It’s been at least 20 years since I last bought a packet of football cards. Back then, they were just a form of short-term entertainment. You collected them, swapped them with your friends and eventually ended up with a pile in an old shoebox, only for them to be thrown away or given to your younger cousins. Thanks, Mom!

Nowadays, things seem a little different. Football cards are increasingly treated as a form of investment. Pull a rare card, find the right buyer and potentially make some money.

I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a few packs just to see what all the fuss is about. And now I finally have an excuse.

“Here, son, I got you a few packets of football cards. You can look at them, but you can’t touch or play with them just yet. They’re yours.”

Definitely not mine.

I decided to conduct a little experiment. I’d buy a few tins and boxes from the new 2026/27 Topps Premier League Flagship Edition collection and see whether there’s any potential to make an actual profit while enjoying the fun of opening packs and discovering what I could pull.

For this experiment, I purchased three products:

• 2 × Topps Premier League 2026/27 Flagship Edition Mega Tin #2 (€17.99 each)
• 1 × Topps Premier League 2026/27 Flagship Edition Value Box (€30.00)

To be completely transparent, one Mega Tin was purchased in-store, while the other was bought online from a different retailer.

That puts our starting investment at €65.98.

For valuation purposes, I’ll look at individual cards rather than simply assigning a bulk value to every insert. Where possible, I’ll use recent completed sales and take a conservative approach to the estimated values. Base cards will be valued together as a batch.

All card values in this experiment are estimates based on recent completed sales on eBay. I’ve used those sales as a guide and taken a conservative approach when estimating the value of each card. These figures represent potential resale value, not guaranteed selling prices.

One important disclaimer: these are estimated values, not guaranteed selling prices. We haven’t actually sold anything yet.

Tin #001: 2026/27 Topps Premier League Mega Tin #2

Purchase price: €17.99 (purchased from a retailer)

Full card haul

• 26 base cards
• Jaden Dixon, Pink Voltage #23
• Kenny Tete, Pink Voltage #136
• Reece James, Stars of the Premier League #SPL7
• Kobbie Mainoo, Stars of the Premier League #SPL17
• João Pedro, On Fire #OF9
• Bryan Mbeumo, On Fire #OF6
• Kaoru Mitoma, Flying the Flag #FF8
• Malick Thiaw, Flying the Flag #FF20
• Jamie Gittens, Nitro Boost #NB8
• Oscar Bobb, Nitro Boost #NB11
• David Luiz, 8-Bit Ballers #8B7
• Morgan Gibbs-White, Beast Mode #BM22 ×2
• Craig Bellamy, Retro Threads #RT19

None of the cards pulled from this tin were numbered, and there were no autographs or memorabilia patches.

So, was the first tin worth it?

After doing a little research, the estimated total value of the cards comes to €15.85. That’s based on our conservative card-by-card estimates, rather than simply adding up the prices sellers are asking for their cards.

On paper, that’s not too bad for a tin that cost €17.99. We’re only €2.14 short of the purchase price.

However, there’s a catch: those cards are only worth that amount to me if I can actually sell them for those prices. An estimated value doesn’t guarantee I’ll find a buyer.

From a collector’s perspective, though, something else caught my eye. With my completely untrained eye, I found myself getting excited about the Craig Bellamy card, purely because of how it looks.

Sometimes you don’t need a rare card to get excited about a pull.

Tin #002: 2026/27 Topps Premier League Mega Tin #2

Purchase price: €17.99 (purchased online from a different retailer)

Full card haul

• 26 base cards
• Gabriel Magalhães, Pink Voltage #22
• Timothy Castagne, Pink Voltage #137
• Moisés Caicedo, On Fire #OF2
• Evanilson, On Fire #OF8
• Jurriën Timber, Stars of the Premier League #SPL1
• Justin Kluivert, Stars of the Premier League #SPL4
• Brian Brobbey, Beast Mode #BM23
• Gianluigi Donnarumma, Beast Mode #BM16
• Pedro Porro, Flying the Flag #FF24
• Kaoru Mitoma, Flying the Flag #FF8
• Oscar Bobb, Nitro Boost #NB11
• Brando Bailey-Joseph, Nitro Boost #NB2
• John O’Shea, 8-Bit Ballers #8B20
• Wayne Rooney, Remember the Name #RTN5

The second tin delivered pretty much the same experience as the first. No numbered cards, no autographs and no massive pulls.

The card that caught my attention this time was Wayne Rooney’s Remember the Name insert. Again, not necessarily because of its monetary value, but purely because of the design. There’s something quite enjoyable about seeing familiar names presented in a completely different way.

Financially, however, this tin didn’t perform quite as well. The estimated value of the cards comes to €13.20, leaving us with a potential loss of €4.79.

Estimated result: €13.20 in card value against €17.99 spent. Potential loss: €4.79.

Box #003: 2026/27 Topps Premier League Flagship Edition Value Box

Purchase price: €30.00

Full card haul

• 35 base cards
• Beto, Base Autograph #BA-BE (42/75)
• Ian Wright, Chrome Classics #CC1
• Duncan Ferguson, Chrome Classics #CC11
• Jacob Murphy, Nitro Boost #NB18
• Sindre Walle Egeli, Nitro Boost #NB24 ×2
• Ollie Watkins, Beast Mode #BM3
• Conor Gallagher, Beast Mode #BM24 ×2
• Joško Gvardiol, Flying the Flag #FF17
• Ismaïla Sarr, Flying the Flag #FF11 ×2
• Jeremie Frimpong, Mayhem #MA11
• Benjamin Šeško, Mayhem #MA15
• Brenden Aaronson, Stars of the Premier League #SPL12
• Ellis Simms, Stars of the Premier League #SPL25 ×2
• Jurriën Timber, Stars of the Premier League #SPL1
• Eberechi Eze, Green Voltage #30
• Divine Mukasa, Green Voltage #16
• Amine Adli, Green Voltage #58
• Seth Ridgeon, Green Voltage #141
• Kevin, PL Parallel #145
• Wilson Isidor, PL Parallel #244

Total cards logged: 58. The product disclaimer notes that packs containing special inserts may contain fewer cards.

This box was a little different from the two Mega Tins. I slowly opened each of the six packets. After seeing a few duplicates in the special cards, I started to lose hope of finding anything particularly exciting.

Then the fifth pack came.

A numbered autograph!

Beto. Everton. Base Autograph #BA-BE, numbered 42/75.

What are the odds? My first autograph and numbered card, and it’s an Everton player. I’m a Liverpool fan!

Regardless of the footballing alliances, I got pretty excited. This is exactly the sort of pull that makes opening packs enjoyable. A card you weren’t expecting, something a little different, and something you can keep in your collection and eventually brag to your friends about.

I mean… my son can brag to his friends about it. Once he can talk, walk and hold his own head up.

Besides the autograph, I really liked the two Chrome Classics cards. Ian Wright and Duncan Ferguson both have a fantastic retro feel to them.

Overall, even with the duplicates, this was my favourite box to open. Not just because of the autograph, but because of the variety of cards and the excitement of not knowing what was coming next.

For valuation purposes, I’ve put the Beto autograph at €30. Adding the estimated value of the remaining cards brings the total estimated value of the box to €40.

Estimated result: €40.00 in card value against €30.00 spent. Potential profit: €10.00.

So, did we actually make any money?

Let’s put everything together.

Product	Purchase price	Estimated card value	Potential profit/loss
Mega Tin #001	€17.99	€15.85	−€2.14
Mega Tin #002	€17.99	€13.20	−€4.79
Value Box #003	€30.00	€40.00	+€10.00
Total	€65.98	€69.05	+€3.07

On paper, we’ve managed to come out ahead, with an estimated €3.07 potential profit.

However, there’s a rather important distinction here. We haven’t actually sold any of these cards. The €69.05 is an estimated value based on our research and individual card valuations, not money sitting in our bank account.

So, technically, we’ve spent €65.98 and made €0 in actual sales.

The Value Box has done all the heavy lifting, with the Beto autograph accounting for most of its estimated value. Without that pull, the numbers would look very different.

This also leaves me with another question: did I simply get lucky with the Value Box, or are these boxes genuinely better value than the Mega Tins?

The only way to find out is to try this again. Perhaps the next experiment should focus exclusively on Value Boxes.

But is that really what it’s all about?

I’ll leave you with something.

Yesterday, I watched a video of two kids opening Pokémon packs. They pulled a Gold Charizard, and the pure joy and chaos that followed was brilliant to watch.

It made me think about why people get into collecting in the first place.

Maybe it’s not about making money from these cards. Maybe it’s about the excitement of opening a pack, hoping for something special, and occasionally finding something you genuinely didn’t think you’d pull.

It’s about the cards you remember, the ones you show your friends, the ones you keep in a collection and the ones that bring back memories years later.

I started this little experiment thinking I’d see whether there was money to be made from opening football cards.

I ended it realising that the best part might simply be opening them.

Until the next pack…