Every hobby box of 2025-26 Topps Chrome Black Basketball guarantees exactly one encased autograph, but which of eight distinct tiers that signature lands in makes a massive difference in what it is worth. Pulling a Base Autograph and pulling an Ivory Autograph are not remotely the same experience.
Topps built this checklist deep on purpose. With only one hit guaranteed per box, spreading that chase across eight named tiers keeps the format interesting even for collectors who crack dozens of boxes.
Below, we walk through every confirmed tier, what separates its design and checklist focus, and which ones tend to carry the most weight in the secondary market.
We will also flag the parallel ladder shared across most of these tiers, since a numbered Refractor or Superfractor version changes a card's value as much as the tier itself does.
Base Autographs form the largest and most straightforward tier at 46 cards, pairing the brand's signature dark Chrome design with on-card signatures from established NBA talent. Rookie Autographs run slightly larger at 50 cards and cover the entire 2025 rookie class in the same visual treatment.
These two tiers are the backbone of the product, the ones most hobby boxes will actually land on, and the baseline against which every other tier gets compared.
Carbon Ink is one of the deeper tiers on the checklist at 48 cards, built around a design distinct from the standard base autograph look. It covers a broad mix of names rather than concentrating purely on stars or purely on rookies.
Because Carbon Ink spans so much of the checklist, individual card values vary widely depending entirely on who signed it, making the player checklist more important here than in tighter, star-only tiers.
Both tiers lean specifically into younger talent. Super Futures Autographs runs 40 cards deep and Glow Up Signatures covers 20 names, with Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, and Kon Knueppel appearing across both.
These are the tiers to watch if a particular rookie breaks out early in the season, since prospect-focused autographs tend to move fastest when a name starts generating real on-court buzz.
Black Fire Autographs is a tighter 19-card tier, while Shrouded Signatures runs 24 cards with its own distinct design language separate from the base look. Both sit in the middle of the checklist in terms of print depth.
Neither tier is as large as Base or Rookie Autographs, which means pulling into either one is already a step up in rarity before any numbered parallel comes into play.
Ivory Autographs flips the entire visual identity of the product, trading the dark Chrome Black look for a bright white-and-gold design exclusive to this tier. It is also where Topps placed its biggest legend content, including names like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Karl Malone.
A Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Superfractor anchors this tier as one of the release's crown-jewel cards, and the legend-heavy checklist is the main reason Ivory Autographs tends to draw outsized attention relative to its card count. Given how often this tier ends up submitted for grading, a lot of collectors keep graded card sleeves built for Beckett slabs on hand before the card even ships out.
Most autograph tiers share the same core parallel run: Refractor numbered to 299, climbing through Blue, Green, and Purple tiers, up through Gold, Orange, and Rose Gold Wave, and finishing at White, Red, and a true Superfractor 1/1.
That means the tier alone does not tell the whole story. A Base Autograph numbered to 5 in Red Refractor can easily outvalue a more exclusive tier's higher-numbered version, so always check both the tier and the parallel before assuming a card's rarity.
There are eight named autograph tiers in the checklist.
Ivory Autographs, which includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, and other all-time names.
No, they are separate rookie-focused tiers with different checklists and card counts.
Most tiers run the same core ladder from Refractor through Superfractor 1/1, though exact print runs vary by tier.
Understanding which tier a pull landed in is the first step toward knowing how to protect and price it correctly. Slide any on-card signature into EVORETRO graded card sleeves the moment it comes out of the pack.
If that autograph eventually comes back from Beckett, keep it sleeved properly so the whole chase ends with the card actually protected.
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