2025 Topps Chrome Basketball – “REFRACTOR” Back Variation? Blaster-Only Parallel Difference?

billwaltonsbeard

Good day, everyone.

This is my first post here in quite a while. The return of Topps Chrome Basketball has completely re-energized me as a collector, and I’ve been buying tons lots and singles since they were released.

A few weeks ago, I started noticing some eBay listings that appeared to show two different versions of the base Refractor. Initially, I assumed it might just be a newer seller misunderstanding what they had. However, I’m now seeing that COMC has officially designated two separate versions of the base Refractor:

• Version 1 – “REFRACTOR” printed on the back
• Version 2 – No “REFRACTOR” designation on the back

That certainly suggests this is more than just listing confusion.

From watching several retail (blaster/value) box breaks, I’ve observed the following:

– The versions without “REFRACTOR” on the back have only appeared in blaster/value boxes, at least from what I’ve seen
– They were consistently facing backward in the pack
– There appeared to be approximately one per box

I have not personally seen one pulled from hobby boxes yet, but I would love confirmation either way.

Has anyone here pulled both versions? Has this been acknowledged anywhere officially by Topps? Are we looking at a retail-specific variation, or something broader?

Looking forward to hearing what others are seeing and gathering more data points.