2024-25 Topps Merlin UEFA Club Competitions is finally here. Yes, Topps managed to sneak it in a few days short of the start of 2026. I have been getting asked for months if Topps was scrapping Merlin after news that Stadium Club was scrapped for the 2024-25 release year. Merlin used to be one of my favorite releases of the year. That was in large part due to the fact that the other major Topps soccer releases were Champions League only and Merlin included Europa and Conference League which provided us fresh new rookies. With most Topps soccer card sets now being Club Competitions that is no longer the case. Even in this super loaded Topps soccer release schedule there does seem to be excitement for 2024-25 Topps Merlin UEFA so check the review below to see what you can expect.
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2024-25 Topps Merlin UEFA Breakdown
Checklist – HERE
Box Makeup – Hobby – 1 Auto, 3 #’d cards (Search On Ebay)
Blaster – Who knows but probably 1 #’d card, ~2 Autos per case (Search On Ebay)
Print Run – Can’t really know without the odds but higher than last 2023-24
Soccer Cards HQ Review – It’s hard for me to do an in-depth review of 2024-25 Topps Merlin UEFA without the pack odds. With these huge print sets that have case hits I like to be able to give print runs and such to make you a better-informed collector. Topps has gotten very lax lately with odds and even checklists in some occasions which is not great. Considering the box makeups seem to be roughly in line with last year we can look to the parallels and figure the print run in 2024-25 which seems to be up about 14% although it’s hard to tell now that they introduced Breaker’s Delight. Topps lowered the total amount of numbered parallels from last year’s 2490 to 2075 this year with the highest numbered parallel dropping from 399 to 250 but the base checklist is up to 200 from 147. They added some new parallels under Gold /50 with brings the total number of base cards numbered 50 or less to 279 up from 196 last year. They also upped the total number of Rookie Variation Parallels from 166 in 2023-24 to 265 in 2024-25. All of those changes will make collectors feel better about their hits. At the end of the day it’s all kind of “fun with numbers” which is why you are usually better off just sticking to the tried-and-true base colors from 2017 Topps Chrome.
One big difference between 2024-25 Topps Merlin UEFA and 2023-24 Merlin products is one had Lamine Yamal rookie cards and one doesn’t. The 2024-25 rookie class has proven not to be all that hobby great so far and with Merlin coming so late these players have had so many previous rookies there isn’t a ton to get excited about. The one rookie that I guess could be interesting is Charalampos Kostoulas (Search On Ebay). he doesn’t have any previous rookies so he won’t have many. He is 18, plays forward and is already in the EPL. Granted he is not playing much and he’s on Brighton so not exactly a great recipe from that standpoint and by no means am I telling you to invest, but you will be seeing him pumped. If he does get hot these cards should do well. If you’re a Serbian collector, you have some cool rookies to chase.
The Merlin Match Ball Autos (Search On Ebay) are back as a case hit. Topps made a point to market that these were “Real’ and “Actual” match balls. Seems like they are playing fast and loose with those descriptions. I would hope they would say match used if they actually were. I do think the Match Ball Autos are still cool cards regardless, but they never get a ton of love. Topps did make dual Match Ball Autos this year as single cards instead of booklets like last year. The teammate parings this year are better than last year as well. Know that Match Balls will not be in Breaker’s Delight if you’re entering breaks. The Shiny (Search On Ebay) is a new insert this year that seems to be rarer than a case hit. These cards look pretty cool in my opinion. I wish they would have done parallels of them as those would have looked incredible. Renaissance (Search On Ebay) is back and thought to be a case hit, but some early cases have been missing them so without the odds it’s hard to tell. Other than that, most of the inserts we have either seen before or aren’t rare enough to move the needle. The Merlin 1995 30th Anniversary cards look cool. They are another one that could have used parallels.
Marks of Excellence (Search On Ebay) is also featured in 2024-25 Topps Merlin UEFA. The checklist does have Lionel Messi and Sir Alex Ferguson which will be chases. It is believed that all the MOE will be the new design. Without the odds it’s tough to know how often these will be hit. The rest of the auto checklist is pretty standard. The non base autos really lean into the Merlin “Wizard” theme.
Topps released hobby boxes at $220 and they have sold out. I am not surprised they sold out at that price because there hasn’t been a traditional non high-end Topps UEFA hobby set released in a while. At the same time you can get 2024-25 Topps Chrome UEFA boxes for cheaper that that now. I think there a lot of soccer collectors that do enjoy Merlin, but the reality is the overall resale market shows that it’s much lower than say Chrome. Outside of soccer collectors it has no crossover appeal which hurts resale. Merlin is a soccer only set because of it’s heritage. To get huge resale you need collectors from other sports that want the cards and that just isn’t the case here. I expect pricing to stay about where it is as it’s good enough to not drop a ton but doesn’t have the ceiling cards to go up a ton either. If you enjoy Merlin, then have a go. If not it’s an easy pass as there are loads of new products coming.
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