2026 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Halloween went on sale today, October 22, at 12pm ET through Topps' EQL draw, and the draw has already closed. The hobby box was $75, and the first presales on eBay have closed well above that. Short version: ML, who runs sports cards in our Discord, expects roughly $100 or a bit better on release, and the early eBay sales are running higher than that. It's not a huge win, but there isn't much downside either.
What's in 2026 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Halloween
Topps' official launch page lists one hobby format:
- Hobby Box: $75.00. 3 packs per box, 8 cards per pack.
- Each pack: 6 base cards, 1 wrapper card, and 1 of the following: foil parallels, a "C name" card, a sketch card, an artist autograph, a Scream Queens insert, an art variation, or a redemption for final artwork.
- Base set: 50 cards.
Topps' product page lists these as the chases:
- Sketch cards: hand-drawn 1/1 art.
- Artist autographs: cards signed by the artists.
- Scream Queens: inserts built around favorite celebrity scream queens.
- Slime Foil Parallels: numbered parallels.
- Original Artwork: redemptions for the original art.
Topps has posted a checklist and an odds sheet for the release. The Topps launch page shows $75.00, while ML's write-up said $74.99. We're using the official figure.
Why collectors are paying attention
Garbage Pail Kids is a nostalgia line with a steady collector base, and the sketch cards and artist autographs are what drive box prices. ML says only about 6,000 boxes were made, which is a number from our staff, not one Topps has published. He compared it to the Valentine's Day release, which he said had fewer than 5,000 boxes, so he doesn't see this as shorter than usual for a GPK drop. Topps raised the price about $15 a box compared with Valentine's, according to ML.
ML also thinks this set looks more appealing than Valentine's and expects more autos and sketches. He says Valentine's had a red heart border in every pack and no chance at something better in that slot, while Halloween has a wrapper card and a foil one that ML says lands about 1 in 11 packs, or roughly 1 box in 3 or 4. Treat those odds as his read of the odds sheet.
Retail vs. eBay: what it's selling for
Retail is $75.00 per hobby box from Topps, before tax and shipping.
Hobby Box on eBay. We checked sold listings on October 22. We found 3 single-box sales, all of them presales, since nothing has shipped yet:
- $119.00 (Best Offer accepted) plus about $10 shipping
- $124.99 (Buy It Now) plus about $7 shipping
- $132.99 (Best Offer accepted) with free shipping
That's a range of $119 to $133, with a typical price around $125. Three sales is a small sample, and one more sale could move that number. Active listings are only a secondary signal, so we're not counting them.
Comparable, 2026 Garbage Pail Kids Valentine's Day hobby box. Three US sales on eBay: $119.99 plus about $7 shipping (August 15), $150.00 with Best Offer accepted and free shipping (September 7), and $149.99 with free shipping (October 4). A fourth sale shipped from Germany with import fees, so we left it out. Those are in-hand boxes, not presales, and they sit around $120 to $150. ML's own read of the Valentine's market is a bit lower, with early sales near $100 and recent ones in the $120s to $130s.
The math. eBay charges 13.25% plus $0.40 per trading card order, on the item price plus shipping and sales tax. Take a Halloween box that sells for $125 with free shipping: fees come to about $17, leaving roughly $108. Against $75 retail plus tax, that's about $33 before tax and before you pay to ship it. At ML's conservative $100 release-day target, you'd keep about $86, so roughly $11 before tax and shipping. Shipping costs come on top of both.
Flip, hold or pass? Our take
ML's call is that the $75 box should sell for at least about $100 on release and probably a little more than Valentine's, since the retail price is higher. His words for it: not a ton of wins to go around, but not much downside either. Three reasons it holds up:
- Short print run. About 6,000 boxes, per ML. That's limited, though he notes it isn't shorter than a typical GPK release.
- Better chase than Valentine's. The foil wrapper chance and a likely higher count of autos and sketches give the box more upside than the heart-border set.
- Low cost of being wrong. At $75, even a $100 sale leaves a margin, and early presales are well past that.
If you got a box at $75, selling into the $120s is a clear profit. If you missed the draw, buying at presale prices leaves a thin margin.
What to watch
- Prices once boxes ship. Presales are often the high point. If sales slip toward $100, the margin shrinks.
- Sketch and autograph pulls. Big early hits will drive how much collectors want the box.
- How it compares with Valentine's. If Halloween settles near the Valentine's range, that's the likely floor.
New to sports cards and trading card flipping? Read are sports card retail boxes worth flipping, see how to flip sports cards, or browse more sports card guides.
Get the sports card calls in our Discord
Every Topps drop gets a full breakdown in our sports card channel before it goes live: pricing, what's worth entering, what to skip, and what to expect on release day. When ML says "pass," members save their money. When he says "enter up," they're ready.
And when it's time to sell, you don't have to rely on eBay. Our WTB and WTS channels are where big sellers, breakers and collectors in the community buy and sell with each other every day, and that's often the fastest way to move sealed boxes and cases.
Sources
- Topps — 2026 Garbage Pail Kids Halloween launch page (official; price, pack configuration and chases) and product page (set description, 50-card base set, checklist and odds)
- Checklist Insider — 2026 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Halloween guide (independent; set overview, no confirmed box details when we checked) and 2026 Garbage Pail Kids Valentine's Day guide (comparable release format)
- eBay — sold listings for 2026 Garbage Pail Kids Halloween Hobby Box and Garbage Pail Kids Valentines Hobby Box (checked October 22, 2026)
- eBay — Seller fees