats it comes in, and whether it is still on shelves. Dates and base-set sizes are read off each set's own entry in the Trading Card Database and link back to it; availability is re-checked against live retail every morning.

Latest 2025-26 release: Topps Chrome Update Series, Aug 6, 2026 10 of 10 2025-26 sets on shelves right now Availability last checked September 6, 2026

2025-26 Season Releases

The first season of the Fanatics/Topps NBA licence — Panini held the exclusive NBA team-and-league licence from 2009-10 through 2024-25. Newest release first. Note that the licence changing hands did not mean Panini stopped printing: 2025-26 Panini Donruss is in the table below, and Panini Prizm followed it. What changed is the team marks, not the printer — see what the dates show.

Set	Brand	Released	Shelf Status	Formats	What It Is
Topps Chrome Update Series Chrome	Topps	Aug 6, 2026 200-card base set	On shelves 7 of 9 listings in stock	HobbyMegaBlasterValue	The late-season chromium update — rookies who debuted after the main checklist locked, and NBA Debut Patch autographs.
Topps Chrome Cactus Jack Premium	Topps	Jun 19, 2026 100-card base set	On shelves 1 of 1 listing in stock	Hobby	The Cactus Jack collaboration on Chrome stock — a hobby-box-only release outside the standard Chrome lineup.
Panini Donruss Basketball Retail	Panini	Jun 5, 2026 200-card base set	On shelves 2 of 2 listings in stock	Mega	Panini's long-running Donruss line and its Rated Rookie subset, in retail mega and hobby formats.
Topps Signature Class Premium	Topps	May 28, 2026 149-card base set	On shelves 3 of 3 listings in stock	HobbyMegaBlaster	Autograph-led release — chrome autograph chases in every format, two per hobby box.
Topps NBA Hoops Retail	Topps	May 14, 2026 300-card base set	On shelves 3 of 3 listings in stock	BlasterHanger	The high-count, budget-friendly NBA base brand, now under Topps — blaster and pack formats built for volume ripping.
Topps Cosmic Chrome Premium	Topps	Apr 29, 2026 200-card base set	On shelves 1 of 1 listing in stock	Hobby	Hobby-only chromium spin-off built around its autograph chase rather than a full base checklist.
Bowman Basketball Prospect	Bowman	Apr 22, 2026 200-card base set	On shelves 3 of 3 listings in stock	MegaBlaster	Topps' prospect brand on the NBA — young players and autograph chases, the rookie-before-the-rookie release.
Topps Finest Basketball Premium	Topps	Feb 26, 2026 300-card base set	On shelves 1 of 1 listing in stock	Hobby	Premium chromium set with a short checklist and a high hit rate — two autographs per hobby box.
Topps Chrome Basketball Chrome	Topps	Dec 18, 2025 299-card base set	On shelves 2 of 3 listings in stock	MegaValue	The chromium version of the flagship checklist — Refractors and numbered colour parallels, and the set most collectors grade. Numbered #1-300, but card #226 was never released — the base set is 299 cards, not 300.
Topps NBA Basketball Flagship	Topps	Oct 23, 2025 300-card base set	On shelves 6 of 7 listings in stock	MegaBlasterHanger	The base Topps NBA set of the Fanatics era — the season's flagship checklist, sold in retail packs, fat packs, hangers and blasters.

Reading the Formats column: a format is listed against a set once we track a real sealed listing of it in that configuration. A solid chip is buyable today; a struck-through chip is a format the set exists in that has sold through. The dark chip is hobby — the card-shop channel that carries the guaranteed autographs — and everything else is mass retail. That one split decides more about what you pull than the set name does; the hobby vs retail guide breaks down each tier.

What each format is

Hobby: Card-shop and hobby-dealer channel — the configuration that carries the guaranteed autographs and hobby-only content.
Mega Retail: The top of the retail ladder, with mega-exclusive parallels you cannot pull in another format.
Blaster Retail: The retail workhorse — smaller than a mega, with its own blaster-exclusive parallels.
Retail: A full retail box — the multi-pack format sold through big-box stores rather than card shops.
Value Retail: Card-count-first retail box aimed at set builders rather than at a specific chase.
Jumbo Retail: Oversized retail pack — the largest of the loose-pack formats.
Hanger Retail: Single hanging retail pack, the aisle-rack format.
Fat Pack Retail: Thick single retail pack — the lowest-commitment way into a set.

Where the dates come from: every release date and base-set size above was read off that set's own overview page on the Trading Card Database on August 14, 2026, and each date links back to the page it came from so you can check it. Nothing here is estimated: a set we could not source a date for shows no date rather than a guess. One exception is labelled on its own row — TCDB carries no date for 2024-25 Panini Select, so that one comes from The Cardboard Connection. Street dates also move, and these are the dates as recorded after the fact rather than the dates first announced.

What the dates show

A season is not a year. The 2025-26 sets below span 287 days — from Oct 23, 2025 to Aug 6, 2026 — and only 2 of the 10 shipped during 2025 at all. The rest arrived the following calendar year, several of them after the season they are named for had finished.
So a set on the shelf is usually older than its name. 2023-24 Panini Phoenix did not ship until September 2024, months after that season ended. When a listing says "2024-25", that is the checklist year, not the year the box was made — which is why the date column matters when you are comparing two boxes.
The licence flipped; neither company left. Topps was already making basketball cards before it held the NBA licence — 2023-24 and 2024-25 Topps Chrome Basketball both exist, made under an NBA Players Association licence, which is why those cards carry the players but no team logos or full pro uniforms. Panini is in the same position now from the other side: its 2025-26 Donruss and Prizm shipped after the licence moved. If you are buying either era, check which licence the card was made under before you assume what is on the front of it.

Set names, dates and base-set sizes: Trading Card Database, August 14, 2026. Licence detail on the Players Association-era Topps Chrome sets and on 2025-26 Panini Prizm: The Cardboard Connection set reviews for those releases.

Recent Seasons

Set	Season	Released	Shelf Status	Formats	What It Is
Panini Select Basketball	2024-25	Jun 18, 2025 Base-set size not published	Still available 2 of 2 listings in stock	MegaBlaster	Tiered chromium set with retail-exclusive Blue and Red Prizm parallels alongside its rookie and insert checklists.
Bowman University Chrome	2024-25	Apr 3, 2025 100-card base set	Still available 1 of 1 listing in stock	Mega	College chrome — team sets of college players before they reach the NBA, the earliest chrome cards of an incoming class.
Panini Totally Certified	2024-25	Mar 19, 2025 200-card base set	Still available 1 of 1 listing in stock	Blaster	Retail blaster-exclusive Panini release sitting above the standard Donruss retail tier.
Panini Donruss Basketball	2024-25	Mar 7, 2025 300-card base set	Still available 2 of 3 listings in stock	MegaBlasterFat Pack	The Rated Rookie brand — wide retail distribution in blaster, mega and fat-pack formats, with Optic Rated Rookie previews.
Panini Prizm Basketball	2024-25	Feb 19, 2025 300-card base set	Still available 1 of 1 listing in stock	Retail	Panini's flagship chromium brand — the defining modern NBA rookie card and the deepest parallel rainbow of the era.
Panini Phoenix Basketball	2023-24	Sep 25, 2024 300-card base set	Still available 1 of 1 listing in stock	Blaster	Retail chromium release in the blaster tier — a lower-cost entry point into the Panini chrome family.
Panini Mosaic Basketball	2023-24	Aug 7, 2024 300-card base set	Still available 2 of 2 listings in stock	MegaBlaster	Panini's mid-tier chromium brand, built on its mosaic-patterned parallel structure, in blaster and mega formats.
Panini Donruss Optic	2023-24	Jun 14, 2024 299-card base set	Still available 1 of 1 listing in stock	Retail	The chromium version of Donruss — Optic Rated Rookies and prizm-style parallels in a retail-box format.
Bowman University Chrome	2023-24	Jan 17, 2024 100-card base set	Still available 1 of 1 listing in stock	Value	The earlier college chrome release — value-box format, seven packs per box, college team sets.
Panini NBA Hoops	2022-23	Jan 11, 2023 300-card base set	Still available 2 of 2 listings in stock	BlasterJumbo	The Panini-era Hoops line — high card counts, budget retail formats, and Rise and Shine memorabilia inserts.

New to the hobby? Start with hobby vs retail explained, learn how parallels and print runs work, or see which boxes are worth buying this season.

In Our Catalog

Sealed product we track, by season — in-stock boxes first, with the full list on each season's page.

2026-27 Season

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2025-26 Season Releases

What each format is

What the dates show

Recent Seasons

In Our Catalog

2026-27 Season

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2012-13 Season

2009-10 Season

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