2003 Topps205 backs

Ike's Cards enjoyed the 2002 Topps206 mini back post, and asked if I have a Topps205 version. Lucky for Ike, I did - it was just sitting in my draft folder. Here's how to decipher the ad backs on Topps205 minis.

Common back:

Polar Bear

Like in Topps206, the common default back is Polar Bear. In my experience, if you bought a box of Topps205 you could expect about 25 out of 40 minis to have the Polar Bear back. While mini cards were only one per pack, each box had a bonus 20 card box of minis as a box topper. Someone at Topps really liked Polar Bear. This is the end of the easy portion of this post. The rest will require  a Doctorate in Cardology to understand.  I'm collecting this mini set and I still barely grasp it.

Uncommon backs:

Sovereign

This is the default uncommon back. Unline the 2009 Topps206 set, there are no stated odds for any of these things. Out of 40 minis in a box you will probably get 4-6 Sovereigns in series one, 8-10 in series two. (I opened a few boxes of this stuff) Like the Polar Bears the ink on the back was black. However, that is not the only Sovereign you could pull.

Sovereign Green

It's a little tough to tell from the scan, but the ink on the back of this card is a dark green. 20% of the Sovereign print run was printed with green ink. That makes this an uncommon uncommon. Just wait, it gets worse.

Rare back:

Drum

Drum was the default rare card in the set. By default, I mean that it carried through to series two. Not all backs are found in both series, but Polar Bear, Sovereign and Drum are constants. These were found about 1 per box plus another one in the mini bonus box. These also have black ink.

Multi-Brand Combo

Also labeled as uncommon were a set of minis that had a combination of five different ad backs. While you could build a complete set of Polar Bears or Sovereigns, you con't build a complete set of any one of these ad backs. You could however build a complete set using all five of these backs. These were only found in series one boxes, Topps gave up on this for series two. These cards were slightly tougher to get than Sovereigns, but not quite as tough as the Drums. Here they are:

American Beauty

Cycle

Honest

Piedmont

Sweet Caporal

These five all have brown ink on the back, making it easy to tell these from the others. Like I said, you can complete a 150 card brown back set using all five backs, but not a 150 card Piedmont or Sweet Caporal set. I've never found a listing of which cards can be found with which backs but that might be an interesting research project. I'm not quite done with these though, there were also...

Multi-Brand Purple Backs

These here look slick. 10% of the total multi-brand set is printed in Purple ink. These are rare uncommons, and are actually tougher to find than the Drums. If all that is confusing, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Brooklyn backs

Brooklyn backs are common, uncommon rare and impossible. How can this be? Well, basically, Topps split up the Brooklyn set and made 25 of them common, 85 of them uncommon, 30 of them rare and 30 of them numbered to five copies. That's right, five. That's right, forget about ever collecting a set of Brooklyn backs. While the Brooklyn concept was kind of cool at first, after you pull four of the same dirt-common Brooklyn back, it grew tiresome quickly. You'll probably get about 8 in a series 1 box. I actually have a list of which cards are which rarity, so if you have a few Brooklyns around you can check the list and be disappointed that Manny Ramirez isn't a super rare one.

The last type of Topps205 back is the Bazooka back. These were 1:1573 packs and were also numbered to five each. I have never ever seen even one of these backs. Just for reference, the odds to pull an original T205 card was 1:336 packs. Isn't artificial scarcity fun?

2003 Topps205 Brooklyn Back Scarcity List

1 Barry Bonds uncommon
2 Bret Boone uncommon
3 Albert Pujols uncommon
4 Carl Crawford uncommon
5 Bartolo Colon rare
6 Cliff Floyd rare
7 John Olerud rare
8 Jason Giambi uncommon
9 Edgardo Alfonzo numbered to 5
10 Ivan Rodriguez numbered to 5
11 Jim Edmonds uncommon
12 Mike Piazza common
13 Greg Maddux uncommon
14 Jose Vidro uncommon
15 Vlad Guerrero rare
16 Bernie Williams rare
17 Roger Clemens common
18 Miguel Tejada uncommon
19 Carlos Delgado uncommon
20 Alfonso Soriano common
21 Bobby Cox MG uncommon
22 Mike Scioscia rare
23 John Smoltz uncommon
24 Luis Gonzalez common
25 Shawn Green common
26 Raul Ibanez common
27 Andruw Jones uncommon
28 Josh Beckett common
29 Derek Lowe uncommon
30 Todd Helton common
31 Barry Larkin uncommon
32 Jason Jennings uncommon
33 Darin Erstad uncommon
34 Magglio Ordonez common
35 Mike Sweeney uncommon
36 Kazuhisa Ishii uncommon
37 Ron Gardenhire MG common
38 Tim Hudson uncommon
39 Tim Salmon common
40 Pat Burrell rare
41 Manny Ramirez common
42 Nick Johnson uncommon
43 Tom Glavine uncommon
44 Mark Mulder rare
45 Brian Jordan uncommon
46 Rafael Palmeiro rare
47 Vernon Wells uncommon
48 Bob Brenly MG uncommon
49 C.C. Sabathia uncommon
50 Alex Rodriguez common
51 Sammy Sosa rare
52 Paul Konerko rare
53 Craig Biggio uncommon
54 Moises Alou rare
55 Johnny Damon uncommon
56 Torii Hunter common
57 Omar Vizquel common
58 Orlando Hernandez numbered to 5
59 Barry Zito uncommon
60 Lance Berkman common
61 Carlos Beltran uncommon
62 Edgar Renteria uncommon
63 Ben Sheets uncommon
64 Doug Mientkiewicz uncommon
65 Troy Glaus rare
66 Preston Wilson uncommon
67 Kerry Wood common
68 Frank Thomas uncommon
69 Jimmy Rollins uncommon
70 Brian Giles uncommon
71 Bobby Higginson uncommon
72 Larry Walker common
73 Randy Johnson common
74 Tony LaRussa MG rare
75 Derek Jeter uncommon
76 Bobby Abreu uncommon
77 Adam Dunn uncommon
78 Ryan Klesko rare
79 Francisco Rodriguez uncommon
80 Scott Rolen rare
81 Roberto Alomar common
82 Joe Torre MG rare
83 Jim Thome numbered to 5
84 Kevin Millwood numbered to 5
85 J.T. Snow uncommon
86 Trevor Hoffman rare
87 Jay Gibbons uncommon
88 Mark Prior common
89 Rich Aurilia rare
90 Chipper Jones uncommon
91 Richie Sexson rare
92 Gary Sheffield uncommon
93 Pedro Martinez rare
94 Rodrigo Lopez uncommon
95 Al Leiter uncommon
96 Jorge Posada common
97 Luis Castillo rare
98 Aubrey Huff common
99 A.J. Pierzynski uncommon
100 Ichiro Suzuki uncommon
101 Eric Chavez uncommon
102 Brett Myers uncommon
103 Jason Kendall uncommon
104 Jeff Kent numbered to 5
105 Eric Hinske uncommon
106 Jacque Jones uncommon
107 Phil Nevin rare
108 Roy Oswalt rare
109 Curt Schilling uncommon
110 Nomar Garciaparra rare
111 Garret Anderson uncommon
112 Eric Gagne uncommon
113 Javier Vazquez uncommon
114 Jeff Bagwell uncommon
115 Mike Lowell common
116 Carlos Pena uncommon
117 Ken Griffey Jr. rare
118 Tony Batista rare
119 Edgar Martinez uncommon
120 Austin Kearns common
121 Jason Stokes numbered to 5
122 Jose Reyes numbered to 5
123 Rocco Baldelli numbered to 5
124 Joe Borchard numbered to 5
125 Joe Mauer numbered to 5
126 Gavin Floyd numbered to 5
127 Mark Teixeira numbered to 5
128 Jeremy Guthrie numbered to 5
129 B.J. Upton uncommon
130 Khalil Greene numbered to 5
131 Hanley Ramirez RC rare
132 Andy Marte RC uncommon
133 J.D. Durbin RC numbered to 5
134 Jason Kubel RC numbered to 5
135 Craig Brazell RC numbered to 5
136 Bryan Bullington RC rare
137 Jose Contreras RC numbered to 5
138 Brian Burgamy RC rare
139 Evel Bastida-Martinez RC numbered to 5
140 Joey Gomes RC numbered to 5
141 Ismael Castro RC numbered to 5
142 Travis Wong RC numbered to 5
143 Michael Garciaparra RC numbered to 5
144 Arnaldo Munoz RC uncommon
145 Louis Sockalexis XRC numbered to 5
146 Richard Hoblitzell numbered to 5
147 George Graham numbered to 5
148 Hal Chase numbered to 5
149 John McGraw numbered to 5
150 Bobby Wallace numbered to 5

Topps206 Backs and smudges

Yeah... that obsessive blaster break? Probably pushed till next week. I'm still goofy over Topps206s so I shall inundate you with useless trivialities until I get my act together.

BEHOLD:

The 2009 Topps206 Back

You saw this already. If you'll recall I also said this:

I'm too lazy to go check my 2002 Topps206 cards, but the back design is extremely similar if not exactly the same.

Here is the 2002 Topps206 back:

Virtually identical, no? I never understood the reasoning behind the black circle o' text so I think I just blocked it from memory. It's not all that attractive in my humble opinion. Fortunately, just like with the 2009 set where short prints have a different back design:

The 2002-2003 set had different designs for eash subset. Like this one here.

Here's the back for prospect cards. almost none of these were actually rookie cards thanks to the practices of the day, but they still hadn't quite made it in the majors yet. The real rookie cards were the draft picks:

These are the ones that would have the Rookie Logo fungus growing on the front nowadays. I liked this back the best out of all of them, it's pretty striking. This back means business. You'll recognize the next one:

HA! I knew I'd seen that design before! Compare!

Good choice by Topps to resurrect this back design. It works well with the Piedmont back theme. One more back and we can move on...

This back was the one used for the original T206 reprints. Quite attractive, but I'm somewhat bummed there was no writeup of the player. I'm glad Topps gave the Legends cards the same backs as the other base cards this year.

Here's something else you all might be familiar with...

The infamous Topps206 smudge. If I had a dollar for every comment I've read about people who turned their fresh-from-the-pack Topps206 card around only to regret not washing their hands first, I'd have enough money for a hobby box.

Yes, these smudges are printed on to make the cards look aged.

No, this isn't the first time Topps has done this.

This is the back of a minty fresh Topps Cracker Jack card. Note the staining on the top left corner, right side and bottom. That's not from me abusing my cards, that was printed on. It's supposed to look like that. However, unlike the 2009 set where the exact same two smudges are printed in the same place on every single card:

In 2004-2005, Topps had different smudging on the back of every card as you can see here:

Very nice attention to detail by Topps here. It makes the cards look really neat, although it's hard to notice when the cards are in a toploader or plastic page. Why didn't Topps do it this way in '09? Probably because it was too expensive or just a pain in the rear to do. I'm not entirely sure why Topps did it at all... The original Topps206 set, Topps205 , Turkey Red and Allen & Ginter didn't need faux smudges. So don't worry about those weird smears when you rip open that Topps206 blaster. They're designed that way. Go ahead and eat that rack of ribs beforehand with wild abandon and then rip that box!

That didn't take long

After two Hobby packs and five retail packs I've got all three ad backs from Topps206. I'll pick up a cheap Cycle one of these days and I can always enjoy my 2003 Carolina Brights.

Piedmont

Made all the more special by the diamond cut.

Polar Bear

They used dark blue ink instead of black... very nice.

Old Mill

Now that Topps has the minor league license, they can do Old Mill cards for the Texas and Southern leagues just like the original set!

Aaaaand what the heck. George Sisler!

I think 'ol George has gotten MORE hobby attention since Ichiro broke his hits record. Gorgeous George finished his career as a Brave, ya know...

Topps206 Mini Back Variations

2009 Topps206 is supposed to go live any minute now (wooo, singles on eBay!), so it's time to do a post on the things. I have neither the time nor the interest to comb over the pre-sell checklist and the sell sheet and all that other nonsense looking for interesting tidbits about a set that I will be collecting even if I have to sell an internal organ to do so. Instead, let's go over the whole reason for this set's existence:

MINI BACK VARIATIONS

Yep, it's all about the tobacco ads on the mini backs. Nothing else at all, those jokers on the front of the cards are just eye candy. Topps did a good job of ganking original ad backs from the 1909 set for their 2002-2003 Topps206 set. If you want to check out all the original T206 backs, it appears that the T206 museum is back online for your back checking-out needs. Here's the different brands, scarcity of the backs and a gallery.

Topps originally did their T206 tribute set in 2002 to capitalize on the great Topps Heritage Retro Freakout of 2001. It sold well enough to bring about two more series of the cards. Topps used seven different backs for the minis in the set (and maybe an eighth with Bazooka, but I can't remember if they did that or not and I don't have one and it's not a tobacco ad anyway) with ten total back variations. Here's a look at the the old-school backs.

Topps206 Series 1

Common - Polar Bear

There were three different levels of scarcity for the mini backs in the set andTopps chose the Polar Bear design for the common version of their minis. This is the only back that was used in all three series so if you went mad and decided you had to have a complete mini set of Topps206 but you are too anal to mix and match backs, you can still build a complete Polar Bear back set. Polar Bear is one of the more distinctive T206 backs as it is the only one that uses the black background. Other than the Piedmont and Sweet Caporal backs that are extremely common, Polar Bear is one of the easier back variations to find on an original T206 card.

Uncommon - Tolstoi Black

Tolstoi is the first series uncommon back which is apporopriate since the original Tolstois are failry uncommon themselves. The design is almost identical to the Piedmont backs, with only the brand and text being different. I had always strongly associated T206 cards with Piedmont backs and was pretty disappointed to not see the Piedmont back used when I first came across some minis in 2002. This is the next best thing, I guess.

Uncommon Variation - Tolstoi Red

The uncommon backs in all three series had a second, slightly more difficult color variation. There is no such thing as a 1909 T206 card with a red Tolstoi back, but Topps loves its mini parallels.

Rare - Cycle

The Cycle ad is a pretty good looking choice for the rare version of the minis. The original T206 Cycles are actually a little more common than the Tolstois. I've actually seen a Cycle back in person, not so with the Tolstoi. Notice the 180 subjects on the card. The originals can be found with 350 and 460 subjects on the back. Since Topps206 series 1 was 180 cards, they changed that little detail to fit the set, which is nice.

I don't have any exact ratios on the different level of rarity for these cards. I used the common, uncoomon and rare designation seen in collectible card games because that seemed like a good analogy to me. Basically there are a whole ton of common Polar Backs out there, Tolstois are harder to find than the Polar Bears but not too tough to find and the rares are pretty tough. Not numbered to 50 tough or anything, but not entirely easy to find. I want to say they were on in a box or maybe every other box. You can find 'em though if you look.

Topps206 Series 2

Common - Polar Bear

Polar Bear's back. Get used to this design. Topps used the Polar Bear ad for their common cards in Topps205 also, so someone in Duryea is obviously a Polar Bear fan. Or they're getting a kickback from the black ink manufacturer (see also: 2008 Mayo Football).

Uncommon - Piedmont Black

Good 'ol Piedmont finally in the set. As you can see it's pretty much the same as the Tolstoi design. A nice touch is the Ne Baseball Series 181-307 line up top which mirrors the original Piedmont New Series 350-460 subjects text on the 1909 version. The little hand is even therepointing to New. Note this for later... you'll see it again. I was somewhat disappointed that Topps used black ink instead of the traditional Piedmont blue, but I was disappointed that Piedmont wasn't the common back as well. I sure am persnickety about my ad backs.

Uncommon Variation - Piedmont Red

Again, the uncommon version has a red back variation. If you thought Topps just recently overloaded their retro sets with parallels you are mistaken. I don't have any hard data on this, but as I recall the black variety was about twice as easy to get as the red version.

Rare - Carolina Brights

This was probably the coolest back they used in the set. Carolina Brights are a legitimately tough back in the 1909 set and along with the Hindu back are one of the most striking designs. The banner in front of the wreath was changed from "Cigarettes" to "Second Series" for obvious reasons.

Topps206 Series 3

Common - Polar Bear

Seriously, get used to these things. You're gonna see 'em again very soon.

Uncommon - Sweet Caporal Red

After Piedmont, Sweet Caporal backs are the next most common of the original backs. Topps threw us a curveball by printing the basic version of the uncommon cards in red ink, but the 1909s were printed in red as well. Nice authenticity by Topps here.

Uncommon Variation - Sweet Caporal Blue

No idea why Topps decided to use the blue ink here, but it looks nifty.

Rare - UZIT

This is a really tough back in the '09 set. It's a pretty striking design too, big bold UZIT yelling at you to try their New Mouth-Piece Cigarettes. Nice choice for the New series three.

Topps Promo Back

Topps used this back on a promo card that was inserted into issues of Beckett Vintage magazine. It's kind of like the Ty Cobb back from the '09 series. Like Ty, the subject on the front of the Topps206 promo is also known for being grouchy, shouty and generally angry at the world. Without the horrific racism and beating up handicapped people thing of course.

2009 Topps206 Backs

I yoinked these backs from Beckett as placeholders until I can get my hands on some of these cards and scan them properly. I don't know at this time which will be the common, uncommon or rare, but Trader Crack has some very good info on the set including mini variations.

Polar Bear

Gotta think that these will be the common backs again. One I get more info, I'll update this post. If you readers have any tips for me just leave 'em in the comments.

Piedmont

My beloved Piedmont is back and is that... blue ink?? Joooooooooooy........

Also note the series numbering at the top of the card. Heh. Look familiar?

Old Mill

Old Mill is a reasonably commonly found back from the original series, but is notable for the variation promoting the Texas, South Atlantic , Virginia and Southern Leagues. I'm glad Topps put in a new card back in this series, but I'm still waiting for my Hindu back cards.

Also included are Cycle backs numbered to 99 and a 1 of 1 Carolina Brights back among newfangled silks and chromes. There's your Topps206 backs, now it's just a waiting game for the local card shop to get in a box or two so I can get my hands on some.

No Ginter Today

Nope, not in the mood.

About eleventy billion years ago, Dinged Corners expressed an interest in seeing the back text of old timey vintage cards. The more stilted the language, the better. Today's as good a day as any to finally post one...

JOHN ALLEN
New York Yankees

"In his first year with the American League, Johnny Allen led the pitchers with 17 victories and only 4 defeats. This was in 1932, when the Yankees won the Championship of the League. Last year Allen won 15 games and lost 7.
"He is a right-handed pitcher, 6 feet tall, and weighs 185 pounds. Allen has been playing professional ball 7 years, starting with Greensboro, N. C. in 1928. He is a native of Lenoir, N. C., where he was born in September, 1905.
"In 1931, before going up to the Yankees, he pitched for Jersey City and Toronto in the International League, winning 21 and losing 9 games."

LOU GEHRIG -

I don't believe for a minute Lou Gehrig wrote any of that. Christy Walsh, you are a deceiver!

And now for the front. I had never heard of this John Allen guy at all, and I'm supposed to be Mr. I-Love-The-Moldy-Vintage-Stuff. Dude was an All-Star! Won twenty games for the Indians! Went 17-5 as a rookie and won a ring with the Yankees! He went 15-1 in 1937! He's got a lifetime record of 142-75! How have I never heard of this guy?? It goes to show that commons aren't always common.

Also - when you find a vintage Goudey for five bucks YOU BUY IT. Good 'ol ASC.

2009 Goudey backs

The second card I pulled out of that pack of Goudey was of Jeff Francoeur. Nice to pull a Brave in the first pack! I thought it was interesting that the card number for Frenchy was the exact same as his number in the 2008 set. That's not all that's the exact same though. Below are scans of Jeff's 2008 and 2009 Goudey cards. I have removed all the stats and any references to dates in the bio. Can you tell which back is from 2008 and which is from 2009 without cheating and checking the back of a Goudey card?


Also for reference, here is the back of Walter Berger's actual 1933 Goudey card.


Answer:

2009 is the one on the left. Sharp eyed readers noted the "series of 220" difference between the two sets. Also the 2008 card has the position underneath the name on top, while 2009 has the team name.