General Forum

I am a team collector and came across an autod card of a player in the team I collect. The issue being, prior to being drafted he played at another uni (for 3 yrs) after being dismissed from the team I collect. The card is clearly in the team uni I collect, but the college listed is the team he was drafted from. Would you consider this a team card/anomoly/def not a team card? lol it was cheap and doesnt really matter, I am simply curious as to how others collect/view it???

When purchasing, I personally consider the actual uniform more of a team collection than what the card may be listed. I know many people do think the team listed as the one for the team collection, but I collect cards of players in Lakers uniforms, regardless of what team is listed on the card. I would classify it for the team since that is the uniform he is in, although the other college is listed. On this site, it would be shown as a card for the team he played for later since that is what is listed on the card, but I have always believed that for someone's personal collection is whatever they feel like it should be instead of what others tell them they should be collecting. It is completely optional to you though if you would like to classify the card as the team uniform shown or the other team listed that he later played for. That is one of the best things about the world of card collecting, everyone can make their own decisions to which cards they want and which ones they aren't.

I'm not sure how I'm going to do collecting 2 players as of now.

Casey Thompson  All his cards now are in Texas uniform.  Some of his cards link him to Texas and others to Nebraska.  Next year they should be in Nebraska uniform.  Have not put him on my want list yet.

 Adrian Martinez  4 years at Nebraska and his last year will be at K State.   Do not know how they will list him when he get a card as a pro.  Cards he has now are in Nebraska uniform.

Obviously it's just a matter of personal choice.  For me, I consider it a card for my team if the card lists my team regardless of the uniform AND if the player is shown in my team's uni regardless of the team name on the card.  This causes some headaches as the latter group isn't listed as a card for my team in the DB, but it's the way I've chosen to define it for my collection (I also include the college cards for guys who were drafted or started their careers with my team, so I know my definition of "team" is a lot braoder than some).

I'm with you - I include everything as "my team" that you described. 

I do have player PCs, but only guys who play/played with teams I like. It tends to come to a screeching halt if the player leaves, i.e. Bryce Harper (I've only added a few recent cards of him in a Nats jersey to keep up with my Topps flagship team sets). I might still collect some Juan Soto going forward, he'd be the first player-specific PC to cross team boundaries for me if so...

David, if the player is pictured in an ND uniform, I'd consider it a Notre Dame card even if he went to another school for his final year and is listed as being drafted from there instead of ND. A great example of this would be Russell Wilson. He played for NC State for 4 years before playing a 5th year at U. of Wisconsin. The Seahawks drafted him from there, but some of his cards still showed him in an NCSU uniform. All of his cards list his college as Wisconsin, even though he was only there for a single season but at NCSU for the previous 4 years.

Personally, I generally go after uniform for my teams anyway instead of the monikers of "signed by..." or "traded to...". As a Carolina Panthers fan, the only cards I want of players NOT in a Panthers uniform (besides college uni's on Draft Pick cards) is from 1995 when the players were part of the expansion draft and therefore had no pictures available of them in Panthers uniforms yet. Another example here, I won't collect 2022 cards of Baker Mayfield in a Browns uniform unless he just explodes this season and leads the Panthers to the playoffs. Any cards saying that he was traded to the Panthers won't get much attention from me if he isn't in their uniform. It's all about personal opinion anyway, but I prefer to go by the uniform on the card, not the team listed on the card.

Call it a card of your team.  Honestly, I doubt there are too many people involved in making cards at Panini who even know one uniform from another.

I tend to go with the Uniform the player is shown in, but the Database goes with the team listed on the card, not necessarily the team in the photo. Sometimes this gets complicated when the the change mentioned is in small print on the back of the card in the player bio.

Now in some cases if a trade is made during the printing/publishing phase an updated variant will be made. An example of this is the 1967 Topps Baseball card #86 Mike McCormick. There are two variants of this card (maybe 3) both have him shown wearing a Washington Senators uniform with the Senators as the team listed. In Dec 1966 he was traded to the San Fransisco Giants. There is one variant of his card that on the back the Senators are listed as the team and no mention anywhere of the trade to the Giants, this variant is listed in the database as an "error" Then there is a "version where the back has the Giants as the team listed and at the end of his bio mentions the Dec '66 trade it is listed in the database as the "corrected" version. I think there is even a 3rd vairant that mentions the trade in the bio but doesn't have the Giants listed on the back, but I haven't varified that one and it isn't in the database. The 3rd variant I only found in a Google photo search and was from a site called "Blowoutbuzz.com" so who knows it if is real. If so I need V3. As a Senators fan I consider both variants a Senators card. If the corrected variant had the Giants listed on the front but the same shown in Senators Uniform I consider that a Senators card. If the corrected version showed him in a giants uniform and listed the giants I would call that a giants card, even if the back didn't have updated info.

OK here I will try to show more visoually how I determine the team for my collection. It does not always agree with the database.

1. Front  Team A listed and picturred, Back Team A listed, no mention of Team B = Team A
2. Front Team A listed and pictured. Back Team B listed only no trade mentioned = Team A
3. Front Team A listed and pictured. Back Team B listed and a trade mentioned in bio =  Team A
4. Front Team B listed Team A pictured. Back Team A listed no mention of Team B = Team A (sometimes if the team listed on front is hard to read I don't notice it is Team B. until I try finding the card in the database)
5. Front Team B listed Team A pictured. Back Team B listed and trade in bio = Team A usually sometimes Team B
6. Front Team B listed and pictured. Back Team B listed = Team B

For me personally, if it's cool and I enjoy it, its part of my collection.  I would look at it that way.   Do you like the card?  If yes, it's part of what you collect.