Chicago Transplant is a Flagship Master Set Collector
Immigrating from the Philippines to the United States as an 11-year-old, James Anama didn’t know much about baseball. However, his grandma stepped in and taught him the sport. Living in the suburbs of Chicago in 1987, he became a Cubs fan. The Cubs may not have had a very good record that season, but they had the greatest player of all time in Anama’s eyes: Andre Dawson.
Anama started collecting cards, which led him to going after complete sets of Topps each year. Anama’s collecting journey made an aggressive shift years later.
“I didn’t realize that inserts were that big a thing until 2001, the 50th anniversary [of Topps],” Anama said. “Then I just started backtracking and buying and looking for sets to complete.” Anama took a gradual approach to his set-chasing, reveling in the fun of it. “I love the game. I’ve seen how it’s evolved and how baseball cards have evolved through the decades. And it’s just been a collection of mine that has stuck.”
Anama has become a master of collecting master sets of each Topps Flagship release. A master set consists of a complete base set along with all the insert sets. It’s become a fun project for Anama to finish each year, and he’s pieced together every Topps Flagship set from 1976 — his birth year — to the present.
“It’s really rare to find people who actually collect full sets of cards, base and inserts,” Anama said. “I see everywhere, ‘Oh, I have every Topps card from 1960, 1970.’ That’s an incredible achievement, but no one really talks about getting all the insert sets that go along with it.”
Over the course of his collecting journey, the Flagship release has become a special part of Anama’s life. “I love the history of baseball. I’m not like heavy duty into it. But when it comes to the cards, I love the history of them.”
Completing a Set
On January 7th, Anama posted online that he had finally completed the 2024 Topps master set: all 2,027 cards. He showed off his six-inch binder filled with Series 1, 2 and Update, as well as 20 insert sets, five super short prints, the Trading Card Day set, the Costco set, and five factory set variation cards.
“I love seeing every page complete, that’s probably the biggest accomplishment,” Anama said. “Every page is filled with the cards that are meant to be in there.” After he completed his 2024 master set, he found a short print version of the Aaron Judge Paw Patrol card. That put the total set at a whopping 2,028 cards.
That might seem like a huge set, but it isn’t the biggest Anama has put together over the years. He estimates that the 2007 Topps Flagship set was the largest. That year, the insert set Generation Now alone consisted of 582 cards, filling up an entire binder on its own. Anama builds his sets by buying a hobby box and knocking out as many base cards and inserts as possible. He will then go online and make trades to acquire cards he needs to complete a master set. Anama enjoys hand-collating every set.
“Once a product goes live, I’m really going into the trading websites.” Anama said. “I’m trying to build up, trying to see if I can get a transaction going with a guy that maybe has 15 or 20 cards all at once instead of doing one or two small trades.”
Anama’s Favorite Sets Over the Years
Anama’s favorite Flagship inserts throughout the years are the 35-year anniversary sets. For the 2024 product, Topps used the 1989 design to produce some epic cards.
“My wheelhouse is ’87, ’88, ’89, and ’90, so these last four years I’ve loved seeing how the design would look with today’s players,” Anama said. “I love the reprint sets. I have the Mantle, Mays, Clemente, Ryan, Hank Aaron ones.”
The 1989 Topps release is Anama’s favorite complete set of all time.
“This past year was a great year for me,” Anama said. “If they decide to continue the theme of 35 years and they get to 1992, I’ll probably be excited for that, because I love that design as well.” The 1992 set has a special place in Anama’s heart because it contains his favorite card. Anama was down to just one card to complete his set that year, but the Jose Tolentino escaped him. He searched high and low, but it wasn’t until he sifted through some boxes at a shop that he found the elusive card. Now that Anama has completed the 2024 Flagship set, he can turn his attention to the 2025 product.
“I love how the design looks,” Anama said. “It’s nice that Topps was putting images of some of the superstar players — this is what Yamamoto’s card looks like, what Bobby Witt’s card looks like. Excitement’s building up. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do with the 1990 set. I love that year’s design. That’s my childhood.”
