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The announcement last week, and this week’s preorder on Topps website for 2025 Worst of Garbage Pail Kids 40th Anniversary was a whirlwind for collectors. 2025 is the year of change for Garbage Pail Kids. Topps is moving the brand in a new direction. GPKNews has reached out to numerous contacts and dug into the information provided by Topps. Hopefully the information below helps answers some of the most frequent questions since the launch. Here are a number of additional items regarding the set.

Notes on distribution and structure:

• Topps presale did sell out quickly, however that isn’t the only place collectors can buy boxes. Both Dave & Adams and Blowout Cards had listings for preorder now, but appear to be sold out currently.. GPKNews has heard hobby stores are also able to order boxes.
• This new distribution method is what Topps has moved almost all their other brands to since Fanatics bought the company. Topps routinely now does a preorder one month prior to release for retail releases. They will then often also offer boxes/cases on launch day. While there is no guarantee, there is a chance Topps will also have boxes available on launch day for sale.
• When Fanatics bought Topps one of their stated goals was to eliminate the middle man, mainly distributors. It’s harder than ever now for box resellers to get product at a Topps Direct price.
• In case you missed it, this is a Hobby only product. There will be no boxes in Target/Walmart.
• There are roughly 26k boxes produced. More than a Sapphire set, but much less than any other previous retail release.
• The set structure is a mix of a Sapphire release and Chrome 7. Very heavy emphasis on parallels and inserts. Huge deemphasis on base cards.
• Thanks to Ben Siegler’s awesome work, based on the odds, each box will only have 8 “a” base cards on average. Factoring in duplicates, it will most likely take two cases to make a base set. This is not a product for set collectors.
• I’ve added the full sell sheet from Topps to the previous article on details around the release.

Additional info on set:

• Topps is billing the base set as a, “celebration of the last 40 years”. That’s not quite accurate. 97 of the 100 cards are from OS. Here is a breakdown for what set the base cards originated.

  OS 1 – 27
  OS 2 – 21
  OS 3 – 11
  OS 4 – 12
  OS 5 – 4
  OS 6 – 3
  OS 7 – 4
  OS 8 – 2
  OS 9 – 4
  OS 10 – 2
  OS 11 – 2
  OS 13 – 2
  OS 14 – 3
  ANS 2 – 2
  BNS 1 – 1

• Topps confirmed with GPKNews that there are no Drool Blue parallels for the C Name cards.
• Likewise Topps tells GPKNews that there are indeed Printing Plates for B & C name cards. They were accidentally left off the odds posted by Topps.
• The Adam Bomb Homage to Garbahj insert set is being billed by Topps as having 40 new versions of Adam Bomb by 40 artists. However, that is not the case. Topps shared the artist checklist with GPKNews. There are 20 artists on the set, all but one, (Simko), new to GPK. Here is the artist checklist:
• 1. Andy Greiling
  2. Andy Greiling
  3. Art Fuentes aka ARF
  4. Art Fuentes aka ARF
  5. BeastWreck and Belle Dee (Jared Moraitis and Shana Bilbrey)
  6. BeastWreck and Belle Dee (Jared Moraitis and Shana Bilbrey)
  7. Corey Smith
  8. Corey Smith
  9. Corey Smith
  10. Curt Merlo
  11. Danny SchlitzART
  12. Danny SchlitzART
  13. Danny SchlitzART
  14. Danny SchlitzART
  15. EL GATO GOMEZ (Crystal Zurat-Marshall)
  16. EL GATO GOMEZ (Crystal Zurat-Marshall)
  17. Hag Fersner
  18. Hag Fersner
  19. Joe Simko
  20. Johnpaul Gutierrez
  21. Kat Hudson Art
  22. Kat Hudson Art
  23. Louis Wes
  24. Mary Ainza
  25. Mary Ainza
  26. Mary Ainza
  27. Megan Ann Boyd
  28. Niclas Mortensen
  29. Niclas Mortensen
  30. Niclas Mortensen
  31. Pepa Blackman
  32. Pepa Blackman
  33. Pepa Blackman
  34. Rebecca Puebla
  35. Rebecca Puebla
  36. Rob Bowyer (Massiveface)
  37. Shanti Rittgers
  38. Shanti Rittgers
  39. Shawn Dickinson
  40. Shawn Dickinson
• There are a record 101 sketch artists that completed sketches for this set. There are four new artists making their GPK debuts. Coysoup, David Day, Jeff Abar, and Kevin Graham are all veteran Topps artists who have worked on other brands. 
• The new sketch guidelines were used with some minor adjustments. The same sketch blanks that were used for Chrome 7 were used for this set. However, sketch artists received a mixture of blanks for their artist returns, unlike Chrome 7 where they were  all green sketch blanks.

Finally, the Topps sales listing does state they are planning on shipping boxes early to arrive on release day. 2025 Worst of GPK 40th Anniversary is scheduled to release July 11, 2025.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Garbage Pail Kids. Topps is celebrating that with 2025 Worst of Garbage Pail Kids 40th Anniversary set. For the first time with a GPK product Topps is doing a preorder on their website prior to release. Topps has moved to this distribution model for multiple products since Fanatics purchased the company. This release is set to be a Hobby only release. In addition to Topps, other channels that typically sell Hobby boxes could be getting some as well. This means big box retailers like Target and Walmart will not carry this set in stores.

The base set is comprised of 100 “a” name cards. All cards are reprints, celebrating the best GPKs over the past 40 years. GPKNews has an article up going over the rest of the known odds, set structure, including parallels, inserts, and special cards. Topps also released the checklist for the product. Each box comes with eight 5-card packs. This is a major change from previous releases. Each pack comes with at least one green parallel, and 4 base cards. Each box will have at least two numbered cards, and one “hit”, (auto, sketch, or printing plate. Topps has boxes available for $79.99, or 10 box cases for $799.99. Other sellers should have preorder information in the coming days. 2025 Worst of Garbage Pail Kids 40th Anniversary is scheduled to release July 11, 2025.

Update: Topps has added additional information to their preorder page for the set. There will be a 100 card base set consisting of a/b names, in addition to rare C name inserts. The base cards will be reprints from sets over the past 40 years. Each card will have the 40th logo on them. There will be plenty of parallels including  the new “rare” Ruby parallel. There will be a 40 card insert set of Adam Bomb, Homage to Garbahj. The set features 40 new versions and Adam Bomb done by 40 different artists. Topps mentions there will be autograph cards, rare parallels and the usual sketch cards. There is a mention of looking for super rare 40rh sketch cards done by artists Joe Simko and Tom Bunk. Finally there is mention of a contest to have your own GPK card in a future product. Topps also mentioned Hobby boxes will indeed be 8 pack/5 card boxes. This might be all the info that is released for the preorder.

Topps today, via their Twitter account, revealed  a couple of interesting tidbits about the upcoming preorder for 2025 Worst of Garbage Pail Kids 40th Anniversary. In their weekly schedule release tweet the company posted that Tuesday’s preorder would be for 5 card/8 pack boxes. The Hobby Box price is listed as “TBA”. The release time is set for 12:00 PM EST. The pack/box structure would be a major change in a retail GPK product. Not only is the pack total per box lower, but cards per pack is significantly lower at 5 cards per pack. GPKNews has heard today from one Retail Blaster distributor that this will be a Hobby only product. GPKNews has reached out to Topps for confirmation, but has not heard back. Since the Fanatics takeover of Topps, the company has moved to releasing very little information about products ahead of time. No sell sheets have been released about the product. The hope is Topps releases that with tomorrow’s preorder. 2025 continues to be a year of change for GPK.