What Happens With The Topps MVP Buyback Program If Cal Raleigh Wins AL MVP? Here’s What A Topps Rep Says

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Cal Raleigh (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

Introduced a few years ago, the hugely popular Topps MVP Buyback program is built on a simple concept: Collect the base cards (and parallels) of players who might win MVP when Topps Chrome comes out in July, and if they are named MVP in November, you get anywhere from $20 to $1,200 per card in credit from card shops and retailers to buy even more cards and collectibles.

And while collectors have been having fun hoarding Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge cards since the Chrome release last month, this year there’s a glitch: There is no Cal Raleigh card in the release.

It’s a weird omission from the checklist, but one that collectors have been discussing since the checklist came out. And with Raleigh hitting his 50th home run and now in the lead in some MVP races, collectors want to know what happens if the Mariners catcher wins up as AL MVP.

The answer, provided in a customer service email from Topps, is that Raleigh’s card in Topps Chrome Update (likely due out in mid-November) would become the buyback-eligible card.

“If an MVP winner does not have base or base parallel cards in the 2025 Chrome Baseball release, but does appear in the 2025 Chrome Updates Baseball product with base or base parallel cards, those Chrome Updates cards will become eligible for buyback redemption at the same store credit values,” the email says. “This contingency applies only if the MVP does not have any eligible buyback cards in the original 2025 Chrome Baseball base checklist.”

In previous years, eventual MVP award winners always had card in the main Chrome release. And in the interest of fairness to Topps, this is the first time in recent memory that the battle for MVP has been this close (though the omission of Raleigh from the checklist is one that has puzzled collectors for months, as was the omission of Pete Crow-Armstrong, a contender for NL MVP until just recently).

Topps Chrome Update is likely to come out in mid-November, roughly the same time as the MVP announcements, and a Raleigh win would make Chrome Update an even hotter product (it will already feature the return of the Rookie Debut Patch chase).

Topps has already had to do a similar pivot this year; the “Red RC” rookie cards introduced in 2025 Bowman, which can be similarly “cashed in” for credit if any of those players are named Rookie of the Year, did not feature either Nick Kurtz or Cade Horton, currently the favorites for those awards. But both will have Red RC cards in the upcoming Bowman Chrome release (though Isaac Collins will not. So buckle up …)

Either way, it’ll be a fun end to the baseball season–and a fun next few months of card chasing.