Happy Flagship Week! 2025 Topps Series 1 Awesomeness!
It's time we make Topps Series 1 day a national holiday, don't you think?
Each Happy Hobby Sports Card Newsletter for Collectors has a handful of great sports card subjects, helping sports card collectors working with limited budgets!
This Week’s Newsletter Highlights!
⚾ HAPPY FLAGSHIP WEEK! 2025 TOPPS SERIES 1 AWESOMENESS!
⚾ SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
⚾ CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY!
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⚾ HAPPY FLAGSHIP WEEK! 2025 TOPPS SERIES 1 AWESOMENESS!
We’re deep into February now, which ranks among one of my favorite sports months of the year! From the Super Bowl to the NFL Combine, from the NBA All-Star Game to the NHL’s new version of the same, from Spring Training to the first (and best?) release from Topps of the year, all the main sports are covered!
On Wednesday, 2025 Topps Series 1 was unleashed on ravenous baseball card collectors everywhere. With everyone clamoring for the day after the Super Bowl becoming a National Holiday, how about we pair it with the first flagship card release of the year – and make it a super holiday! It would be the near-spring equivalent of Thanksgiving and Cowboys/Lions games!
Why Topps Series 1 is Important
First, understand that this isn’t like when Topps Chrome comes out, or when Donruss Optic NBA is released. The first Topps flagship series is a big deal for several reasons, but most importantly, it’s because of its connection with history. No other card release has 70-year-old ancestors (Allen & Ginter, put your hand down – you are a resurrected brand). Unlike other things that get worse with age (looking at you, Saturday Night Live), Topps continues to give us new and exciting things! Remember when we didn’t have All-Star Rookie Cups, chromium cards, numbered parallels, silver packs, or throwback cards?
(That also begs us to recall stuff we hate, like gum stains, manufactured relics, and over-production, but what are you gonna do? If you don’t get the bad stuff, you won’t appreciate the good stuff!)
Happy Hobby History!
In 1952, Topps created the first of the first series. While there were other manufacturers at the time, they would soon bow out – or be bought out – to Topps’ momentum.
Since then, we’ve seen legendary rookie cards of Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson, Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench, Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken Jr., Tony Gwynn, Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, Ichiro Suzuki, Miguel Cabrera, Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr., Bobby Witt Jr. and Elly De La Cruz.
Granted, not all those players came from the first series released by Topps that year, but their releases wouldn’t happen without Series 1 coming out first!
Why 2025 Topps Series 1 Has Us Excited!
Brand New Design: The new design is polarizing, as some love the look and some believe it’s mediocre at best. But still – it’s a new design and that’s always fun to see when you open up packs! (Unless it’s 2021. That was rough. My glasses needed glass to read the tiny names.)
Brand New Inserts: We’ve seen some great new inserts in the past few years (All Aces and All-Topps Team!) and some horrible ones (Sweet Shades!) This year, Topps brings us Training Grounds and Call to the Hall, which celebrates greats from the past.
Discovering New SPs: Topps figured out that by not telling us what the awesome new short print image variations or other SPs are, they get a ton more social media buzz going. Think back to last year, when we found out about the Jackson Holliday “Funny Face” cards or Aaron Judge’s Paw Patrol cards! What will they have in store this year?
Sand Glitter Parallels: Replacing the Gold Foil parallels (which they still have, but they’re numbered to 50), the Sand Glitter parallels are pretty awesome — they’re a very tight sparkle behind the player. Trust us — they look cool!
1990 Throwback Cards: We had to endure the ’88 and ’89 Throwback cards over the past two years (OK, OK, I didn’t hate them as much as I expected), and now we’re rewarded with the ’90 Throwbacks, complete with possible “No-Name” cards commemorating Frank Thomas’ rookie card mishap! The ’90 Topps design is super colorful, and it was originally created to feel like a comic book panel, which is pretty fantastic.
Why 2025 Topps Series 1 Has Us Upset!
Stacks and Stacks of Cards: According to ChasingMajors.com, the approximate print run per base card of 2025 Topps Series 1 is approximately 1,184,600. That’s the second-most cards printed for one Topps series … ever. What does that mean?
While I’m still going to be super excited to pull base rookie cards of Nationals teammates Dylan Crews and James Wood, nearly 1.2 million other people will end up with that same card.
High Production Runs?
It’s like finding out your girlfriend once dated the football team… for each school in the state.
Black Parallels Fade To Black: The numbered black parallels, one of the most popular colored border parallels, have been retired. Once numbered to Topps’ age (they would have been numbered to 74 this year), people loved collecting these cards because the solid black borders made the card stand out differently from all others. Only Topps Gold has a similar feel, but they are numbered to 2025, nearly 300% of the black parallels.
The good news for black parallels lies in the resurrection of the All Aces inserts! People loved All Aces in 2023, but they went away in 2024 to much disappointment. Since Topps came to their senses and brought them back in 2025, I expect they’ll do the same with the black parallel – possibly even in a later series this year!
Crews ‘n Wood: Great New Buddy Cop Show or Best Pair of Rookie Teammates in Decades?
One more thing we love from 2025 Topps Series 1 is the idea that the top two rookies could reach new hobby levels we haven’t seen in a long time. Can Nationals teammates Dylan Crews and James Wood break into my list of the five best rookie card pairings of teammates in the past 25 years:
2003 Phillies: Cole Hamels and Chase Utley
2023 Orioles: Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson
2005 Dodgers: Russell Martin and Matt Kemp
2005 Brewers: Ryan Braun and Nelson Cruz
2010 Giants: Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey
And don’t forget these rookie teammates who came in the same year, but different series!
2014 Red Sox: Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts (different series)
2015 Cubs: Jorge Soler, Javier Baez and Kris Bryant (different series)
2013 Marlins: Jose Fernandez and Christian Yelich (different series)
2008 Reds: Joey Votto and Jay Bruce (different series)
⚾ BASEBALL CARD TRIVIA!
Send me the answer to this question – you could win this free card from me! 1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Hank Aaron 1954 Rookie of the Year No. 19
This baseball player’s MLB debut came in 2007, which meant his 2006 rookie card wasn’t supposed to exist! Who is it and what was his card number?
Email your answer to gonoscards@gmail.com and you can win this 1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Hank Aaron 1954 Rookie of the Year No. 19 card! Rather than take the first person who answers it right, I’m going to do a random drawing of all the people who answer this question before midnight, Friday, Feb. 14. The winner will be announced in the Feb. 20 newsletter.
Last week’s question: This first baseman was second in NL Rookie of the Year voting in the ‘50s. Later in his career, he was arrested for flashing women, and he was suspended for that misconduct – so Topps pulled his card No. 145 from their set. Who was the player and what was the year for that set? Answer this question before midnight, Friday, Feb. 14, to win a 2021 Topps Update 1968 Topps Reggie Jackson Cards That Never Were CNW-1. The winner will be announced in the Feb. 20 newsletter.
From Jan. 30 -- Which Topps Living card is believed to have had the largest production run ever, nearly 50% more than the second-place card? Answer: Wander Franco (68,228 produced, well above Ronald Acuna Jr.’s 46,809). The winner of the 2019 Topps Living Mike Trout card is – nobody! I’m going to send this card on to our British friend Lewis Fitzgerald, who wrote our newsletter last week! He was a big Topps Living set fan, so he should like this one!
⚾🏈🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY! 1977 Topps Mark Fidrych #285
As beautiful as this card is, and as amazing as this young man once was, his career was pretty much over by the time his rookie card was released in 1977.
Imagine a rookie pitcher making his first career start in mid-May, then pitching so well, he was named one of the two starting pitchers for the All-Star Game. While Paul Skenes’ dynamite 2024 season certainly aligns with that narrative, we’re actually talking about Mark Fidrych, from 50 seasons ago, back in 1976.
Fidrych was a relative unknown when he came to camp as a non-roster invitee that spring of ’76, a 10th-round pick in the 1974 MLB Draft, he was just an arm for Detroit at that point. He wouldn’t even debut until April 20, and the Tigers didn’t start him until May 15. They nicknamed him “The Bird” because of his lanky 6-foot-3 build and long blonde hair that made him look like Big Bird from “Sesame Street.”
The Bird’s debut against Cleveland went viral – as viral as you could 50 years ago, as it got national attention on the NBC’s Saturday Game of the Week (it was the backup to the Pirates game, which had rain delays).
From pointing the ball at the catcher like he was playing darts, to circling the mound and talking to himself, to sticking his tongue out to the side when he delivered a pitch, the world had never seen anything like Mark Fidrych before – or after. He had fun – and he dominated.
That first game was a complete-game 2-1 win, causing 16 groundouts (he didn’t have Skenes’ strikeout flare, but he was still impressive). That was the first of six consecutive complete games that he pitched, finishing the season with an amazing 24 complete games! TWENTY-FOUR! He’d start the 1976 MLB All-Star Game and finish the year with 19 wins!
The Bird’s talent matched his humility, and he became a media darling. Card collectors would have to wait until the 1977 Topps flagship release to get this rookie card, since there was no Topps Update series back then.
The great smile, old Yankee Stadium, the red A.L. All-Stars stripe, the fat cop in the background – it’s just a gorgeous card.
Unfortunately, shoulder and knee injuries prevented him from ever reaching those rookie year heights again. He would die a tragic death on his farm in 2009.
The Bird flew too close to the sun, but us old-heads always have 1976 to remember – and this ’77 card.
Coming Next Week!
⚾🏈🏀 THE 2025 HALL-OF-FAME ISSUE: COLLECTING HOFers!
🏈⚾🏀 SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
⚾ PATRICK’S PRIME PROSPECT PICKS!
🏈🏀⚾ HAPPY HOBBYIST COLLECTOR SPOTLIGHT!
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Podcast Music: "I dunno" by grapes - 2008 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
So far, I've opened up a 20 pack hobby box, 7 pack value/blaster box, 3 hanger packs (59 cards=5 packs each), and one fat pack, all with my one daughter that likes baseball & softball, and out of those roughly 45 packs, the only four numbered cards that we got were all in the hobby box. The two big hits were both from hobby box as well. We also got the greatest amount of 1990 throwbacks in the hobby box. Also got only one gold /2025 out of roughly the 45 packs. Golds seem to be getting harder and harder to pull, I guess with the pint runs getting higher. -- For bang for your buck, I think the hangers might be best, since our Target was selling them for only $13 each with 2 diamontes in each plus other random inserts.
After watching yours and Josh's videos of a jumbo box and a hobby box, and then reading about the crazy size of the print run on Series 1, it got me thinking. There will have to be less numbered hits on average per box then, considering those are defined print runs to be spread across and increased overall print run. Topps has once again given us lower odds for a big hit while still keeping the price sky high. Total bummer.
Also, seeing the cards now, a few thoughts. This design could have been an A plus. Why are some of the last names not white? I cannot figure out how they picked which teams to do this with. Also, just making the outline of the team name on the side would have made it pop so much more, those two things would have really made this look that much better. Final thought is those 90s inserts look great, but the way they are using the background of the photo to make it a colored parallel is easily missed. Look at those ones closely.