Alright, so I finally got around to tackling that 2025 Topps baseball checklist project that’s been sittin’ in my drafts forever. Started off simple – grabbed my coffee, plopped down at the kitchen table around 8 AM, and fired up the laptop. First thing I did was dig through Topps’ official announcements scattered across their forums and press releases. Took me a solid hour just to cross-reference release dates and confirm which series were dropping when. Kept bouncing between four different browser tabs like a pinball.
Then came the real headache: trying to track down confirmed players and subsets. You’d think they’d make this stuff easy to find, right? Nope. Had to dive deep into MLB transaction reports from December 2024 to see roster changes, plus scan through hobby forums where guys leak checklist rumors months early. Found this one Japanese rookie pitcher everybody’s buzzing about – Daisuke Tanaka or somethin’ – took three Reddit threads and a Google Translate nightmare just to verify his card number.
- Made a huge mistake early on – spent two hours logging series 1 autograph signers before realizing Topps hadn’t officially confirmed the damn checklist yet. Wasted a whole morning!
- Started handwritten notes before switching to Google Sheets around lunchtime. Color-coded tabs for base cards, parallels, autos. Looked like a rainbow exploded.
- Got sidetracked remembering how I accidentally bought 2024 update packs last year thinking they were 2025. Felt like an idiot when the cashier pointed out the giant “24” on the box.
When the coffee ran out around 3 PM, the REAL work began. Transferred everything to a printable PDF checklist – formatting that thing was hell. Wanted it clean for people to actually USE, not just my scribbles. Adjusted column widths fourteen times because rookie names kept getting cut off. Of course Microsoft Word crashed right when I hit save. Lost twenty minutes of edits and nearly threw my mouse through the window.
Finished up around dinner time. Final checklist looks sharp though. Got all series covered from opening day to update packs, with notes on short prints and where you might pull that elusive Mike Trout dual relic. Makes me wonder why Topps can’t just publish something this organized themselves instead of making us puzzle it together like baseball card detectives.