Digital Dabblings #44 – (Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na) Backlash!

Digital Dabblings #44 – (Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na) Backlash!
By William M. Noetling – Specialist

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The State of the App for May 2025

Wrestlemania has come and gone, we got two new main champions in Jey Uso and John Cena.  Yes it’s 2025 and John Cena is the Heavyweight Champion.  No, I don’t expect him to lose to Randy Orton later today at Backlash.  He’ll be champion going into SummerSlam almost assuredly.

On the women’s side, both champions retained at ‘Mania, which was a little odd to say the least.  Early odds-on-favorite Charlotte Flair has really amped up the heel energy in her latest run, and seems like she’s fallen out of favor with collectors as well.  Since Mania only one of her cards has sold for more than $100, and most are selling for under $50.  Compare that to Alexa, Liv, Tiffany or Becky.  

Ray Fenix’s first cards have hit the app, and he seems to have more than a few collectors out there, which shouldn’t be surprising given the reception his brother Penta was given.  

Sometimes there is a post-Mania lull in the fandom, but this year I feel like the novelty of Topps Slam being back after 5 years nullified that paradigm.  It feels like Topps really is interested in appeasing the player base all around, rather than catering to the whales.  Though I will say that making virtually every legendary a paywall card is a little disingenuous.  It also makes it hard to keep track of which ones ARE available in coin packs, and thus less desirable on the secondary market.

Bringing out a massive amount of 1/1s for Chrome was a one step forward, two steps back kind of thing.  Too many 1/1s to collect, too many of the same wrestler, and coming on the heels of a disastrous Forge campaign, it really soured the FTP audience, while lining the coffers of Topps and Fanatics bank accounts.  

Because yeah the diamonds are flowing.  The Season Rewards program has been improved dramatically, adding a new exclusive set, Vanguards to the offerings.  The base set of 20 cards is available to all in an Uncommon variant, but if you purchase the season pass for $10 you will also get the exclusive Rare variants.  Once you reach level 50, if you are in the first 1000 to do so, and you’ve paid the $10, you also get a full set of Iconic Vanguards for free.  That’s on top of the over 2000 diamonds you get for $10.  It’s the best deal in the app for diamonds right now. 

As of this writing there are less than 150 Iconic sets available, so if you’re interested, get to cracking packs.  I really enjoyed trying to get to level 50 as fast as I could.  I spent well over 800,000 coins to get there too, plus a bunch of Diamonds as well.  I’ve hit the Platinum VIP for 3 months straight.  

New Sets May 2025

Base Sets

Tier 7 Yellow Lightning (Vanguard Season Rewards)

Topps Now

• Wrestlemania Week Roundup
  • Base (14 Cards, 6 variations Unc to Leg)
  • Matchup Posters (5 Legendary cards)
  • Short Print Base (3 Legendary cards)
• Smackdown April 25 (2 Uncommon cards)

Normal Insert Sets

• In the Name
  • Base (40 cards, 3 variations Unc. to SR) 1 Award
  • Relic (24 cards, 3 variations Rare to Icon) 1 Award
  • Signature (25 cards, 3 variations Rare to Icon) 1 Award
  • Signature Relic (25 cards, 3 variations, SR to Leg) 1 Award
  • Booklet (20 Legendary cards) 1 Award
  • Family Ties (6 Iconic Cards) 1 Award (Bundle Exclusives)
• Evolution of the Game
  • Base (12 cards, 3 variations Unc to SR) 1 Award
  • Motion (12 cards. 3 variations Rare to Icon) 1 Award
• CMYK
  • 4 color variations of each card that can be crafted into a full color rare of the same card.  2 cards each drop.  2 drops.
• Inception Black
  • Base (23 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg. 1/1) 1 Award
  • Relic Motion (13 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg. 1/1) 1 Award
  • Signature Motion (12 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg. 1/1) 1 Award
  • Signature Relic (12 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg. 1/1) 1 Award
  • Limited Signature Relic Booklet (11 cards, 1 variation Leg.) 1 award
  • Mat Relic Sequentially Numbered (7 cards, numbered to 3)
• Tag Team Turmoil
  • Base (28 cards, 4 variations Unc to Icon) 1 Award
  • Motion (28 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg) 1 Award

PLE Based Sets

Wrestlemania 41

• Die Cut Playing Cards
• • Base (13 cards, 3 variations Unc to SR), 1 Award
  • Signature (13 cards, 3 variations R to icon), 1 Award

Backlash

• Backlash Predictors (4 Uncommon cards)
• Backlash Rewind Event (10 cards, 4 variations Unc to Icon)
• Main Set
  • Base (40 cards, 4 variations Unc. to Icon) 1 Award
  • Relic (20 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg) 1 Award
  • Signature (20 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg) 1 Award
  • Signature Relic (22 cards, 4 variations Rare to Leg) 1 Award

Season Reward Sets

• Vanguard (20 cards, 4 variations, Unc. to Icon) 1 Award

New Additions to Ongoing Sets

Monthly:

VIP (Unc CM Punk, Rare-Cody Rhodes, SR-Carmelo Hayes)

Daily:
Main Event Famous Faction Daily Sets

Each has two Variations (Uncommon/Rare) 5 Daily cards, 1 Award

• Wrestlemania Debuts
• Wrestlemania 41 Stars
• Mother’s Day

Monday:
Superstar Portraits (3 Variations R to Icon), 1 Award

• Tiffany Stratton
• Triple H
• Gunther

 

Wednesday:

Editor’s Choice (3 Variations Unc. to SR) 1 Award

• Andrade
• Maxinne Dupri

 

Thursday:
Throwback Thursday (2 variations Unc. & R) 1 Award

• Asuka
• Rhea Ripley (Series Ends)

Technicians (2 variations, Unc & R) 1 Award

• Kurt Angle

 

Friday:
Free Pack Friday (2 variants, UNC&SR, 1 award)

• 4-25-25 Montez Ford (29001 CC)
• 5-2-25 Ravishing Rick Rude (27669 CC)
• 5-9-25 Bron Breakker 

Every time I do these set updates, it starts to look overwhelming, and this is just 3 weeks worth of releases!  

 

New Sets:

Topps released their third incarnation of “In the Name” which features the performer and their name in bold typeface.  The previous 2020 and 2021 releases also featured the material based variations.  Nothing super exciting here except for the limited booklet releases.  The “Family Ties” set was available as an incentive to purchase card bundles and those sold robustly.  

Triple H got his own spotlight set, as well as a slot in their weird “Ascendency” mostly paywall line.  I think my best take on these cards is that the design is “busy”.

CMYK is a carry over from other Topps apps.  Uncommon “printing plate” versions of each card can be crafted into a full color version.  Uncommons were 1:3 in packs, and not that easy to pull.  I like the gimmick, but I think it could be a bit more thought out.

Tag Team Turmoil was supposed to feature the best Tag Teams of all time, but really the checklist is missing some big names.  I suppose those will be left for series 2.  Nothing really exciting here, except a few more Legendaries for player collectors.

Inception Black is the most recent set, having dropped just a couple days ago.  So far it seems to be doing very well.  It’s the latest incarnation of the set that goes back to 2019, so it has a pedigree with collectors.  Very limited Legendarys are also propping up sales.  The pull rates for paywalls seem to be really tough as well.  

PLE Sets

The last Wrestlemania set was released just as my last column was published.  While I loved the concept of a Playing Card based set, the execution was so less than stellar.  I mean, why was every card a 10?  Why didn’t they stagger the cards out with the champions as Aces, IC/US champions as Kings, tag champions as Queens, etc.  Something, anything different would have been better.

Backlash includes the first PLE cards of the aforementioned Rey Fenix.  Otherwise it’s a bog-standard PLE set.  Having limited Legendaries helps sales though and makes collectors happy.

Just before I finished this article Topps released a new Backlash set entitled “Icons and Outlaws” with only Uncommon to Iconic variations.  There isn’t much else to say about this set though, it’s very much the standard render on a new background.

Secondary Market Update

Trading remains very very robust within the app, and collectors are gobbling up releases left and right.  Weekly and Daily set cards trade extremely heavily right before the awards and I’ve noticed that stuff like the daily Main Event will almost always attract overpays, whether or not you advertise that you have dupes.  Lately I’ve been trying to pull multiples of the Main Event daily rare, as I’ve gotten some ridiculously massive overpays for them right before the award drops.  

The returning Becky Lynch saw a large upswing in demand for her cards, but Alexa Bliss is still by and far the most popular woman in the app, selling twice as many lots on ebay as Becky, who is #2.

The 1/1 market remains very volatile, though I think we’ve seen the last of the many $500+ sales.  Sure there might be an outlier here or there, but I think that’s just too high for most performers now.  Especially with the sheer number of 1/1s available, and more keep coming.  I’ve decided that I’ll take a look at the 1/1 sales every two months now.

Top 20 Single Card Sales
April 2025
(Indexed May 9, 2025 from Ebay.com and 130point app.

 

Rank	Year	Set	Performer	Variant	CC	Hi	Lo	# sold
1	2018	High Caliber	Alexa Bliss	Gold Signature	5	$600		1
2	2020	Triple Thread	Alexa Bliss	Relic signature	10	$323		1
3	2025	Wrestlemania	The Rock	Hidden Gems	15	$300	$150	2
4	2025	Chrome	Alexa Bliss	Legendary	10	$250		1
5	2025	Wrestlemania	Roman Reigns	Hidden Gems	15	$230		1
6	2025	Wrestlemania	Hulk Hogan	Hidden Gems	15	$225		1
7	2025	Wrestlemania	Roxanne Perez	Red Signature	5	$220	$100	4
8	2025	In The Name	Liv Morgan	Patch Booklet	25	$150	$145	2
9	2025	Wrestlemania	The Rock	Legendary Relic	5	$150		1
10	2025	Chrome	Roxanne Perez	Red Signature	5	$145	$125	3
11	2025	In The Name	Rhea Ripley	Patch Booklet	25	$130	$60	3
12	2025	Wrestlemania	Triple H	Hidden Gems	15	$125	$100	2
13	2025	Chrome	Roxanne Perez	Legendary Sig	10	$125		1
14	2021	Five Star	Rock/Cena/Reigns	Triple Signature Award	10	$115		1
15	2025	In The Name	Trish Stratus	Patch Booklet	25	$110		1
16	2025	In The Name	Chelsea Green	Patch Booklet	25	$99		1
17	2025	In The Name	John Cena	Patch Booklet	25	$99		1
18	2025	In The Name	Roman Reigns	Patch Booklet	25	$99		1
19	2025	Chrome	Roxanne Perez	Black Signature	10	$99		1
20	2021	Museum	John Cena & The Rock	Dual Signature Booklet	25	$95		1

I’ll be shooting for Saturday June 7 for the next column, until then if you have any comments, questions or concerns, send me an email to wmnoe@yahoo.com, or hit me up u/wmnoe on Reddit.com.  Remember, I’m GRENDELSEN in the app if you wanna trade!