WTF Topps?

Topps is releasing three NPB sets this week - Stadium Club, Chrome and 206 - and there's information up on their Japanese website for all three of them.  The checklists for all three sets are available and from the very limited look that I took, I think all three sets contain the same players.  The base sets are each 216 cards which breaks down to 18 cards per team.  

While perusing the checklists today, I noticed something that I'm unsure how to describe my feelings about.  I was going to say "makes my blood boil" but that seems a bit excessive for a baseball card checklist.  I can't even say I was surprised because I really don't expect Topps to put any real effort into their NPB sets.  I guess annoyed and disappointed is the best way to describe my reaction.

I guess I should mention what caused this reaction, huh?  I'll get to that in a minute but first I'd like to remind you of what irritated me about their "flagship" set in both 2023 and 2024 - the sets weren't up-to-date.  All the photos had been taken the previous season and players who had changed teams over the off season weren't included in the sets.  It still seems incredible to me that Topps can't be "up-to-date" with a set that comes out a month after BBM's very "up-to-date" 1st Version set (which features photos taken in early training camp).  

The source of my ire with the new sets is centered around the inclusion of the team managers in the checklists.  According to these sets, the manager of the Lions is Kazuo Matsui, who stepped down as the team's manager in late May, over six months ago.  For whatever reason, Topps decided not to have cards of Hisanobu Watanabe, Matsui's replacement, instead.

All I can conclude is that Topps either doesn't care to put out a good product or is incapable of it.  They can get away with that crap in North American because they have a monopoly in MLB but they have actual competition in Japan.  My fear, though, is that instead of Topps improving their product, the other companies are going to decide they can get by with an inferior product.  I feel like Calbee is already heading down that path and some aspects of Epoch's NPB set this year worry me as well.  Hopefully, BBM will resist the "Topps-ification" of the NPB card market.