Sportscard Playground

Q. I see "2008 Trading Card History" as an insert in 2008 Topps Baseball. I've opened multiple boxes of these cards and have still never seen some of the players listed, but they're only valued at $3-5. How can they be so hard to get

A. It's a little misleading. Some of those "Trading Card History" cards aren't in packs. For the last few years, TOPPS has been releasing special limited edition sets of baseball and football cards in conjunction with hobby shops (like us). For Baseball, the set has been called Trading Card History. The 2008 set had cards 1-25 inserted in packs of Series 1 and 2 Topps Baseball, with cards 26-50 available through us (with purchase). The football card program is called Turn Back the Clock, and for 2008, it was a 40 card set, with odd numbered cards (starting at card #7) available in packs of basic 2008 Topps Football and even numbered cards (plus cards 1, 3, and 5) available through us (again, with purchase). A new card was released each week of the 2008 NFL season. For 2009, the Baseball program is being named "Ring of Honor" and will include 75 legendary World Series winners. The breakdown of how you complete the set is as follows: Odd numbered cards from 1-49 are available in 2009 Topps Series 1 Baseball packs. Even numbered cards from 2-50 are available through us, and like last year, one new card is offered each week. The final 25 cards (#'s 51-75) will be inserted in Series 2 Topps Baseball.

Q. I see so many different Topps Baseball factory sets, but they're for the same year. Do they have different cards

A. Good question! For the most part, they ARE the same, but it can be confusing because they look different. For 2007, for example, there are at least 8 different looks for the set, but all of them have the same basic 661 cards (one of each card from Series 1 and Series 2). There is different packaging, aimed to appeal to different collectors. One set featured Mickey Mantle on it; another featured Barry Bonds; and yet another featured 3 top rookies. There was also one that had a Barry Bonds game used card on top of the set, as a bonus. Then, there was a team-specific set, one for each of 5 teams chosen by Topps (Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, and LA Dodgers were selected for 2007) whose packaging featured stars of that team.

So, besides the packaging, are these sets different at all? Well, a little bit. There are a number of bonus cards that come packaged in each set. These are cards not in the normal 661 base set. They are meant to reward the collector for buying the factory set, and these cards vary depending on which set you purchase. The team specific sets feature 5 cards of players from that team. The set featuring the 3 rookies on the package had a bonus of 10 exclusive rookie variation cards inside; and the Bonds and Mantle sets each had yet another different set of 5 cards. While it certainly could be that one set of 5 or 10 cards would be much more appealing than another and therefore lead to one set being more attractive than another to the majority of collectors, this hasn't been the case so far. We don't get asked for a specific 2007 set by the majority of our customers.

A. This answer has gotten more difficult since 2006, when the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) changed the guidelines of what makes a rookie card a true rookie card (and added a special Rookie card logo to each card falling within their new guidelines as of that date). Topps' Bowman brand historically featured many rookie players before their major league debuts. Bowman scouts did a tremendous job finding and featuring minor leaguers early on and producing their first official rookie card in the Bowman set. The rookie rules change in 2006 was multi-fold, but mandated that to be considered a true rookie card, the player must be on the major league team's 40 man roster; so players now must be in the major league to have an official rookie card. Bowman will still be able to feature minor leaguers, but only as subset or insert cards. It's a confusing issue and one not easily understood by many hobby enthusiasts, but to make it simpler, there are many players who were moved up to the major league for the first time in 2006. All of their basic 2006 set cards will therefore bear the new Rookie card logo. However, this player may have had a card already released in a previous year (often in a Bowman set, and already considered to be the player's first true rookie card).

Therefore, while the 2006 set cards will say "Rookie" on them, they are in fact not considered by the hobby as the player's true rookie. The easiest way to determine whether a card is a true rookie is by looking it up in one of the price guides. Beckett Baseball, Beckett's Sports Card Monthly (their new multi-sport price guide, introduced in April 2008), and the newly re-named Tuff Stuff's Sports Collectors Monthly are using "RC" to label a player's true rookie cards (the "RC" had already been used by Beckett, but not by Tuff Stuff; and it appears after the player's name in the price guide). In 2006, both magazines adopted a new "(RC)" label (note the parentheses around the "RC" ) to classify players whose cards have the new Rookie logo but who had hobby-defined rookie cards in previous years.

A. No. In 2006, Major League Baseball announced that only Upper Deck and Topps would be their official licensees. As for Donruss/Playoff, the company is still alive and well and making many of our favorite football card products, but as for their baseball line, it no longer includes major league baseball cards. Previously released MLB brands included Donruss, Donruss Classics, Donruss Studio, Playoff Absolute, Throwback Threads, Timeless Treasures, Score, Score Select, Pinnacle, and Pinnacle Zenith (among others). The controversial decision was made in part because the league and manufacturers felt that the current market for baseball cards could only support two licensees. It remains to be seen if MLB will reverse their ruling. In 2007, Donruss introduced a minor league baseball card product (2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Baseball), which some hoped would foreshadow their come-back into the major league baseball card market. The product was well received, but to date, no MLB license.

A. The difference varies amongst manufacturers. Generally speaking, a RETAIL pack is one found at a mass merchandiser (Target, Wal-mart, etc.) or convenience store (7-11, gas station, etc.), while a HOBBY pack is found at a trading card store/hobby shop (like ours!). Sometimes, there is a different number of cards per pack or packs per box. Sometimes, there is a hobby-only or retail-only insert set (very true of Topps products). Many times, there are better odds of pulling "good cards" (jerseys, rookies, etc.) from hobby packs, which is one of our advantages (being that we're a hobby store). This was especially true of Fleer products. If you compare the odds between a hobby and retail pack of the same product, you will often find that jerseys and such appear two (or more) per box in a hobby box, but less than one per box in a retail box. This also accounts for the cheaper retail pack price in some cases. If you're concerned with the difference for a specific product, just ask us. We usually know.

A. Sometimes people get confused by this term. A relic card is synonymous with a memorabilia card. For baseball, this could be a card with a piece of the player's jersey, patch, number, name, tag, MLB logo, button, bat or even dirt from the field! For football, it could be a piece of jersey, patch, number, name, tag, NFL logo, helmet, shoulder pad, or game used pilon, goal post, or grass! A "relic" is just a generic and all-encompassing term for a piece of anything game-used.

A. "Event worn" items are mostly used in the case of rookies, and are labelled as such to differentiate them from game used items. Because manufacturers want to feature relic cards of rookies as soon as possible (even before the rookies have been able to play in their first pro game), they use "event worn" clothing pieces (jerseys, patches, hats, etc.); often worn by players at the rookie photo shoots. These items are actually worn by the players, just not during the course of a game.