The Lord works in mysterious ways.
At least that’s what Topps is saying after the record-breaking debut of Pope Leo XIV’s Topps Now card. It quickly set a record for non-sports Topps Now cards, reaching 134,000 sales during its limited release.
The next highest non-sports release, a John Cena WWE card, sold 55,000 units.
Pope Leo’s release also topped many sports-specific moments, including when Lebron James reached 40,000 points (86,000 sales), Wemby won NBA Rookie of the Year (114,000 sales), Juan Soto signed with the Mets (34,000 sales), and Paul Skenes won Rookie of the Year (44,000 sales).
Since Pope Leo’s trading card’s print run surpassed 100,000, Topps released a 1/1 Superfractor. Say your prayers, sports fans, because once they ship the cards in the coming weeks, we’ll see which lucky fan pulls the most Holy card on the planet.
Since debuting its Topps Now brand nearly a decade ago, Topps has generated significant revenue from the editorial decision-making behind every drop. The brand captures specific moments and allows fans to purchase cards depicting those moments for a short period of time. The lower the print run, the more valuable the card. A secondary market develops almost immediately on eBay and other selling platforms, driving additional revenue for the industry and sellers.
Besides the Superfractor for Pope Leo, there are also various foil color parallels, an open-edition base card, and a short print with a white smoke image variation numbered 267. These are entered randomly, and the base cards are released in customers’ orders.
Since Pope Leo is a baseball fan, we will monitor to see if he eventually gets his hands on his cards. It may be the first time a baseball card hits the Vatican, but hopefully not the last with the Chicago-native in his new position.
For those wondering, the story about Pope Leo, which ran on World Baseball Network about his baseball fandom, is also one of our top-read stories in 2025 and is quickly rising to the top of our all-time editorial lists. Amen!
View this post on Instagram
