Messi's Final Farewell Topps NOW Pack Sets a 664,325 Record

Lionel Messi's Final Farewell Topps NOW pack finished with a print run of 664,325, the biggest in Topps NOW history, Collectibles on SI reported on October 20, 2026. It passed the 653,737 of Shohei Ohtani's 50/50 card, the record since 2024, and unlocked the program's first 1/1 White OpalFractor Chrome card. The $19.99 pack marked Messi's last match for Argentina and sold for one week, from October 9 to 16, per Inside World Football.

The Pack

What it marks

• Messi's final appearance for Argentina: a 3-0 win over Benin at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires on October 6, 2026, where he scored his 126th international goal in his 208th match, per HOLA! on Yahoo Sports

What was inside

• Two cards per pack, $19.99, on sale October 9 to 16, 2026
• One Farewell card: a base card, a parallel or a 1/1 autograph
• One image variation celebrating his Argentina records, a super short print (SSP) variation or a 1/1 autograph
• Four different 1/1 Messi autographs in total, per SI

How fast it sold

• About 250,000 orders by October 13 and 450,000 by October 15, per Inside World Football
• 664,325 at the close on October 16

The Biggest Topps NOW Print Runs

Topps NOW releases are printed to order and sold for a limited window, so the print run is the number of copies ordered. For this two-card pack, a copy is one pack, per Fox Business. Per SI and Inside World Football, the top five now read:

• Messi Final Farewell Pack (2026): 664,325
• Shohei Ohtani 50/50 (2024): 653,737
• LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, 2024 Olympics: 588,030
• Messi retirement announcement card (2026): 335,283
• Jack Hughes Olympic golden goal (2026): 332,447

Messi now holds two of the five, after his September retirement card finished at 335,283. "I think we're scratching the surface with global football," Clay Luraschi, senior vice president of global product development at Fanatics Collectibles, said in comments published by Inside World Football on October 21, 2026.

What the Record Unlocked

Topps NOW adds Chrome parallels as a release passes set print-run marks, per SI:

50,000

• Chrome parallels numbered to 99 and to 50

100,000

• More parallels and a 1/1 Superfractor

250,000

• Opal Chrome parallels

500,000

• A single 1/1 White OpalFractor Chrome card, the first ever produced. The Messi pack cleared that mark by more than 164,000

Packs begin shipping in November, per SI, and that is when the White OpalFractor can turn up.

"We always like to set challenging goals and celebrate them with collectors," Luraschi told Collectibles on SI in a story published October 20, 2026. He also said the release brought in a record number of first-time Topps NOW buyers.

What It Means for Collectors

The print run is the supply. At two cards a pack, 664,325 packs is about 1.33 million Farewell cards, and the run counts packs, not unique buyers. The scarcity sits in the numbered Chrome parallels and the 1/1s, not in the base card.

The chase is the White OpalFractor. There is one, and it exists only because the run passed 500,000, making it the first card of its kind in the program.

Our take: this is a football signal, not just a Messi one. A soccer release now tops a Topps NOW list that Ohtani's 50/50 card had led since 2024. Messi's biggest public sales still come from cards like his 2004-05 Mega Cracks rookie, which leads our most valuable Lionel Messi cards guide. For the wider market, see our most valuable soccer cards guide.

Where to Go From Here

Print-to-order cards are one way in. If you want to collect real, vaulted cards, the Polkastarter marketplace gives you a free mystery pack when you sign up, and every Lootbox lists its contents, values, and chances before you open.

Details checked October 21, 2026. Topps NOW figures are as reported by Collectibles on SI, Inside World Football and Fox Business. Nothing here is financial advice. Polkastarter is not affiliated with Topps, Fanatics, Lionel Messi or the other companies named.

Sources

• Collectibles on SI: Messi Breaks Topps NOW Sales Record, Unlocks First-Ever 1/1 White OpalFractor, published October 20, 2026, accessed October 21, 2026
• Inside World Football: Messi is Topps man, with retirement card knocking Ohtani's record out the park, published October 21, 2026, accessed October 21, 2026
• Fox Business: Lionel Messi's Final Farewell card sets Topps sales record, published October 20, 2026, accessed October 21, 2026
• HOLA! via Yahoo Sports: Messi scores one last goal for Argentina in an emotional farewell, published October 7, 2026, accessed October 21, 2026