{"id":2122857,"date":"2026-09-01T16:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2122857"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:04:15","slug":"how-topps-turned-star-athletes-into-minions-to-create-rare-and-valuable-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2122857","title":{"rendered":"How Topps turned star athletes into Minions to create rare and valuable cards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anyone familiar with the Minions could easily envision one of the lovable yellow characters pulling off the \u201cnight, night\u201d pose made famous by two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry<\/a> after either committing or thwarting a crime.<\/p>\n

The thought channelled a Gru \u201clight bulb\u201d moment for Illumination Entertainment to reach out to Topps with a crazy idea: smash the Minions together with some of the best players in the NBA and MLB to create a unique, fun collection of trading cards.<\/p>\n

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As a result, the mashup has produced some of the more surprisingly sought-after sports cards within the latest Topps Chrome Baseball and Basketball releases. Topps transformed star athletes like Curry, Aaron Judge<\/a> and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> into Minions as part of short-printed (far fewer produced than most other cards in the set) \u201cMinionfractor\u201d insert sets.<\/p>\n

The interest in the cards has been undeniable since the release of 2026 Topps Chrome Updates Basketball last month. Only five players were turned into Minions for that release (Nikola Jokic<\/a>, Gilgeous-Alexander, Curry, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a>\u00a0and Cooper Flagg<\/a>) and they\u2019re some of the rarest inserts in the set, with only about 95 printed for each player, according to analysis done by The Athletic<\/em>\u2019s Corey Merriman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Kareem<\/p>\n
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\n Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a Minion. (Courtesy of Topps)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Because of those limited numbers, there have been more than 100 Minionfractor cards \u2014 primarily the NBA cards \u2014 that have sold for at least $1,000 on the secondary market, according to online card sales database Card Ladder. The most expensive Minionfractors, parallels of the Curry and Gilgeous-Alexander cards limited to five copies produced of each, have sold for more than $50,000. The one-of-one parallels have yet to sell publicly, but for a player like Curry or Flagg, they could be six-figure cards. A one-of-one Flagg Garbage Pail Kids card<\/a> from Topps\u2019 2025 Bowman Basketball release recently sold for $288,000, making it the most expensive Garbage Pail Kids card of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been experimenting a bunch with non-sports properties crossing over into sports, and they just make for some really interesting, creative, fun cards,\u201d said Clay Luraschi, Fanatics Collectibles\u2019 senior vice president of global product development. \u201cWhen you think about the Minions in particular, they playfully create havoc. That\u2019s what they do. And if you think about that, it mirrors sports in a lot of ways. The intense moments, the craziness behind sports, the outcome, the nuttiness of it all. And we just felt like these characters would just be perfect for a mashup and the athletes that we portray on cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to an Illumination source familiar with the details of the collaboration who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly<\/span>, the company approached Topps with a list of players it wanted to utilize, including Jokic, who showed up for a Denver Nuggets game in 2024 dressed as Gru and subsequently appeared in a promotional video for \u201cDespicable Me 4.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always trying to find ways to really surprise the audience,\u201d the source said. \u201cWe\u2019re obviously seeing the collectibles industry working so well. So we reached out to Topps, who\u2019s having huge success in the space, to try to create something that would surprise our audience and that would be taken seriously by collectors.<\/p>\n

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{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally what happens with studios is people are trying to market something specifically that would be very promotional. There would be a pack of Minions and descriptions of who they are in the movie and there wouldn\u2019t be that scarcity element. We wanted to do something different.\u2029We want to create cards together that will be taken seriously and that can be a part of the conversation of collectibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Predictably, Topps has taken notice of the prices the Minionfractors are commanding on the secondary market. And so has Illumination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really a kind of test in the marketplace to see if there\u2019s something bigger that we could do with Topps in the future with the IP,\u201d the source said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve been watching the value, which is just amazing. We didn\u2019t think it was going to get anywhere as close to this. We thought people would love them, people would collect them and maybe reach $10,000. I think it just proves you can create something clever with multiple IPs together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Minionfractor<\/p>\n
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\n Topps\u2019 Aaron Judge and Nikola Jokic Minionfractor cards. (Courtesy of eBay)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Topps often plays a balancing act when deciding on a mashup of sports cards with other IPs so as to not make an insert or short-printed card that collectors might frown upon. Another recent success has been putting classic Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck in MLB uniforms on rare insert cards<\/a> across several MLB and Disney card releases.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s got to be a property that makes sense with the sports properties,\u201d Luraschi said. \u201cIt has to be a property that\u2019s globally recognized. It has to be something that\u2019s fun, right? \u2029It can be seen as serious, but also tongue-in-cheek at the same time. It has to be something that can generate collectibility, something that can tell a story not just in that one year, but over multiple years, and that can also pivot within the storytelling, if that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topps went with differing approaches for the Minions inserts in the company\u2019s MLB and NBA products. The MLB Minions cards mirrored the poses of players like Judge, Juan Soto<\/a> and Paul Skenes<\/a> off their original cards. For the NBA versions, Topps went a bit more playful with the images.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the context in which they\u2019re matching them up has to make sense,\u201d Luraschi said. \u201cObviously, they don\u2019t have to make sense in the real world, \u2019cause they\u2019re not real. But there has to be a if it did happen, it would have to happen in the Minions world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s important that there\u2019s a storyline that can be told behind it. What you don\u2019t see that\u2019s behind the card, the Minions cards, are these stories that we\u2019ve created in our head on how the Minion got onto the NBA court and took on the persona of Curry. If you just play that out in your head, it\u2019s hilarious. So that all has to \u2018make sense.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Searching The National for elusive “My 1st Bowman Auto” cards<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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