Five Card Shops Later... We Finally Found Two Boxes. Is Disney Collecting Taking Off?
Last Saturday, my husband and I decided to spend the day driving around DFW looking for 2026 Topps Chrome® Disney.
We weren't after hobby boxes or anything crazy. We just wanted to find a couple of Mega or Blaster boxes to rip over the weekend.
Honestly, I figured we'd stop at the first or second store, grab a couple, and call it a day.
That... didn't happen.
The first store was sold out.
Then the second.
Then the third.
By the fourth stop I was starting to think maybe we had just waited too long.
Finally, at the fifth store, we spotted the last two Blaster boxes sitting on the shelf.
We didn't even think about it and grabbed both.
After five stores, I realized the empty shelves weren't just bad luck.
Every place we visited was telling us basically the same thing.
One owner laughed and said,
"Disney is flying off the shelves right now."
Another employee told us they couldn't keep it in stock.
Someone else said people were coming in asking for Disney products as soon as shipments arrived.
By the time we left that last store, I wasn't really thinking about the two boxes anymore.
I kept thinking...
"When did this happen?"
Six Months Ago, Nobody Really Got It
The funny thing is, we've only been collecting for about six months.
When we first got into the hobby, we naturally gravitated toward Disney and Marvel. That's what we love, so that's what we wanted to collect.
But almost every conversation went the same way.
"Oh cool... so you collect Pokémon?"
"No."
"Sports?"
"No..."
"We actually collect Disney and Marvel."
Usually there'd be this little pause.
Almost like people were trying to figure out if we were serious.
Even a lot of the local card shops felt that way. Pokémon and sports took up most of the shelves, while Disney was usually tucked into a small section that didn't seem to get much attention. There were products we'd see sitting there week after week.
Now?
Those same stores are telling us they can't keep Disney products in stock.
That's a pretty big shift in just six months.
Maybe I'm noticing it more because it's what I collect now, but it definitely feels different.
It Sent Me Down a Rabbit Hole
When we got home, I started looking back at some of the older Disney products.
One release kept coming up over and over again.
2023 Topps Chrome Disney 100.
I remember seeing people talk about it when I first started collecting, but I never really paid much attention to what the boxes were selling for.
So I looked.
And...
Wow.
The product was released exclusively in the UK and originally retailed for around $190 USD.
Today, sealed hobby boxes are selling for around $4,000 to over $5,000.
I actually had to double-check because I thought I was looking at the wrong listing.
Seeing numbers like that makes you wonder.
Is what we're seeing with 2026 Topps Chrome Disney just the excitement of a new release...
Or are we watching another Disney product that people are going to wish they'd bought a few years from now?
I honestly don't know.
But it's fun to think about.
So... Why Is This Happening?
I've been thinking about this a lot, and I don't think there's one simple answer.
I think a bunch of little things are all happening at the same time.
Disney has one of the biggest fan bases in the world.
Some people are lifelong Disney fans.
Some collect trading cards.
Some just love the artwork.
Some are parents buying packs to open with their kids.
And then there are people like us who got into one product and somehow ended up falling down the Disney card rabbit hole.
The other thing I've noticed is that all of these Disney products seem to feed into each other now.
Someone buys Topps Chrome Disney...
Then they hear about Disney100.
Then they start looking up Disney Neon.
Then they discover Pixar Gold.
Before they know it, they're not buying a single product anymore—they're collecting Disney.
I know that's pretty much what happened to us.
Is It Just Hype?
Maybe.
Honestly, it could be.
Every new product has a lot of excitement around release week.
Maybe stores are fully stocked again next month and this post looks a little dramatic.
I have no idea.
I'm definitely not trying to predict prices or tell anyone what they should buy.
I'm just sharing what I saw.
Five different stores.
Five almost identical conversations.
And for someone who's only been collecting Disney cards for six months, it was hard not to notice how different things felt compared to when we first started.
What I'll Be Watching
Over the next few months, I'm curious to see what happens.
Do stores start getting enough inventory again?
Do people move on to the next release?
Or does Disney keep picking up momentum?
I'm also really interested to see what happens to products like Disney100, Disney Sapphire, and Pixar Gold now that more people seem to be discovering Disney collecting.
Looking for Disney Auctions?
Since we couldn't find much in stores, I've mostly been keeping an eye on eBay.
That's honestly one of the reasons we built Bidwatch in the first place.
Instead of refreshing the same searches over and over, I can just keep tabs on the Disney products I'm looking for in one place.
Right now I'm watching:
Final Thoughts
Maybe six months from now I'll come back to this post and laugh because every Target and card shop has shelves full of Disney products again.
Or maybe this ends up being one of those moments where people look back and say, "That was around the time Disney collecting really started taking off."
Who knows.
All I know is that six months ago, most people didn't really know what we meant when we said we collected Disney cards.
This weekend, five different card shops told us they couldn't keep Disney on the shelves.
That feels like a pretty big change.
If you're reading this, I'm curious, what are you seeing where you live?
Are Disney products getting harder to find where you are, or is this just something we're seeing here in Texas?
