- One of the sets may have already been released. Volume 2 of the "Pro Baseball Deforme" "metallic placards" was supposed to have been released by the end of March. These are cards from Bandai that feature player caricatures. The cards are being given away with bags of what's basically a bar snack called kaki no tane which I have not had myself but I've heard mixed reviews about. Like the first set that was released last summer, there are 36 cards in this set. I don't know if these are numbered in continuation of the first set (i.e. if they're numbered 37-72 or just 1-36). (UPDATE - The numbering of the cards is more complicated then I had remembered.)
- As promised, Calbee announced the information about this year's Series One set (including the checklist) a couple days ago. It will be released on May 5th (about six weeks later than usual) and is roughly the same smaller size that Calbee's sets have been the past few years. There will be 60 "regular" player cards (five per team), 21 "Title Holder" subset cards and six checklist cards, making the base set just 87 cards. The theme of the checklist cards is mascots which I find unfortunate. Not that I have anything against mascots per se but the checklist cards in Calbee sets frequently boasted some of the best photographs but that won't be happening this year. In addition to the base cards, there are also the insert/premium subset "Star" (24 cards) and "Legend" (three cards for retiring players - Norichika Aoki, Tsuyoshi Wada and T-Okada) cards. The checklist also lists a twelve card "Most Strikeouts" set that I assume is the box set available through Calbee's Amazon store but there's nothing that actually says that. I'm guessing the late release date and the fact that there's six checklist cards (Calbee usually does twelve total checklists, one featuring each NPB team) implies that there will again only be two Series this year instead of the three they'd done up from 2004 up until 2022.
- Speaking of disappointingly small flagship sets, Epoch has announced that the 2025 edition of their "NPB" flagship set will only have 240 cards (20 per team). This is quite the drop from the 432 cards that the set had between 2018 and 2023 and is even less than the 336 that last year's set had (I'm kind of ignoring the 12 OB cards that a number of the sets have as I'm focusing on the cards of the active players). All 240 cards will have a parallel version and there will be a 24 card "NPB Stars" insert set (which I assume will feature two players from each team). There will be 12 "GEM" serially numbered insert cards (not sure of what the print runs are for them) and 170 different autograph cards which will feature both active and OB players (despite there not being any OB players in the base set). The set will be released on June 21st.
- Epoch has also announced the first three of their "Premier Edition" team sets for 2025. The Swallows set will have a 39 card base set and will be released on April 26th, the Lions set will have a 37 card base set and will be released on May 3rd and the Fighters set will have a 46 card base set and will be released on June 7th. The Swallows and Fighters sets will include OB players as well as active ones. All the base cards have a "hologram" parallel version. Each set has the same batch of inserts - three varieties of "Regular Foil Signature" ("silver", "gold" and "hologram") (18 cards each), two varieties of "Regular Decomori Signature" ("hologram" and "hologram parallel") (18 cards each), five varieties of "Time To Shine" ("A","B","C","D","E") (six cards each) and three varieties of "Decomori Signature" ("gold","green" and "hologram") (six cards each). I think all the inserts are serially numbered. There are also the "GEM" and "BLACK GEM" "special insert cards" (nine cards in each) that I think are much more limited. Finally, each set has a bunch of associated autographed cards that are slightly different between the sets. The Swallows set has 36 "Authentic Autograph" cards, six "Star Autograph" cards, five "Rookie Autograph" cards, two "Legendary Autograph" cards and two "Combo Autograph" cards. The Lions set has 37 "Authentic Autograph" cards, five "Star Autograph" cards, seven "Rookie Autograph" cards, eight "Record Breaker Autograph" cards and three "Combo Autograph" cards. The Fighters set has 37 "Authentic Autograph" cards, five "Star Autograph" cards, six "Rookie Autograph" cards, nine "Legendary Autograph" cards and three "Combo Autograph" cards.
- Not to be left out, BBM announced the next three of their "comprehensive" team sets for 2025. I'll pretty much just repeat the general details for the sets that I've said before - each set has a base set of 81 cards, most of which are "regular" player cards featuring the manager and the players on the 70 man roster plus a couple subsets (which may not be fully defined yet) to fill out the set. Each set also has 18 non-premium insert cards split into a variety of sets which also may not be fully defined yet. The sets also have two or three types of premium inserts that are serially numbered - Treasure, Esperanza and Eminent. There will be rare parallel versions of some of the "regular" player cards that will feature photo variants or different backgrounds.
| Release Date | Team | Regular Cards | Subsets | Non-Premium Inserts | Treasure | Esperanza | Eminent | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid May | Dragons | 66 | Mascot(1), Generation Of Wonders(5), Combination Of Same School (3), To Pitch In 60 games (3), Positive Pink (3) | Core Players (9), Challengers (3), New Uniform Number (3), Rookies (3) | 24 | 15 | 24 | Autograph cards |
| Late May | Lions | 65 | Mascot(1), Resurrected Lions (6), Challengers To Change (3), Promising Classmates (3), Attention Units (3) | Claw My Way (9), Batmen Begin (3), Great Again (3), Rookies (3) | 24 | 15 | Autograph cards | |
| Late May | Giants | 63 | Promising Young Species (6), Veterans (3), Combination (3), Three Pillars (3), Main Hitters (3) | Giants Pride 2025(15), Rookies(3) | 24 | 15 | 12 | Additional Premium Insets of Cross Foil Signing (15), Combo Cross Foil Signing (2), Triple Cross Foil Signing (1), Triplex (3), Super Metallic Giants (9) plus memorabilia cards |
Remember that the Giants don't allow their players to have authentic autographed cards.
- The Lions are celebrating their 75th Anniversary in 2025 and BBM is commemorating it in a somewhat unique way. Instead of a single "Lions 75th Anniversary" set, BBM is instead issuing the set in four separate box sets. The first instance - "Lions 75th Anniversary Series Vol. 1" - will be released in late April and will be followed by additional instances in June, July and September. I don't know if each volume will have the same make up but Vol. 1 at least will contain 36 cards - a 35 card base set plus one "special insert card" which could be either a facsimile or authentic autograph. There will be 19 OB players spanning from 1950 to 1990 along with 16 active players.
- Bushiroad has announced expansion packs for two more teams for their DreamOrder collectible card game. The booser packs for the Swallows and Baystars will be released on May 24th. Each pack is 500 yen and contains five cards. I'm entirely sure what cards are available in the packs but it appears for each team there's some number (between 10 and 16) of "super rare" (SR) cards, ten "rare" cards and thirty "common" cards. I think that some of the cards are "reprints" which I assume means they're essentially duplicates of cards that were previously issued. There are also parallel and "special" parallel cards. OB players are available as well as active players. This leaves only the Marines and Fighters without 2025 booster packs and I assume those will be announced in the near future.
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