I didn't hesitate earlier this year when the e-mail from Topps arrived in my inbox alerting me that boxes of 2025 Topps Series One were on sale from their website. I've missed out in the past, having to go to the secondary market (eBay) and paying an upcharge when the need to open new baseball cards inevitably overpowered me in prior Februarys. I didn't go crazy, adding just a hobby box and a blaster to my cart, and then waiting patiently for the February 12th release date.
The box was waiting for me when I arrived home on Wednesday, but sports practices required us to wait until Thursday to open the first packs of 2025 Topps as a family. The first Phillie, this Alec Bohm card, came quickly within the first pack I opened.
Topps has been on a roll over the past several years, and with the exception of the misfire with 2020's design, the 2025 Topps design adds to four solid set designs in the past five years. Updating my top ten gallery below, the 2025 set takes the place of the 2015 set in the #2 spot, with 2015 leaving the list after 10 years (!). I've used this summary in the past to describe the new Topps flagship design, but this is what a baseball card in the year 2025 should look like - crisp, great photo, modern graphics, some non-intrusive glittery effects and a little bit of silver foil with the Topps logo. I really like that we get the team's logo and name going up the side of a card, and the curved lines along the left border are a nice modern update to the 1982 Topps design.
We were particularly impressed with how Topps found a new way to display the player's position. The diamond in the bottom right indicates where the player would stand on the field, and it's one of those things I can't believe we've not seen on a baseball card before. The backs are nice and clean too, as has been the case in recent years, and kudos to Topps for once again making the card number easy to find and easy to read. My only very minor complaint is that some of the teams have player's last names in black (not white) making those harder to read. I would have preferred Topps go with all white for every last name for each team.
Revisiting my top ten ranking below, I might move 2022 and 2019 ahead of 2023. I still don't like the bottom three, but 2021 may eventually take over the worst design spot in my mind.
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| Best - 2024 Topps #194 |
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| #2 - 2025 Topps #7 |
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| #3 - 2023 Topps #278 |
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| #4 - 2022 Topps #249 |
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| #5 - 2019 Topps #303 |
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| #6 - 2016 Topps #15 |
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| #7 - 2018 Topps #26 |
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| #8 - 2021 Topps #79 |
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| #9 - 2017 Topps #247 |
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| Worst - 2020 Topps #221 |
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2025 Topps #7 Alec Bohm
2 comments:
I like the design - I would not have 2024 ahead of 2023, 2022 and this year - This year reminds me of 1982 and seeing the cards from a distance it looks a little like 1992. The last 4 years Topps has been on an upswing.
Check out the Vintage parallels available for the 2025 Topps set on eBay. Those really give off 1982 Topps vibes.
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