Preview of 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures by Andy Friedman
The lucky collectors among us know that magical feeling of discovering a forgotten shoebox tucked away in the back of a closet or corner of an attic, filled with potential treasures from bygone eras. That spirit of surprise rediscovery fueled the driving force behind the 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures set, designed by Andy Friedman.
At the forefront of this ambitious release is Friedman, the New York City-based artist whose previous collaborations with Topps included a trio of Spotlight-branded releases in 2021, ’22, and ’24, each featuring ink-and-watercolor designs of baseball legends spanning several generations.
“For the first two (Spotlight70) sets, most of the cards I painted were pulled from my own shoebox collection of baseball cards that I’ve had and drawn from since I was a kid,” Friedman told Collectibles on SI in a recent interview. “In fact, three of the cards in the second set were drawn when I was twelve—’71 Munson, ’80 Trammell, and the SP of me as a rookie prospect on the Pirates in an ’86 border.”
Trained at the Rhode Island School of Design, Friedman’s work has been featured in Esquire, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, among other notable publications, but seeing his passions play out on cardboard keepsakes has been extra special for the longtime baseball fan.
“I grew up on Long Island, but the rest of my family—including my two kids—were born and raised in Brooklyn on both sides, dating back to the 1890s. My dad was from the original generation of card flippers who tossed them against stoops and stuffed them into his bicycle spokes,” Friedman explained. “Trying to collect all the hometown hero ’86 Mets was what got me into baseball cards. I didn’t follow baseball until that magical season.”
An avid musician, cartoonist, and widely popular celebrity caricaturist for a stretch, a diagnosis of carpal tunnel in each hand eventually forced Friedman to pivot—painting some of his favorite baseball cards, re-learning how to draw again with these limitations, a new spin on something he’d been doing since childhood. Friedman would pen an article for The New Yorker about this budding outlet that also served as an homage to the common player, eventually leading to a partnership with Topps that continues to grow to this day.
Shoebox Treasures’ eclectic 100-card base set showcases this perspective, harkening back to the likes of Satchel Paige and Mickey Mantle, to modern-day stars, including Shohei Ohtani and Paul Skenes, with a name-popping mix of everything in between.
“We developed the Shoebox Treasures checklist together,” Friedman noted.
The autograph component adds significant chase value, featuring dozens of signatures dominated by retired stars and Hall of Famers. A handful of current players—Mike Trout, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., Jose Ramirez, and Gunnar Henderson—signed for the collection, increasing the likelihood this group will command premium prices from both art collectors and traditional card enthusiasts.
Multiple insert sets add to the intrigue of this novelty release. The First Light Rookies recreates 12 cards from the 2025 Topps Series 1 1990 Redux design, while another insert pays respect to a dozen original cards in 1990 Bowman style, depicting key names from the Cooperstown club. For vintage enthusiasts, short-printed 1951 Bowman recreations offer a glimpse into baseball's golden age, with Duke Snider, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays among the pack.
There are also well over a hundred names from yesteryear and today featured in 1/1 original paintings, with the crown jewel being the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson/Mantle Miscut, the set’s true grail, bridging the gap between sports, art, and nostalgia.
“The most remarkable feature remains issuing all 140 card-sized original paintings, each with an artist signature, stamp of authenticity, and checklist number as 1-of-1 “OG Art” case hits,” Friedman described. “These are among the only original paintings in the world eligible for encapsulation with PSA... This innovation should excite fans of the superfractor or gold-foil 1/1, in particular.”
Perhaps most intriguing are the non-baseball cards that showcase Friedman’s versatility. Alongside his own short-printed self-portrait base card and autograph, collectors can chase super short prints featuring two cards each from the 1985 Topps Garbage Pail Kids set (Adam Bomb and Nasty Nick) and the 1962 Topps Mars Attacks set (The Invasion Begins and Mars Explodes).
“The most unique aspect of Shoebox Treasures is that it expands its list of card subjects beyond exclusively baseball. It is also unique in that it is the first Topps product to celebrate other brands within the company’s umbrella in the same set,” he added. “The fact that we’ve included Allen & Ginter, GPK, Bowman, and Mars Attacks in one checklist is completely groundbreaking.”
For the first time in these Topps collaborations, Friedman incorporated gouache alongside his signature watercolor technique.
“Watercolor is a transparent medium, which means that light passes through all the layers of color to create a luminous effect. Gouache is an opaque medium, which can be blended like oil paint,” he elaborated. “The cards I painted in gouache for Shoebox Treasures were based on cards that were originally painted with the same medium: ’51 Bowmans, ’53 Topps, Garbage Pail Kids, and Mars Attacks. I tried as close as possible to mimic the artists’ brushstrokes and techniques, as well, which was a lot of fun.”
“The only card painted in gouache for Shoebox Treasures that wasn’t originally painted with the same medium is the 1/1 miscut Jackie Robinson/Mickey Mantle, which I thought would be fun to recreate in as much of a photorealistic style as possible.”
For collectors seeking something beyond typical parallels and refractors, Shoebox Treasures offers a fresh perspective on what trading cards can be with a little ingenuity. Whether you're drawn to the artistic merit, the nostalgic appeal, or simply the thrill of the chase, this debut release captures the timeless joy of rifling through cardboard memories, one hand-crafted masterpiece at a time.
Available September 4 at 12 p.m. ET
Scott Orgera is a sportswriter and statistician with more than three decades of experience. He has covered thousands of MLB and NFL games, along with most other major sports. A member of the BBWAA, his bylines appear in the Associated Press, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, and Forbes, among others. He also co‑authored 976‑1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground. Having worked card shows with his family in the 1980s, Scott has remained active in the hobby ever since and now owns a card and memorabilia shop just outside New York City.