Content Creator Finds Rare Topps Chrome Basketball Pack in Walmart Tin
This is one of those stories where all of us say, 'why can't that ever happen to me?'
A few days ago, card collecting content creator Bustin' Cards posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he had pulled a grail pack out of a simple Walmart Mystery tin. The pack? A 2003-04 Topps Chrome basketball 4-card pack.
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Imagine finding a 2003 Topps Chrome basketball pack at your local Walmart… pic.twitter.com/YuYxKVyXUn
— Topps (@Topps) April 8, 2025
Mystery tins like this generally retail from about $25 to $50, depending on the product and if it is on a secondary market or not. Most of the time you'll get some decent packs, with some sub par value packs. But every once in a while there is a real nice product pack included, but you'd be hard pressed to find a pack like 2003-04 Topps Chrome Basketball.
Even the novice collector knows why these packs are so valuable; the loaded rookie class.
The rookie class includes LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade, a historic class to say the least. A base LeBron James card fetches nearly $700, with the latest sale, according to Card Ladder, going for $663.50 on March 30 of this year. Bosh probably holds the lowest value of the four big names of the class, but still sells for over $100 in a PSA 10, even after his career was cut short due to health concerns.
According to The Cardboard Connection, there are 165 cards in the checklist, and pulling a rookie refractor from the set is 1 in every 12 packs. It does not list the rate of pulling base rookies. Other variations include black refractors (#/10), x-fractors (#/200), base gold refractors (#/99) with rookie gold refractors numbered to just 50. One-of-one printing plates were also included in the product.
So now the question has to be asked, would you open the pack or sell it sealed?
A search of sold lisings on eBay shows that packs of this product retail for nearly $400. A search of sold listings on eBay show a sale on April 4th for $375. Not only that, but graded packs are desired, with a PSA 8 graded sealed pack going for $599 on March 26th, according to sold listings on eBay.
Even holding at this point isn't a bad decision. Either way Bustin' Cards made out quite well.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz