The Topps Industry Conference: What It Is, Why Your Feed's Full Of It, And What It Means For Us in the UK

Reading time: ~5 minutes

If you've been scrolling through Instagram, YouTube or X over the last few days and wondering why everyone in the hobby seems to be losing their minds — you're in the right place. Let's break down what's actually going on.

So What Even Is The Topps Industry Conference?

Once a year, Topps invites a select group of hobby insiders — dealers, distributors, shop owners, and key industry figures — to a private conference where they get a first look at what's coming down the pipeline.

Think of it as a sneak preview for the people who stock your shelves. No general public. No big flashy stream. Just behind-closed-doors product reveals, Q&As, and the kind of conversations that shape what ends up in your local card shop (or your next 3rd Down order) months down the line.

Most collectors never get eyes on it. But this year, a number of well-known hobby creators were in the room — and they've been posting everything.

What The Hobby Community Is Saying From Inside The Room

This is where it gets good. Creators like @BosCardHunter, @mojosportsllc, @armyatc22, and Sports Card Nonsense have all been live-posting from the conference floor, and between them they've painted a pretty vivid picture of what's going on in there.

Boston Card Hunter's summary said it better than any press release could:

"You can definitely feel the passion for collecting from the stage."

That might sound like a throwaway line, but it matters. His bigger takeaway was this: every single presenter opened their session with their own personal collecting story. Not a sales pitch. Not a product roadmap. Their own cards. Their own hobby journey. One exec, @nikemahan, even shared a childhood dream home mockup where a dedicated sports card room took up 75% of the floor plan.

These aren't corporate suits running through slides. According to the people in the room, they're collectors who happen to run a card company. And that changes how you feel about what they're building.

This year's conference theme — The Joy of Collecting — wasn't just a banner on a wall. From everything coming out of the room, it genuinely shaped the tone of the whole event.

There was also a "What's In My Inbox?" segment where Topps reps took real dealer questions and concerns on stage — the kind of transparency the hobby doesn't always see. One moment that caught people's attention was a slide that read: "We cleared our entire Series 1 allocation in 1 week. The shelves are empty." That's not a boast — that's Topps acknowledging demand is outrunning supply and committing to address it.

The Numbers Coming Out Of TIC Are Wild

One of the standout panels featured PSA — the world's biggest card grading company — sharing what's happening at their end right now.

PSA is grading 100,000 cards a day.

Boston Card Hunter flagged this one straight away: that's the scale of where this hobby is in 2026. PSA also spoke about how they're evolving the grading process — humans and AI working together, combining expertise with technology. Art and science, as they put it. Not one replacing the other.

Market data platform Cardladder backed the numbers up too. Their Q3 index is up 20% year-on-year. Total trading volume hit $400 million by the end of last year. And March 2026? The biggest single month in hobby history — $900 million in monthly volume.

This isn't a niche hobby quietly ticking along. It's a serious, fast-growing market. And the community is feeling it.

Gary Vee Was There — And He Said Something Worth Hearing

Gary Vaynerchuk — entrepreneur, obsessive card collector, and one of the hobby's most recognisable voices — was also on stage. He didn't pull his punches:

"There's too much gambling DNA in our industry at the moment. People are coming into the hobby for the hobby. Collecting is equalising along with strong culture."

That landed well in the room. For a lot of collectors — especially those of us who got into this for the love of the cards rather than the flip — it's exactly what you want to hear from someone with that platform.

Why Is Everyone Talking About It?

Because beyond the feel-good stuff, the hobby just changed. Massively.

Panini's NFL licence officially ended on 1st April 2026. For years, American Football cards meant Panini — Prizm, Donruss, Select, Mosaic. That era is over. Topps have stepped in, and the TIC is where that transition is being shaped in real time. Product designs, release schedules, the whole roadmap — it's all flowing out of this conference and straight onto your feed.

Add in confirmed NBA licensing (Topps Chrome Basketball landed in October 2025), and you've got a company that's quietly reassembled some of the biggest licences in sport. The hobby community is paying very close attention.

What Does It Mean For UK Collectors?

The US conversation is naturally dominated by NFL and NBA. But Topps Finest Premier League 2026 drops on 23rd April — and that's very much part of the same story. A Topps that's growing, investing, and being run by people who genuinely care about the hobby is good news for football card collectors here in the UK.

The next 12 months are shaping up to be genuinely exciting. Watch the creators who were in the room — @BosCardHunter, @mojosportsllc, @armyatc22, and Sports Card Nonsense — for the fastest hobby news as it breaks. And keep an eye on this blog for everything filtered through a UK lens.

Big things are coming. Stay locked in.