2026 Goodwin Champions: Jordan’s Signed Packs and the Wild Checklist

Michael Jordan signed 23 sealed packs of 1986–87 Fleer Basketball for 2026 Goodwin Champions. That is a wonderfully peculiar centerpiece for a product that also makes room for Sarah Strong, Lamine Yamal, Tiger Woods, race-used tires and glow-in-the-dark clown masks. Goodwin has enough confidence in its own taste to put all of them on the same checklist.

The release reached Hobby shops on July 9, 2026, followed by retail on July 22, according to Upper Deck’s launch details. Its foundation is a 100-card base set, a five-card extended series and 50 Young Guns, with Goudey, Exquisite and several very different kinds of memorabilia branching off from there.

Jordan’s Goudey Black & Yellow 1/1, shown above, captures the set’s personality beautifully. A bucket hat, sunglasses and broad grin replace the usual midair basketball photograph. Dense black portrait lines against yellow give it the feel of a two-color poster. The card is unmistakably Jordan while offering a look quite different from his court photography.

Jordan’s autograph on the pack itself

Upper Deck acquired the 23 factory-sealed Fleer packs, had Jordan sign them and placed redemption cards into Goodwin’s different formats. One pack also carries his “Rookie Pack” inscription. The packs come in protective slabs, with a barcode linking to photographs of the pack. Successful redemption delivers one of those signed packs. Upper Deck’s program details

The appeal is the combination: Jordan’s autograph on sealed material from the Fleer release that contains his rookie card. The pack itself becomes the collectible. Its contents remain sealed; a Jordan rookie inside is not promised. That distinction is essential to appreciating what the redemption actually delivers.

Jordan also has hard-signed Goodwin Art Framed and That’s So ’90s autographs, plus Goudey Sport Royalty memorabilia and Splash of Color cards. Upper Deck identifies those two autograph designs specifically in its Jordan card gallery. The Goudey Black & Yellow portrait is card G-23, numbered 1/1; the broader Goudey lineup also has a Maroon & Light Blue parallel numbered to 34.

Sarah Strong gives Young Guns a different look

Strong’s YG-26 is a particularly appealing use of the Young Guns layout. The silver lettering sits low, leaving room for the basketball balanced on her finger and the bright blue, red and yellow uniform. The pose feels relaxed and personal. Goodwin gives a basketball subject the same large-photo treatment that makes Young Guns so recognizable in Upper Deck hockey.

The final checklist classifies Strong as a prospect. Goodwin’s Young Guns roster spans several sports, and its “Upper Deck rookies” framing should not be mistaken for every subject’s first professional season. Strong appears in the 50-card Young Guns family and its Deluxe /250, UD Exclusives /100, High Gloss /10, Outburst Red /25 and Outburst Gold 1/1 parallels.

The regular Young Guns insertion rate is 1:3 packs across Hobby, e-Pack and Blaster. Clear Cut adds an acetate version at 1:240 Hobby or e-Pack packs. Those are family-level odds; they do not describe the chance of pulling Strong specifically.

Yamal’s portrait takes the scenic route

Yamal’s 90’s Art Frame Variant puts his red No. 19 shirt against green leaves and oranges. The gold-edged frame and cream name ribbon make it feel like an illustrated portrait; the fruit supplies a vivid backdrop without competing with his face. It is one of the clearest examples of Goodwin using a setting to change the entire mood of a sports card.

The four Art Frame families cover the ’30s, ’50s, ’70s and ’90s, with regular-base insertion rates of 1:30, 1:60, 1:95 and 1:160 Hobby or e-Pack packs, respectively. Yamal is No. 10 in each. The five extended-series subjects have separate Art Frame entries at 1:2,000, so those longer odds should not be applied to Yamal’s regular-base variants. Manufacturer checklist PDF

Tiger Woods in the deepest Splash of Color tier

Tiger’s Splash of Color design goes in the opposite direction from Yamal’s quiet frame. Oversized white lettering wraps around his portrait while yellow, green, blue and purple fill the background. The lenticular treatment adds a dimensional element that a flat preview can only suggest.

The Hobby 3-D Lenticular set has 35 cards: 23 in Level 1, seven in Level 2 and five in Level 3. Their respective insertion rates are 1:30, 1:133 and 1:1,200 Hobby packs. Woods and Jordan occupy Level 3; Strong is in Level 2. That makes the top tier a substantial part of the set-building challenge rather than five names interchangeable with the rest of the checklist.

These cards also carry scratch-off codes for Upper Deck’s Bounty program. The launch offer awarded a Deontay Wilder autograph to the first 47 collectors to register all 35 unique codes. Anyone pursuing that reward should check the current Bounty program before buying toward it; the launch allocation does not establish how many awards remain.

Race tires, circus patches and actual oddities

The 23XI Racing cards bring Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick into Goodwin’s memorabilia mix. Jumbo Tire Relics are numbered to 13 and use race-used tire pieces; their letter sections can collectively spell “GOODYEAR TIRES.” Jumbo Firesuit Relics are a separate family, with Wallace numbered to 23 and Reddick to 45. The distinction matters when choosing which kind of racing memorabilia to collect. Upper Deck sell sheet

Traveling Circus Patches are manufactured patches, with five tiers of performers, animals and oddities. The Lion Tamer preview uses theater curtains, red-and-cream rays and green banners to give the card the appearance of an old circus advertisement. It is No. 44 in Tier 2, whose final odds are 1:141 Hobby or e-Pack packs and 1:450 Blaster packs.

The glow-in-the-dark Vintage Clown Masks belong to Tier 4; the Performing Bear is in Tier 5. Elsewhere, Goodwin offers Mount St. Helens volcanic-ash relics, Colonial Currency cards containing 1776 bills, and hand-painted 1/1 Goodwin Masterpieces. Those are distinct kinds of collectible objects. The circus cards contribute their manufactured artwork; the currency, ash and original paintings supply very different reasons to linger over a pull.

What the Hobby format puts around those chases

A Hobby box contains 15 five-card packs, with two hit cards per box on average. Upper Deck calls them hits, so that figure should not be read as two guaranteed autographs. The format also carries the Goudey portraits, art-frame variants, Young Guns and illustrated location and culture inserts that make an ordinary pack look like Goodwin.

Exquisite Collection supplies another route through the checklist: veteran cards, rookies, autographs, autograph patches and Signature Kicks. For the 2026 Rookie Auto Patch family, the final checklist gives the regular version /99, Gold /10 and Gold Spectrum 1/1. Those names matter: Gold and Gold Spectrum are different print runs, even though both sit within the same Exquisite branch.

The signed Fleer packs make an extraordinary headline, but Goodwin’s lasting appeal is easier to see in the cards spread around it: Jordan’s stark Goudey portrait, Strong spinning a basketball, Yamal among orange trees and Tiger surrounded by color. The release gives those subjects room to look unlike the cards collectors already know—and still leaves a chair at the table for the Lion Tamer.