Another in a long line of blogs devoted to baseball cards, specifically from the Topps Company, and the Hobby in general. Reviews on new and older sets, along with unbiased opinions, will be included.
If you stumbled upon this blog and didn't find what you were looking for, please feel free to e-mail me at bdj610@hotmail.com. I'd be happy to answer your questions.
(It's Wednesday, February 2, 2026. Guess what day it is???)
(Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" plays as the radio alarm clock turns on at 6:00 AM).
D.J. #1: Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today. D.J. #2: It's coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach? D.J. #1: Not hardly. And you know, you can expect hazardous travel later today with that, you know, that, uh, that blizzard thing. D.J. #2: [mockingly] That blizzard - thing. That blizzard - thing. Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a "big blizzard thing!" D.J. #1: Yessss, they are. But you know, there's another reason why today is especially exciting. D.J. #2: Especially cold! D.J. #1: Especially cold, okay, but the big question on everybody's lips... D.J. #2: - On their chapped lips... D.J. #1: - On their chapped lips, right: Do ya think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow? D.J. #2: Punxsutawney Phil! D.J. #1: That's right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's... D.J. #1, D.J. #2: [in unison] GROUNDHOG DAY!
Okay Phil...Lay It On Me...
Some time today, this little guy is going to tell us if there will be six more weeks of winter or if we're getting an early spring. I think it's if the groundhog sees its shadow, that means we're still getting winter. And after the biting cold and snow we've gotten here in Chicago, I am hoping that our friend here doesn't see it's shadow.
But there is good news coming.
As soon as the Super Bowl ends, we can all turn our attention to more important matters. Like, you know...
Pitchers and Catchers reporting to Arizona and Florida to start Spring Training!!!
Long time readers of the blog know that I am from The Philippines. I've written about the Philippines trying to get to the World Baseball Classic back in 2012. As of 2026, they still haven't done it, but it doesn't mean the country can't represent on the diamond. While they haven't competed in the WBC, the baseball team has won the Southeast Asian Games three years straight, and five titles overall.
So, let's crank out some celebratory music...
Okay, back to the point...
One of the goals of this blog is to show off my collection. Today, I thought I'd show off my collection of mini Allen & Ginter cards that feature the The Pearl of the Orient Seas.
Starting with my favorite A&G Mini Card of All-Time, from the 2007 Flag of All Nations set...
2007 Topps A&G Philippines Flag #39
The card isn't actually numbered per se, but the card is #39 alphabetically (Algeria-United States). Love this design. The sun in the background, the volcano (there's smoke coming from the top), coconut trees along the coast. It really is reminiscent of the original 1887 N9 Allen & Ginter's Flag of All Nations set. I just love the colors of this card, and how the flag is presented.
2008 Topps A&G Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo #WL35
The following year, Topps included a mini insert set featuring 50 of the (at the time) current world leaders. The Philippines was represented with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who became the 14th President of the country. Sworn to the post after the previous president was impeached, she was the leader of the country from 2001 through 2010. She did get into her own issues, but I'm not going to get into that...I am no expert in the story. She is currently a member of the House of Representatives, serving the constituents of the 2nd district of Pampanga. The card itself features a headshot of GMA and an outline of the islands. At least Topps used the right photo for her card, compared to the little mistake done for the card representing Ireland.
2009 Topps A&G Jose Rizal #NH26
The year after that saw Topps honoring National Heroes. This time, Topps selected our national hero, Jose Rizal, as a subject for it's 2009 insert set. The reverse of his card gives a really brief summary of who he was and what he did while the Philippines was under Spanish rule in the late 1800's. He was a writer and member of the Philippine Propaganda Movement, which advocated political reforms while the Philippines was a colony of Spain. He was executed during the Philippine Revolution, and the day of his death (December 30) is a National Holiday. He is considered one of the most influential figures in Filipino history. The card features Rizal along with the Philippines Coat of Arms.
On to lighter fare...
2010 Topps A&G Carabao #NA42
National Animals was one of the mini insert sets that appeared in the 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter product. And our national animal, the Carabao, was among the 50 subjects. The carabao is a water buffalo species that is commonly used by farmers for plowing. There were also used to pull carts, whether those contained people or valuable supplies. (There's a picture somewhere of yours truly on one...can't remember where it is. I think the name of the one I was on was Gigolo...or was it Macho...)
2011 Topps A&G Philippine Eagle #AP15
Carrying the animal theme over into 2011, Topps featured endangered species in a set called Animals in Peril. The Philippine Eagle, or what is more commonly known as the Monkey Eating Eagle, was among the 30 subjects in this set. It has a six-foot wingspan, and is the largest of all eagles. It's the national bird of the country, with logging taking much of it's territory away. Current estimates say that there are maybe 400 pairs left in the wild.
2012 Topps A&G Balut #CC9
And then...there's the Culinary Curiosities set from 2012. This set featured 10 local delicacies that...let's say are unique. Between the Rocky Mountain Oysters and Haggis is this Filipino delight...Balut!!! Yes, balut. You may have seen the videos of people trying to eat it. And what is it exactly? Fertilized duck embryos boiled or steamed, and eaten in the shell. It's a street food that's sold in many countries in Southeast Asia, but it's more commonly connected to the Philippines. Now, I am more of a Penoy person myself (incubated duck egg that didn't fully develop an embryo), but I've eaten this once. And for a Filipino, once was enough.
It would be a few years before an exclusively-Filipino related card would appear in Allen & Ginter. Sure, the 2021 Mini World Leaders didn't include the President of the time, and the 2022 Mini Bearing Fruit cards had a handful of fruits that are found throughout the region, but there was nothing specifically tying the Philippines to any of them.
2024 Topps A&G The Philippines #FOTW-16
While the 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter set featured a Manila/Dubai Sister Cities full-sized card (and I have that one), the Flags of the World mini set returned after 17 years. This time, as a horizontally-oriented set, with a picture of Manila to the right of the flag. The card is nice, and again, as an extremely amateur vexillologist (definitely not Sheldon Cooper level), I like the set, I like the card.
But nothing compares to the 2007 version.
On a related note, my mom is flying to Manila to visit friends and family back home this week. I wish her safe travels. Maybe bring back the Philippines baseball team cap if you can find one. A jersey would be nice too, but that may be asking for too much. It looks like this...I think...
The final cards from my adventures in trading (plus a few added eBay purchases) finally arrived yesterday. Today, I added them to the binder. And with these last 13 cards, my 2025 Topps & Topps Update Master Set six-inch binder is "officially" complete (I'll explain why the word "officially" is in quotation marks shortly).
The 2025 Topps binder contains a total of 2,161 cards.
Two thousand, one hundred sixty-one cards!!!
Not the record for most cards I've fit into one of these, but comes pretty close (the 2024 binder contains 2,028 plus a few more cards I've added since...I'll post that total on another day).
The binder weighs a whopping 13 pounds, contains 140 9-pocket pages (cards are placed back to back, so no more than 18 cards per page). Each complete insert set is within their own pages, so there's no mixing between sets (with the exception of the 1990 Topps, Stars of MLB, First Pitch sets).
Page 1
Golden Variations and the 6 Extra Rookie cards
Update Series
There are a total of 30 complete insert sets in this binder, along with the 700-card S1/S2 set and the 350-card Update Series. The breakdown is below (includes which series/set the cards come from):
707 cards from Topps Series 1 and 2 (including both sets of 3-player variations from S2 and the factory set, plus the ALT-1 card of Weston Wilson)
350 cards from Topps Update Series
5 Topps Rookie Variation cards (from the factory set)
3 miscellaneous advertisement cards
4 Topps Golden Variation cards (3 from S1/2, 1 from Update)
4 Companion to the Jumbo cards (2 from S1/2, 2 from Update)
3 Real Photo Variation cards (2 from S1/2, 1 from Update)
25 First Pitch cards (10 from S1, 5 from S2, 10 from Update)
25 Mascots cards (Celebration)
12 2024 All-Topps Team cards (Series 1)
28 2024 Greatest Hits cards (Series 1)
25 Call to the Hall (Series 1)
25 Training Ground cards (Series 1)
25 8-Bit Baller cards (Celebration)
25 Game Day Drip cards (Celebration)
25 Power Players cards (Celebration)
50 1990 All-Star Variation cards (Series 2, where AL cards included blue frames and NL cards had red frames)
20 Dynamic Duo cards (Series 2)
25 OPS Leaders cards (Series 2)
50 Summer Superstar cards (Series 2)
100 1990 Topps cards (Series 1)
50 1990 All-Star cards (Series 2, where AL cards included red frames and NL cards had blue frames)
50 1990 Topps cards (Series 2)
50 1990 Topps cards (Update Series)
85 Stars of MLB cards (30 from Series 1, 30 from Series 2, 25 from Update)
20 Stars of Japan cards (Series 1 Japan)
19 History of MLB/Japanese Baseball cards (Series 1 Japan)
15 World Tour Domination cards (Series 1 Japan)
100 Costco Flagship cards (Series 1/Heritage Super Boxes)
15 Hobby Rip Night cards (from a Hobby Rip Night)
25 The Nice List cards (Topps Holiday/Advent Calendar)
50 2025 All-Star Game cards (Update Series)
25 Bleacher Reachers cards (Update Series)
40 Most Valuable cards (Update Series)
25 Mystical cards (Update Series)
25 Night Terrors cards (Update Series)
25 Topps BlackGold (Update Series)
4 Super Box Jumbo (1 from S1, 1 from S2, 2 from Update)
1 Topps Clear (Update)
1 Homefield Advantage (Update Series)
Now this alone should be enough to call it a complete master set. However, I'm calling it "officially" complete because there are cards I'd like to add, but might run out of room (and this binder is close to bursting).
The final page of the binder.
There is a second set of Costco Flagship cards I'm on the hunt for, these are found in Super Boxes of Series 2/Archives. Also, when the Topps Update Series checklist was posted, there were to be three insert sets that were exclusive to a Japan Edition set: Stars of Japan (continuing from Series 1, Tokyo Series Highlights (from the Cubs vs. Dodgers series at the start of the year), and Strike Zone Heroes (an exclusive to Japan insert set that was introduced with the 2024 Topps Japan set...which I'm watching on the Bay but not yet purchased). I have not seen any of these three insert sets or cards online, so I'm wondering if these are real or if cards have not arrived in Japan yet.
The end of the Stars of MLB and the start of the Stars of Japan
Overall, I'm thrilled that the hunt for 2025 Topps is (mostly) over, and I am ready to get my hands on some 2026 Topps cards next month.
2000 Topps Carlos Beltrán #178 and 1998 Topps Andruw Jones #334
Carlos Beltrán 358 (84.2%);
Andruw Jones 333 (78.4%);
Chase Utley 251 (59.1%);
Andy Pettitte 206 (48.5%);
Félix Hernández 196 (46.1%);
Álex Rodríguez 170 (40.0%);
Manny Ramírez 165 (38.8%);
Bobby Abreu 131 (30.8%);
Jimmy Rollins 108 (25.4%);
Cole Hamels 101 (23.8%);
Dustin Pedroia 88 (20.7%);
Mark Buehrle 85 (20.0%);
Omar Vizquel 78 (18.4%);
David Wright 63 (14.8%);
Francisco Rodríguez 50 (11.8%);
Torii Hunter 37 (8.7%);
Ryan Braun 15 (3.5%);
Edwin Encarnación 6 (1.4%);
Shin-Soo Choo 3 (0.7%);
Matt Kemp 2 (0.5%);
Hunter Pence 2 (0.5%);
Rick Porcello 2 (0.5%);
Alex Gordon 1 (0.2%);
Nick Markakis 1 (0.2%);
Gio González 0;
Howie Kendrick 0;
Daniel Murphy 0;
Congratulations to Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones for being elected into the Hall of Fame. On this year's ballot, a player needed to receive 319 votes to reach or exceed the 75% needed for induction.
The players whose names are italicized will appear on next year's ballot, having surpassed the five percent rule to stay on (22 votes). Omar Vizquel will be on his tenth and final ballot going into 2027. Manny Ramirez' first go-through with the Veteran's Committee will be in 2028, when the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee re-convenes (this is the committee that elected Jeff Kent for induction back in December).
1993 Topps Jeff Kent #703
History dictates that the player with the most votes but not elected into the HOF will eventually be voted in, whether it be on the BBWAA ballot or one of the Veteran's Committees. If this trend continues, Chase Utley will eventually be going to Cooperstown.
On an unrelated note (because I'll be updatingWikipedia after submitting this post...unless someone beat me to the punch), all three players who will be inducted into the HOF on July 26 were members of Topps All-Star Rookie Team. Kent (in 1992), Jones (1997) and Beltrán (1999). There are now 37 HOF players and 2 HOF managers who were once a part of the ASRT.
When the announcement is made at 05:00 PM CST on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, to let the world know who has been inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame, I will be working in the pharmacy. I'll either be (most likely) taking care of patients at the register or (hopefully) filling medications in the back. I won't be home until after 8. But I can assure you, when I am home, I'll be watching the coverage when it repeats.
With any luck, more than one person on this list of 27 players will be rewarded with the ultimate honor...enshrinement into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. For the final time, here is the list of players (with years on ballot and % of ballots in the 2025 election) being considered:
27 Hall of Fame Nominees, 27 Topps Designs 1995-2021
Until the announcement is made, only the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the accounting firm that tabulated the votes knows who will join Jeff Kent in Cooperstown on Sunday, July 26, 2026.
I blame the fact that it was late at night when I wrote that last post. But I am not afraid to admit when I'm wrong.
So on my previous post, I said:
I love seeing images like this because it gives us an idea of what many of the cards are going to look like. For example, the 1991 card of Paul Skenes looks amazing. It reminds me that 1991 was the first year that featured horizontal cards of players that were not team cards, rookie combo cards, or any other since at least 1960.
Since coming back, I have been pretty sure that nobody is reading what I'm writing on this humble, little blog. Apparently, people are reading.
Thank you to friend of the blog John Bateman of the Donruss 1982 blog, for mentioning:in a comment:
1973 and 1974 - Topps had a few player horizontal cards
Now, it's embarassing enough that as a Topps collector and as someone who thinks he's an expert on Topps' catalog that I'd say something totally off-base. But the fact that a guy who writes a blog about a set from the competition had to point this out to me really makes me want to crawl into a hole and hide again.
So, I went in to look and sure enough...
Starting with 1973, here is Tommie Agee:
And Bobby Bonds:
And Boots Day (really...)
From 1974, here's Mike Epstein:
And Carlton Fisk:
Then I remembered that there were horizontal cards in 1971:
Thurmon Munson for example:
Just a reminder, my main collection doesn't start until 1976. So when I think of horizontal player cards prior to 1976, obviously I'm thinking 1955, 1956, 1960. I'm not thinking anything in the early 1970's.
And again...it was late. I wasn't thinking straight at that point.
To think, I was going to post about the two Topps Archives sets that I do have that for some reason I forgot to add to the TCDB as part of my collection tonight.
But this was more important to mention. So thanks again John for setting me straight. Thank you to the Card Cyber Museum for images (I certainly don't have any of these cards, so this is the best place to get images).
As the countdown to Baseball Card Opening Day continues, Topps revealed a new "cover photo" that will welcome people who visit their Facebook page. It's an assortment of cards that will appear in packs of their 2026 Topps Series 1 product.
I love seeing images like this because it gives us an idea of what many of the cards are going to look like. For example, the 1991 card of Paul Skenes looks amazing. It reminds me that 1991 was the first year that featured horizontal cards of players that were not team cards, rookie combo cards, or any other since at least 1960.
It's the fourth year in a row that Topps featured scattered cards as their Facebook cover image. Previous images are below:
Okay, I need sleep. Talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
UPDATE: January 18, 2026, 10:44 pm CST.
Boy am I wrong. There were horizontal player cards made by Topps after 1960. Thanks John for pointing this out.
