The baseball card community is in an uproar over the 2025 Topps Black & White set.
A detailed viral analysis on Reddit has exposed what collectors are calling a massive distribution failure.
The center of the storm? The coveted "Golden Hour" parallels.
Topps initially sold roughly 5,000 "Pre-Order" boxes. Collectors ripped through these expecting the usual hit rates. They found nothing.
Data from over 260 documented boxes—including live streams and personal rips—showed a 0% hit rate for Golden Hour cards.
The scandal deepened when a second wave of boxes, sold on "Release Day," hit the market.
Suddenly, Golden Hours were everywhere.
In one documented sample, the parallels were appearing at a rate of nearly one per box.
The theory on Reddit: Topps likely missed the Golden Hours in the first production run and "stuffed" them all into the remaining 2,000 release-day boxes to balance the print run.
Pre-order buyers paid full price for boxes that had zero chance of hitting the set's premier parallel.
Many want Topps to do something.
I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a response.
