More than 100 years after playing his final game, Shoeless Joe Jackson will get his first Topps cards when 2025 Bowman Chrome Baseball arrives later this month.
One of baseball’s most important but controversial players, Jackson will be included as one of the set’s Retrofractor subjects, with parallels numbered out of 50, 25, 5 and 1.
Though Jackson is best known for the Black Sox Scandal in which eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox conspire to fix the World Series, his 12-year career is considered legendary among baseball historians.
Permanently banned from baseball as well as the Baseball Hall of Fame for the scandal, Jackson was among the deceased players removed from the permanently ineligible list by commissioner Rob Manfred in May.
Retrofractors first debuted in 2023 as a way for Topps to give the coveted “1st Bowman” designation to notable players who never received it. For some collectors, 1st Bowman prospect cards, which were first used in 1996, are the single most important release for each player.
Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax, Pete Rose, Roberto Clemente, Carl Yastrzemski and Josh Gibson are among the players to receive Retrofractor cards over the last two Bowman Chrome releases.
To date, the most paid for a Jackson card of any kind is the $600,000 spent on a 1910 Old Mill Series 8 PSA 3.5 at Heritage in 2019. Jackson also appeared in the iconic 1915 Cracker Jack set — his most expensive sale from that release is the $504,000 paid for an SGC 9 at Heritage in 2024.
The record sale for a Retrofractor card at public auction is the $17,080 paid for a Sandy Koufax Superfractor Autograph 1/1 at Goldin in March.
This year’s Bowman Chrome Baseball set is scheduled to release Tuesday.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.