It's that time again

 

This past fall and part of the winter, I decided to do as I mostly always do, which is skip the football season entirely and obsess over baseball past while looking forward to the future. Sadly, the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t give me much to look forward to in 2025…so the rest of the MLB will have to do.

            One thing I am excited about is 2025 Topps. I really and truly like the front and back designs and this picture is going to do absolutely nothing to prove way.

            If you’ve seen the cards on videos or in person you know that the colored portions of the borders have foil vibe to them. Something that didn’t really show in photographs. Topps is getting crafty. Last year it was neon. This year it’s bring on the foil. The cards are sharp and crisp, and my only complaint is that it’s not 1990 and we don’t get close up shots of the players just the as always in-action shots.

            Speaking of 1990. If you can believe it, it’s been 35 years since 1990. Thirty-five years since The Simpsons and thirty-five years since Brandon and Brenda Walsh moved from Minnesota to that famous 90210 zip code.

            And thirty-five years since Topps debut this design.

            Boy, this 1990 base design took me back to being a kid. A teen really. Sixteen in 1990. By the summer of that year, I had my driver’s license and there were no more bumming rides from my old man to card shows and flea markets and LCS shops in the malls. Now, there was just him not letting me borrow the car or complaining about me not filling the tank. I always liked the 1990 design. That flashy it’s the 90’s now front, and that taxi cab driver art deco back to the card. The two should’ve been a conflict of interest but they always worked out well together.

            And they look nice as inserts.

            I bought a jumbo box. No, I’m not going back on my word and hand collating sets…not with how many doubles Topps puts in their boxes now.

            (It’s even worse this year)

            (Don’t believe me, go and watch some people open boxes on YouTube)

            But I did want to open some wax. I can’t help but get a thrill out of it still.

            And as always you get your standard bells and whistles.

            The Call to the Hall are cards are bit boring.

            But I can’t complain about the ones I got.

            Got the standard game used (maybe game used) stitch of ballplayer cloth.

            The Ripken is numbered to 50.

            The other inserts veer toward the blah side to me, but I’m always a fan of season highlight inserts.

            Speaking of season highlights. I usually blow off League Leader cards, but 2025’s are sharp.

            My lone gold card.

            And I got no complaints about the autograph card. Baseball economics have dampened the Dodgers for me, but I always love that early 80s era of Los Angeles baseball when Garvey was still playing well, and Fernando-Mania was everywhere.

            When I got back into The Hobby in 2019, Vlady Jr. and Yordan Alvarez were all the rage. For that reason, I do try and get as many of their cards as I can.

            This year’s base models are both bangers.

            Then there are those guys I had high hopes for who’ve kind of fallen off the radar but are still in my PC for sentimental reasons too.

            I usually latch onto one rookie person season. Jhonkensy “Big Christmas” Noel was that guy for me in 2024. So, I was pretty happy that his rookie card wasn’t missing out of the box, like the Dylan Crews rookie was.

            Overall, it was a decent rip. Kind of glad I eliminated the burden of set building. In a strange way it actually made opening packs more fun. I’ve said it here before, but because cards cost what they do I felt compelled to build sets when that wasn’t natural of me as a collector. I don’t feel that way anymore.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!