Debut Year: 2019 
Licensors: 
Value Level: Accessible Brand History
Living Set stands apart from other Topps brands with incredible hand-painted portraits for every card.
Topps Living Set debuted in the US with Major League Baseball, Star Wars and WWE where it became a beloved Hobby brand. In Europe, ‘Living Set’ kicked off with the UEFA License in 2019, with Lionel Messi being the very first card to feature in the collection as #1. The brand has since developed into one of Topps’ biggest and most popular online brands, with collectors trying to get their hands on beautifully designed cards featuring some of the biggest stars and hottest prospects in world football. The use of illustrated artwork to create portraits for cards was a huge innovation and one that has produced some of the best-looking cards in Topps history.
The UEFA brand experienced a refresh in early 2023, with the introduction of two new artists – Louise Cobbold & Mike O’Brien. These artists took the cards to the next level, creating stunningly detailed illustrations that have made UEFA Living Set cards stand out from other collections.
In May 2024 we switched focus temporarily from the UEFA Club Competitions to the historic Euro tournament in Germany, with an updated design and players featured in their national kits
What are Living Set cards?
Topps partner with incredible illustrators to produce stand-alone pieces of art and capture these in iconic retro designs. As part of a ‘Living Set’ the cards are part of an ever-growing collection, released weekly on Topps.com. A player can only have one card in the Living Set (unless they change teams), so in some cases there are limited opportunities to collect cards of a specific player over the course of their whole career.
As well as incredible art in the UEFA & EURO 2024 Living Set, each card-back contains career information and statistics for each player, creating a snapshot in time as the Living Set collection grows each season. The card-stock is different to most other cards, with a mat/raw carboard effect which adds to retro-styling of the Living Set brand.
There are three living Set cards released per week, with each card available for a limited period of seven days. The cards feature all four UEFA club competitions and, for a limited time, players from Euro 2024. You can also look out for hand-drawn cards in other sports and entertainment brands such as MLB, WWE and Star Wars. The current UEFA Living Set program goes live at Topps.com every Thursday afternoon. This is a print on demand product with cards orders placed online and product shipped straight to your door. Print runs for each card and the whole back catalogue can be viewed on the Topps US website, navigating to the UEFA archive. Look out for low print runs which can add a lot of value to cards.
Who is Living Set for?
Living Set is a product which everyone can appreciate, the quality of the portraits and classic styling speaks to veteran collectors, with the current players and young stars bringing the content right up to the present. It is an easy entry point with additional value if collectors buy a 3-card bundle containing each card from the weekly release. Collectors may be interested in a particular team or player, Rookies (debut season, denoted by an ‘RC’ logo), and players will only get a very limited number of cards in this format, making Living Set cards of top players comparatively rare to other Topps programs. You can also collect groups of players from specific teams, eras or countries as a great way to increase the trading value.
