Inside 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures with Andy Friedman

Discover 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures

Artist Andy Friedman and Topps have teamed up once again, putting a fresh spin on a new collection of classic Topps cards. The 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures by Andy Friedman set is the spiritual successor to his renowned Spotlight Baseball series, expanding the scope of his artistic renderings. It’s the most ambitious set yet from this popular collaboration, delivering more of Friedman’s artistic reimaginations of beloved Topps cards.

“Beyond being able to bring Andy’s artwork to The Hobby at large, collaborating with him has always been tremendous fun,” said Topps product manager Matthew Castoral. “With Shoebox Treasures, we feel like we’ve created a product with universal appeal, combining nostalgia, art, fun, and desirability into a truly unique offering. Plus, the card packs come in an actual shoebox, which is pretty cool, too.”

While drawing on the inspiration behind the popular Spotlight sets, 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures brings new works and fresh innovations, providing collectors with the chance to join Friedman’s brilliantly crafted journey through the storied history of Topps trading cards in a number of exciting and original ways. 

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures by Andy Friedman once again places the artist and the brand at the intersection of art, sport, nostalgia, and The Hobby.  

The Cards of 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures by Andy Friedman features a 100-card base set, in addition to a 12-card First Light Rookies 1990 Redux insert, a 10-card 1951 Bowman short print and 12-card 1990 Bowman insert, an artist short print, and an artist super short print. 

The base cards include current Hobby superstars Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Bobby Witt Jr., modern legends like Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, and Rickey Henderson, and historic greats including Stan Musial and Ted Williams. There’s even a reimagining of the 1962 Topps Manager’s Dream card featuring Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. 

Of the base set subjects, 41 also have autographed cards in 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures, including Derek Jeter, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, and more. Parallels are numbered from 99 down to one-of-one gold foil cards for base cards, inserts, and base auto variations. Single boxes include a cello-wrapped Bubblegum foil parallel exclusive to the format, while Vintage Stock and Wood Stock parallels are numbered to 10 and five, respectively. Vintage Stock cards are unglossed, and the Wood Stock parallels are printed on wood, similar to the popular Heavy Lumber cards found in Topps Flagship. 

The paintings use the old cards as a jumping off point. For Friedman, the imperfections that come with his style of art are what gives the new cards that fresh twist. “I didn’t want even an imaginary art director looking over my shoulder and telling me, ‘You’re drawing Dave Winfield, but it doesn’t look like it,’” Friedman said. “There’s no pressure to make faithful likenesses. Instead, they’re expressions, and it’s allowed the art to come out.” 

The reference cards for the base set range from 1952 to 2024. The 1990 throwback insert draws inspiration from 2025 Topps Baseball Series 1 and features some of The Hobby’s most hotly chased rookies from the class of 2025, including James Wood and Jacob Wilson.

“With these cards, I viewed them as sort of like landscapes,” Friedman said. “There’s nostalgia, for sure. I like to say I kind of paint the psychological reality of the card.”

Each reproduction is born of an original painting from Andy Friedman himself. Not only does 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures include one-of-one printed gold foil parallels, but collectors can also chase the original paintings themselves, putting one-of-a-kind pieces of art into the hands of The Hobby.

Original Paintings can be found in the Collector’s Edition format, with each box containing an encased hit — either an Original Painting or a Canvas Stock SSP. In keeping with Spotlight Baseball 3, the originals are not only one-of-ones to be chased, as the paintings themselves are also checklisted.

For the first time, Friedman and Topps have expanded the collaboration to include cards from beyond the Topps Baseball landscape. “Shoebox Treasures breaks the mold of a traditional Topps product by incorporating multiple Topps-owned brands into the checklist,” Castoral said. The 1951 Bowman cards are sure to be a popular addition, with the iconic set reimagined by Friedman through a 10-card offering, which includes famous cards of Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays. The base cards include reference cards from Topps Baseball, Chrome®, Finest, Mini, Allen & Ginter, Topps NOW®, and more. 

“Ahead of Topps’ 75th anniversary, we wanted Shoebox Treasures to function as a retrospective of sorts,” Castoral said. “As a collector myself, it’s really appealing to see such a broad swath of Topps history represented in a single product, especially some of the more obscure, under-appreciated releases.”

But wait, there’s more! As part of the expansion across brands, 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures offers a stunning four-card non-sport super short print subset featuring Garbage Pail Kids and Topps Mars Attacks. This includes the famous 1985 GPK Adam Bomb card, as well as the most valuable card from Mars Attacks, Mars Explodes. 

Unlike the style on display throughout the set, the 1951 Bowmans, Garbage Pail Kids, and Mars Attacks cards, show Friedman’s chops at more faithfully recreating the iconic images — paying homage to the artists that created them. “These are photorealistic representations that look indiscernible from the source,” he explained. 

These special cards weren’t made using ink and watercolor. Instead, they were all painted in gouache, giving the art a heavier look. “This wasn’t just about matching the likeness,” Friedman said. “I wanted to match the method and medium that the original Topps artists in the ‘fifties ’50s used.”

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures also includes two cards of the artist himself — a short print and super short print. The short print features Friedman in the style of a 1970 Topps Baseball card. Auto versions of the card are in the release, including a one-of-one signed in white ink. The super short print uses a portrait painted by renowned sports artist James Fiorentino. On the card back, there’s a themed crossword created by crossword constructor Natan Last, a contributor for The New Yorker and The New York Times.

“For these cards, I wanted to put the spotlight, no pun intended, on other artists,” Friedman explained. 

Chasing a one-of-one Shoebox Treasure

As a cherry on top of the new Shoebox Treasures set, Friedman has painted the famous 1952 Topps Baseball miscut Jackie Robinson card that shows a piece of Mickey Mantle’s 1952 grail card alongside it. The only painting to not be reproduced into card form for the set, 2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures offers this phenomenal chase for the truly dedicated collector.

“For the first time, there’s no card of this painting,” Friedman explained. “One person in the world is going to get their hands on this. It’s the first time Topps has issued a painting without a corresponding card in the set.” It’s yet another way that Friedman is bridging the world of art with The Hobby.

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures by Andy Friedman is Nearly Here

This exciting new release from Friedman’s popular Topps collaboration is almost here. The set drops on September 4 at 12:00 pm ET.

Find out more here and get a look at the full checklist in preparation for this one-of-a-kind set.

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