OK, I have another weird card number thing for you.
Like I mentioned the other day, my recent sportlots order included me chasing down the final couple cards to finish several team sets.
One of the planned team sets to finish was the 2001 Topps Archives set. But I didn't get to finish it. I was distracted by some weirdness in that set and then all completion was lost.
Did you know there are two Ralph Branca cards replicating the 1952 Topps design in that set??? I sure didn't.
Before placing my sportlots order, I was looking at what I still needed for the Dodgers in '01 Archives. Oh, hey, I need the '52 Branca card, let me add that one to my cart.
Then I realized I already had it. OK, let me remove that from my cart. Then I realized there are TWO of them with TWO different numbers. Whaaaa?
There is this one and if you look at the small print along the left side, you see it's card No. 227. (Yes, having two different card numbers on one back can also be very confusing).
Also, there is this card -- no it's not the same card -- which is card No. 326 if you look at the small print on the left.
That's bizarre. This is the kind of stuff they were doing when I wasn't collecting. No wonder I wasn't collecting.
Those who were around to collect this set know that there is a reason for this strangeness (and you can stop yelling at me now). The set features the first and last Topps card for each player in the checklist. Four of the players in the checklist have the same first and last Topps card because each of them had just one Topps card. (Branca, Joe Garagiola, Ralph Kiner and Satchel Paige).
But blind to that bit of info, I am pretty certain that in the time that I have been blogging that I have received a 2001 Archives Branca card and just thrown it in the dupes box because I thought I already had one in the binder. Maybe I've even traded one or two away. Why did they just not produce a second card of the player if he didn't have a second card?
The hobby has gotten infinitely more complex since I was collecting one single set as a kid and it's stuff like this that has continued us on that path.
Not to mention collecting stuff like this is kind of silly in the first place.
I already have the original. And I can read the card number.
Comments
What I never understood with the set was why they didn’t print the REAL rookie cards for many of them. Many guys who appeared on 2,3, or 4 player rookie cards appeared on cards that were edited to feature only 1 player on it in the same design. Worse, for me, was the fact that while Ozzie Smith had a rookie in the 1979 Topps set, they had his 1980 card represent his rookie card in the set. I had no idea that they had some players that had 2 of the same cards in the set. I assume they didn’t include the 1951 cards in the set.
1. Use their Bowman debut for the first card. All of those guys have Bowman cards, and Topps certainly had the rights.
2. Just have one of each, and put them in the middle numbers. You could even use that to add two more players to the set.
3. Leave those guys out in favor of players who do have more than one Topps card.
Any of those would be better, wouldn't they?