2025 Topps Baseball and the Best (and Worst!) Retro Cards Ever!
Collectors everywhere have started opening their packs of 2025 Topps and posting their hits, whether to share or sell. Though much of the excitement has been around seeing favorite rookies and stars in the new flagship design, the biggest buzz may well belong to the 35th anniversary 1990 throwbacks sprinkled in, some of which are already listed for quadruple digits on eBay.
๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐: 2025 Topps Series One will feature โNo Nameโ variations, paying homage to the famous 1990 Frank Thomas No Name rookie card.
โ Topps (@Topps) February 8, 2025
There are โNo Nameโ cards for all 100 subjects, and each card is limited to exactly 35 copies. pic.twitter.com/INodohdrbi
RELATED: A Legendary Frank Thomas Card Resurfaces 35 Years Later
As someone not shy about being critical of Topps releases when warranted, I'll offer here that I think Topps did an outstanding job on these 1990 reboots. While staying true to the original design, these cards are nonetheless more vibrant, thanks in part to their use of the near-infinite Getty Images bank of outstanding source images.
Enjoying the look of these retro cards immensely, I got to thinking about the best, and of course worst, Topps design reboots ever. For my best of the bunch, I'll go a bit obscure and offer up a set few collectors even know about, whereas my worst will zero in on some packs many collectors just finished opening.
The Best of the Bunch
While we mainly associate the use of retro designs with Topps Heritage and Archives, a product line that's delivered again and again has been "Throwback Thursday," an on-demand, online-only offering that has not only brought back some of the best Topps designs of the past but even drawn from other sports as well as non-sports.
AARON JUDGE PSA 9 ROOKIE BASEBALL CARD THROWBACK THURSDAY MINT 2017 TOPPS #ad #baseballcards https://t.co/3T8OXdU8y1 pic.twitter.com/PBG4cnSIqD
โ HR Cards (@HR_cards) June 10, 2024
Choosing the best of the various Throwback Thursday sets is a tough job since for the most part all are excellent. However, as someone who is as much card historian as collector, my vote goes to an under-the-radar Throwback Thursday set focused on two-time All-Star Game MVPs. Here is my Steve Garvey card from the set, alongside an original 1975 Topps card the set used as inspiration.
The first reason I chose this set is because--like all good retro cards--its cards are faithful to the original design. The colors, the font, and even the little white squiggles match up. I realize, by the way, that some readers may take such things for granted, but this is only rarely the case when it comes to Topps reboots, as we'll soon see.
The second reason I chose this set is that, much like the 2025 Frank Thomas "No Name on Front" or the 2024 Jackson Holiday "Fun Face," it's also quite clever. Beyond giving kudos to whoever had the genuinely original idea of celebrating two-time All-Star Game MVPs, someone here knew enough of the company history to pair the concept with the perfect Topps retro design: a 1975 subset highlighting pairs of MVPs. Finally, I'll add that even the details are well thought out, for example the replacing of the "1951-1975" timeline on the originals with the ASG MVP years of each card's subject.
Another terrific reboot I want to call out is the "Baseball Thrills" subset from 2010 Topps Heritage. If there was any drawback to the originals from 1961 it was only that they didn't include enough amazing feats. Topps remedied this in 2010 with some terrific selections.
Finally, readers of this space know I was a huge fan of this week's Topps Living Set card of Barry Bonds, which of course uses a reboot of the 1953 Topps design.
RELATED: The Barry Bonds Card Even the Haters Don't Want to Miss
The Worst of the Pack
Had you asked me a couple years ago, I might have nominated 2023 Topps Heritage Angels, featuring the 1974 Topps design, as the worst Topps retro cards ever, though there would be no shortage of close seconds. I get it, Topps, the Angels aren't the California Angels anymore, and there are weird legal reasons you don't use Los Angeles Angels, but somebody couldn't come up with something better than this?!
Of course, the awfulness of the Angel cards I couldn't un-see was nothing compared to some of the 1975 MVP throwbacks Topps would release with 2024 Heritage. Seriously, Topps, what did Fred Lynn ever do to you? And someone at Topps really thought that Miggy/Cutch card would look better with Cutch as a mini? It's not the old days any more. We're not buying these things for the gum!
Still, these 2024 Heritage eyesores got a free pass the day these next cards hit the shelves. For my money, the grand prize for worst Topps retro cards ever goes to the 1970 subset of 2024 Topps Archives.
Where does one even begin? I suppose the most obvious and offensive eyesore is the inexplicable move away from script player names. (If you're thinking Topps didn't trust collectors to read cursive, just look at the 1994 subset that makes up a huge chunk of the same set.) From there, one might equally wonder why "PITCHER" is microscopic or why there was so little effort to choose a color for the team name that didn't disappear into the background.
Still, good chance some new fresh hell appears this year that makes these 1970 reboots look tame by comparison. It seems like every year now, Topps puts out a set or subset of cards that's impossibly and needlessly ugly. Fortunately, there are also some absolute bangers each year also. The beauty of collecting is we don't have to (nor can we!) collect them all. In that regard, I offer my fellow collectors something of a serenity prayer: "Hobby, grant us the willpower to avoid the trash, the cash to buy the good stuff, and the wisdom to tell the difference."
RELATED: 2025 Topps Baseball Series 1: Dylan Crews Rookie Cards Arrive
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.