The Philippines...in Topps A & G Mini Cards

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...

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Anatomy of a Six-Inch Binder: 2025 Topps

 

The 2025 Topps Six-Inch Binder

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.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Hallbound...2026!!!

The votes are in...

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 updating Wikipedia 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.

According to the Baseball Hall of Fame website, of the 428 ballots that were cast, eleven of them was blank.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

One (or More) of These Players Could Be Voted into Baseball's Hall of Fame

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:

• Bobby Abreu, 7th, 19.5%
• Carlos Beltran, 7th, 70.3%
• Ryan Braun
• Mark Buehrle, 6th, 11.4%
• Shin-Soo Choo
• Edwin Encarnacion
• Gio Gonzalez
• Alex Gordon
• Cole Hamels
• Felix Hernandez, 2nd, 20.6%
• Torii Hunter, 6th, 5.1%
• Andruw Jones, 9th, 66.2%
• Matt Kemp
• Howie Kendrick
• Nick Markakis
• Daniel Murphy
• Dustin Pedroia, 2nd, 11.9%
• Hunter Pence
• Andy Pettitte, 8th, 27.9%
• Rick Porcello
• Manny Ramirez, 10th, 34.3%
• Alex Rodriguez, 5th, 37.1%
• Francisco Rodriguez, 4th, 10.2%
• Jimmy Rollins, 5th, 18.0%
• Chase Utley, 3rd, 39.8%
• Omar Vizquel, 9th, 17.8%
• David Wright, 3rd, 8.1%

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.

Good luck to everyone.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Yes Virgina, There Are Horizontal Player Topps Cards Between 1960 and 1991

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). 

Mea Culpa.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

2026 Topps Facebook Cover Photo

 

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. 

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Almost Got 'Im: 2003 Topps Record Breakers Nolan Ryan No-Hitter #4

I've been pretty fortunate over the last few years, not only because my financial situation has improved leaps-and-bounds (still a lot of work to do, but after so many years, I can breathe a bit easier), but also because cards that I've had on my wantlists since the 2010's started showing up on the Bay, and I've been fortunate to get them.

To wit, after many years of searching in vain, both 2011 Topps Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawfod SP cards showed up on eBay. Both BIN's, prices were reasonable, and both were purchased.

2011 Topps Carl Crawford #25B and Adrian Gonzalez #350B

Another card that was haunting me whenever I'd open to the page was the 2010 Topps 1951 Blue Back Reggie Jackson #36, which could only be found opening packs of Update and Highlights cards purchased at Wal-Mart.. Just about a year ago, after years of seeing the more common Red Back and Blue Back cards, this specific card appeared. It is now mine!!!

2010 Topps Update Series 1951 Blue Back Reggie Jackson #36

Last night, as I was scrolling the World's Largest Marketplace, a group of 2003 Topps Series 2 Record Breakers cards appeared in my feed. Among the cards listed were 3 of the 7 the Nolan Ryan No-Hitters cards that rarely, if EVER, show up. Of the four Nolan Ryan cards, one I've been looking for FOREVER!!!

2003 Topps Record Breakers Nolan Ryan #RB-NR4 

When I clicked on the auction to check the details, the highest bid was $6.50. Which was reasonable for this card, or so I thought. I bid $15.00, and found that I was still outbid. The shipping charge on the auction was $1.32, so I increased my bid to $18.68, which brought the high bid to $15.50. 

Earlier this evening, I received the notification that I was now being outbid for the card. I couldn't do anything about it until I came home from the pharmacy. When I finally arrived home, after eating a quick dinner, I went on the Bay and increased my bid to $23.68 only to find that my new bid not high enough, as the winning bid was now at $24.18. I then increased my bid to $28.68, and still I was out bid, with the new high price at $29.68. It was at this point, I decided to pass. According to the 2024 Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide (yes, I still carry one with me everywhere), these Nolan Ryan cards sell for $10.00 each. I was not about to pay 3x the book price, regardless of how rare these appear online.

After one sniper tried and failed to secure the highest bid, the auction ended about 30 minutes ago, with a final price of $32.53.

I congratulate the person who won the auction. I'm sure the seller is in shock to see that this particular card sold for $32+. The other two cards wound up selling for $6.50 each. Then I noticed that this same seller had the other four cards from this set listed the week before, with the auctions ending on January 10. One of those cards was the OTHER No-Hitter I needed, card #RB-NR7. That one sold, with one bid, at $5.99.

I'm going to go cry now.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

And This is Why I'm Not a Player Collector...

Parallel cards have been a standard in Topps products ever since they introduced Topps Gold cards all the way back in 1992 (unless you count the Desert Shield cards from 1991). As rare as it was to find these in packs (in all the packs I opened in 1992, I never EVER found a regular Topps Gold card. I did win a number of Gold cards from the scratch-off cards (which if you held a flashlight to the cards, you could actually see through them and figure out the prizes...not that I did that...no, not me. I won mine fair and square...) The prizes were Topps Gold cards, but the ones I got, and probably everyone else, had the word "Winner" added above the team nameplate.

1992 Topps Gold cards. These six players cards replaced the checklists.

Topps Gold became a staple parallel card in 2001, with every card serial numbered to 2001. Every year since, Gold cards are numbered based on the year. Eventually, Topps introduced other serial-numbered color-bordered parallel cards to their lineup: Topps Black (2003, #'d to 52), Copper (which replaced Black in 2007 because the base set had black borders in the first place, #'d to 56), Platinum (2006, a real one-of-one), and on-and-on. And I'm not even including the different colored foil varieties, or the red backs from 2007...

And it's not just the Topps brand. Topps Chrome brand really went crazy with the colored-chrome parallels.Topps even printed Chrome Refractor parallels. It got to the point that they were even encouraging collectors to "collect the rainbow." 

Parallel sets eventually found their way into factory sets. I'm not talking about the five-card exclusives that collectors were finally opening factory sets for to get their hands on these extremely limited cards. I'm talking in 2023 when every few Topps retail factory sets could contain a full set of parallel cards.

Then, in what has become the bane of an insert collector like me, Topps started making colored paralell cards of their already lesser printed insert cards. I can not tell you the number of times that I've mistakenly included a blue parallel card in an insert set only to find out later that it wasn't part of said set and then I'd have to look for the actual card to complete the insert set. (True story, which involved a 2022 Topps Sweet Shades Jose Altuve card. When I realized that I had the blue parallel instead of the regular card in my binder, I went berzerk and bought the first regular card I could find just so I could make the switch).

In 2025, Topps included 78...yes, that's right...78 different sets of parallel cards. A majority of them were either serial numbered or were exclusively found in specific products (like in packs sold at the Fanatics store in NYC). Hobby packs, jumbo packs, retail packs, blaster boxes, holiday products, super boxes, mega boxes, etc, had their own exclusive parallel cards to chase. As a base and basic set collector, I totally skip over these. But how do you player and team collectors keep track of it all?

As more information about 2026 Topps has come about, the list of parallel cards have been posted online. Let's just say that I am so glad that I am a set collector.

Hobby Exclusive Parallels

Retail Exclusive Parallels

Wait...there's more...

I'm not even about to begin to list the parallels that were announced for the insert, autograph, and relic cards. 

Why Topps??! Why??!

I have a lot of respect for those who collect specific players or specific teams. Your collections are impressive, and I admire your dedication to a niche of the Hobby that many people outside of it would call obsessive, if not insane. 

Do you go after specific parallels? As a team collector, do you try to get at least one sample of everything, regardless of player? Do you try to collect everything to complete a rainbow? What counts to you as a rainbow? I'd love to know.

2025 Topps Update Series Clear Michael Lorenzen #US222

2025 Topps Update True Photo Variation Michael Lorenzen #US222

But then again, maybe I should go for the Michael Lorenzen parallel set. I have two of the harder cards to pull and these will be going into the six-inch binder for 2025 Topps (which I will talk about in a few days time...I promise).

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

The Topps 300 (and then some...), Time For a Refresh

The 5 cards I chose to represent 2010 on the Topps 300 (and then some...) blog. 

Back in 2010, Topps had this wonderful idea of a promotion that coincided with the 60th Anniversary of Topps Baseball cards. They picked 100 cards out of their (at the time) catalog of 43,133 regular and traded Topps cards (as of 2010 Topps Update) and asked collectors to vote for their top 10 cards from the small list of 100. To save the trouble, my original post, from November 7, 2010, is linked here. Feel free to review and try to come back to this post. There is a reason why I am bringing this up.

For those who stayed, basically, Topps' 100-card list featured almost EVERY Mickey Mantle card in their catalog (15 of 17 cards made the cut), did not include any cards from the following years: 1976, 1981, 1988, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, included a card that was not meant to be produced (but did) in the 2006 Topps Alex Gordon card, and also included then-wunderkind's Stephen Strasburg's 2010 SP rookie card as one of the best 100 ever cards. I picked my top 10, eventually Topps revealed their Top 60 cards, and everyone moved on.

For the most part.

The 5 cards I chose to represent 1952 on the Topps 300 (and then some...) blog.

I thought this could have been done better. So I decided to do something about it (how naïve was I back then??!) 

On November 14, 2010, I selected 300 cards, 5 cards from Topps (then) 60-year history that I thought were the best from each year, and created a blog with images of the cards I picked. I called the blog The Topps 300 (and then some...). I picked the 300 cards based on a few qualifiers, including: Key Rookie, Unique Photo, Action Shot, Card caused a buzz in the Hobby, Noteworthy Errors, Player had an impact on the game that particular year. 

The 5 cards I chose to represent 1976 on the Topps 300 (and then some...) blog.

After I posted my picks, I opened the floor to readers who wanted to chime in and add their choices (this is where the "and then some..." comes from). It gained a bit of publicity thanks to a blurb that appeared in Sports Collector's Daily (it's a blink and you miss it thing, but I still am grateful for the publicity). I had big plans for what to do with it, but then...you know...life happened (excuses, excuses...sheesh).

The 5 cards I chose to represent 1989 on the Topps 300 (and then some...) blog.

Five-plus years later, Topps announced that one of the inserts they were including in the eponymous brand would be a 65-card set (turned into 130 among two series) called Berger's Best, showcasiing reprints of Topps designs, with a brief blurb of Sy Berger's influence on the baseball card world on the back. I did a brief update of the Topps 300 project, adding my top 5 cards from 2011 through 2015. I didn't add them to the main site, you can see the cards I chose here. 

The 5 cards I chose to represent 2014, not on the Topps 300 blog.

Now it's 2026, more than 15 years later. I think that now is the right time to showcase what I think are the top 5 cards from each year from 2016 through 2025. It's not going to happen tonight, please give me a bit of time so I can review over 10,070 cards (that's the number of cards from 2016 through 2025 between the Series 1, 2, and Update) to come up with a final 75 cards. 

It's something to think about. What cards would you include from the last 15 years for this project. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

More Images and Thoughts About 2026 Topps

2026 Topps Gunnar Henderson 

Giving myself a breather after Topps' big 2026 reveal, I went around to various social media sites to see what others thought of the design. Reviews, I should not have been surprised, were overwhelmingly positive, but there were some mixed or not-so-positive ones among those making comments.

One person even said that the design reminded them of 2004.

2004 Topps Franklyn German #593

Okay, I can see some some of that (lower frame, nameplate, full spelling of position...yes, someone criticized THAT!!!). 

But the overall design element, that being the fabric of a baseball uniform along with the team-colored stitching AND stitches along the left side of the frame are extremely unique. The design is something even my wife can appreciate as one of her hobbies is sewing. 

Some people want to see what the card backs are going to look like. Topps has never really shown these. I'd like to see them myself personally, but I understand if they're not in a rush to show them off.

As been the norm since 2018, Topps will include insert cards honoring the 35th anniversary of a previous year's design, featuring current and former players. This time, it's 1991 (I can't believe it's already 35 years) getting the treatment. Images of what these cards are going to look like have also releasedd I love this set, brings back memories of teenage years. And if the card below is any indication of what the product is going to look like, I'm going to love...LOVE...chasing this set.

2026 Topps 1991 Jackson Merrill

The number 75 is going to throw me off, but it's not like Topps didn't do this before when the design was included as part of the 2016 Topps Archives set (what a year that was, huh Cubs fans...)

2016 Topps Archives Jake Arrieta #234

Although I do hope that Topps just sticks to the team name above the ribbon, not the full team typography (nothing against adding the city, but the original set only had the logos of the team name as it would have appeared on the team uniforms...for the most part...)

Other insert sets returning are the more short-printed Heavy Lumber and Homefiled Advantage sets, as well as All Aces (please make this a basic insert, not one that is short-printed). Greatest Hits will return as well, along with a "new" insert set called Topps Profiles. The name is new in a sense that it hasn't been featured since 1996, when Kirby Puckett and Tony Gwynn had things to say about the subjects on the cards. Maybe they'll have Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani share their opinions about players within their respective leagues. That would be a nice call-back.

The extreme number of parallel cards returns. There were so many last year, and it looks all of them will return with. It does get confusing. You do need a scorecard to keep track of them all. But these are aimed at player and team collectors trying to complete the rainbow. 

So they were able to fit Jacob Misiorowski's name on the front of the card

As with many sets, I would love to see these cards in-hand. Do they still distribute sample cards to dealers? 

I can't wait for these cards to release. And just think, pitchers and catchers start reporting for spring training in about a month. 

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

UPDATE: January 13, 2026, 02:00 pm CST. 

The checklist for 2026 Topps Series 1 is now LIVE!!!

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