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NEW RELEASES: Topps Series One, unique football, basketball sets make big splash
When the calendar flipped to 2025, Topps and Panini began rolling out fresh, new card sets for the new year, including Topps iconic Series One Baseball.
New baseball, football and basketball cards are hitting the market, including a unique WNBA set featuring women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark.
Here’s a look at three new sets to look for as you begin your card-collecting quests in 2025.
TOPPS SERIES ONE
The flagship Topps Series One Baseball set leads off the new baseball season and sets the tone for the entire sports card year to come.
Since Fanatics’ purchase of the legendary Topps brand, it has continued the strong Topps traditions while also ushering in a new, ultra-modern feel of each cardboard product.
The Series One base set consist of 350 cards with a large number of parallels.
Each hobby box includes 20 12-card packs. Collectors can expect one autograph or relic card and one silver pack nestled right on top of your packs within the sealed box.
The card design offers a sleek look and feel with team colors flowing from the lower-left corner of the card over to the upper right-hand corner. The team name is found in transparent letters also running up the left-hand side of the card. There is a large, full color image of the player featured in the middle of the card with the familiar team logo and name plate at the bottom. In the lower right-hand corner, you will find a baseball diamond with a circle designating the featured player’s position.
New York Yankees slugger and 2024 AL MVP Aaron Judge is the cover athlete, prominently displayed on the box, pack wrappers and promotional materials.
Both veterans and rookies are featured in the base set. Collectors will find subsets in the lineup, such as Future Stars, League Leaders and various team cards.
As with most ultra-modern products across all sports, the theme of the day is parallels, parallels and more parallels. Each base card boasts more than 50 different parallel versions. Parallels range from Pink Foil with a print run of 600 copies down to Gold Foil at 50 copies, with Black Foil coming in at 10 copies and 1/1 Foilfractors. First Card versions come with a special stamp designating the first copies of each card that was produced.
Back for yet another season is the wildly popular Golden Image Variation. The SSP cards carry the same card design but offer a different photo.
The lineup of insert sets includes the 2024 All Topps Team, 2024 Greatest Hits, Ball to the Hall, and Training Grounds.
Topps Baseball also continues its traditional 35th Anniversary celebration, celebrating the 1990 Topps set. The autograph lineup is strong with the aforementioned 1990 Topps Baseball Autographs. Baseball Stars Autographs return as well.
There was a lot of excitement when it was announced that Barry Bonds would make a comeback and have signed cards in this Topps product. And with the recent passing of Rickey Henderson, the greatest base stealer and leadoff hitter of all-time, it's worth noting that Henderson also has autographs in Topps Baseball.
Brand new to flagship Topps are the popular Real One Autographs. There also will be some autograph memorabilia cards, including City Connect Swatch Collection Auto Relics. Collectors can also find the Rickwood Auto Relic Collection as well as Heavy Lumber Autographed Relics, numbered to 10 copies or less.
The popular silver packs make a triumphant return. It appears Topps will stick to the script of past years with an exclusive Mojo pattern Chrome design incorporating the 1990 Topps design.
Hitting hobby shops and online outlets on Feb. 12, boxes will be priced around $89.99.
Topps Series One, the company’s first big baseball set of 2025, gets collectors in the mood for baseball with Spring Training right around the corner and Opening Day a blink of an eye away. This baseball card set signifies a fresh start to a brand-new season.
2024 CLEARLY DONRUSS FOOTBALL
By the end of January, collectors saw 2024 Clearly Donruss Football take the field.
The annual product takes last season's Donruss design and makes it transparent for collectors, literally.
Hobby boxes are nearly transparent, too, as they offer four packs with five cards per pack. Each hobby box features one autograph, one insert and two parallels.
The base set adopts the Donruss design and is a mix of veterans and rookies all featuring the iconic Rated Rookie logo. As a bonus, rookies get updated photos, so it's a little more than just a straight Donruss reprint.
A handful of Rated Rookies also have autographed versions of their cards.
Other autographed themes that are synonymous with Donruss are found in this product, including Captains in Charge Autographs, Retro Autographs, and The Rookies Autographs.
A handful of Clearly inserts are found, including Night Moves, Retro and the comic book cover-style Gridiron Marvels.
Collectors can also find the wildly popular Downtown cards on the checklist, including cards featuring teammates. Another interesting yin to that yang are the Uptowns, featuring a bright matinee name plate, with some of the biggest stars in the game with a city skyline in the backdrop.
This offering is more upscale than Donruss or Optic, so expect to pay hundreds of dollars for a handful of cards. The high-end hits make it worthwhile but way more often than not, ripping a box won't play out in your favor.
2024 PANINI PRIZM WNBA MONOPOLY
In mid-January, collectors got their first look at WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark on official Panini Prizm cards in her Indiana Fever uniform.
The thick silver metallic border and well-known Prizm logo are magic and carry weight in the ultra-modern sports card hobby. Here's your chance to own that winning combination with Clark's rookie image attached.
2024 Panini Prizm Monopoly WNBA blasters released on Jan. 12. It offers the traditional elements of the classic boardgame's gameplay and also an opportunity to track down a wide range of colorful color blast cards of Clark and other top rookies and veterans in the league.
The 72-card base set has a plethora of parallels that are classic to long-running Monopoly and Prizm themes. Collectors can find Deal, Dice and Free Parking all the way down to 1/1 Black Prizms and White Millionaire Shimmers.
Blasters offer a paltry six packs per box with only four cards in each pack. Expect two inserts and parallels per blaster.
Clark has transcended women's basketball and basketball in general into the cultural zeitgeist. A chance to pull a Prizm Clark rookie card for around $30 makes the price tag worthwhile.
Tony Reid spent more than a decade covering combat sports and has written about sports collectibles for such publications as Beckett and Sports Collectors Daily. He works full time at a sports card shop in Central Pennsylvania and collects RCs of star players in baseball, basketball and football. If you want to talk about the greatness of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson or Ken Griffey Jr., you can reach him at @reidrattlecage on all social media platforms.
