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When creating or editing sets, I know the “Brand” field is relatively new.  And there appears to be confusion on what is a Brand.  I am just trying to get some clarification, and a thread that can be used for reference as these brands are getting standardized.

For starters, should every Topps card have a brand of just Topps, or is Topps Chrome a brand? I will have more questions, but I think that is a good start.

Anything that has had a consistent release over the years, those can be separate Brands. "Fleer", "Ultra", "Flair", "Topps", "Topps Update", "Stadium Club", "Topps Chrome", "Topps Archives", "Upper Deck", "SPx", etc. It's become a little confusing in the last few years with the additions of "Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition", "Topps Chrome Ben Baller Edition" and some of the other variations, but most of these as currently listed are OK.

The Brand field didn't become available on Non-Sport until earlier this year and that's why you may see Brands that match Set Names, and that's where we need many updates. I noticed movie franchises being split into their own Brand, like "Topps Star Wars", "Topps Star Trek", "Rittenhouse James Bond", etc., which is incorrect ... those should be just "Topps" and "Rittenhouse".

Anything unlicensed should be grouped under an "Unlicensed" brand, not whatever company they claim to be.

Anything distributed by a team that isn't produced by a major company should be grouped under their team name, sponsored or not. "M.A.D.D." or "Police" or "Safety" types of sets, sponsored SGAs, postcards, minor league releases, etc. Another thing to be careful of is "food sponsors" vs "food issues". If it was released by a food company, they can be included in the Brand (e.g. "Topps McDonald's"), but if they simply sponsored a distribution (e.g. "Tastykake Philadelphia Phillies Playercards SGA"), it would go under "Philadelphia Phillies" instead.

Anything distributed by a college that isn't produced by a major company should be grouped under their school/nickname, like "Georgia Bulldogs". If they have a sponsor on the front, that can be in the Set Name, but since they often change over the years, it's best to leave them out of the Brand.

Another tricky one is stuff from the late 1800s / early 1900s, where the Brand is usually different from what is mentioned in the Set Name. For example, "Wills's Wild Animals" has a Brand of "W.D. & H.O. Wills", not "Wills's". In the database, you'll sometimes see these Brands listed as "W.D. ..." vs. "W. D. ...." vs. "WD ...." and they may need some cleanup to keep things organized.

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There are two ways to keep Brands organized:

1. On any player profile, click on "Filters" then check the "Brands" dropdown. If you see anything that should be renamed or grouped better, choose that Brand and see which sets need an update.

2. Under "Browse" at the bottom, choose a sport/Non-Sport, click on "Sets" and scroll down to the lists of Brands split up by letter. This gives an overall listing of Brands and what may need to be cleaned up.

Thanks BigEd76 for the response.  I disagree that most of the current listings are correct.  Looking at Major Releases under 2023 baseball, most sets have the brand and set name match. I don’t think it was intended to have brands like Topps Rip or Topps Definitive.

And if we do keep some brands like Topps Chrome, then do those carry over to non-sports, like Topps Chrome Star Wars or Topps Chrome Garbage Pail Kids?

Finally, ending my first set of questions, look at 2023 Bowman baseball.  There are currently six major release sets listed, and their brands are Bowman, Topps, Bowman Chrome, Bowman Platinum, Bowman, and Bowman Sterling.  It would seem to make sense for these all to be either Topps or Bowman.

Those are all separate Brands. The site isn't looking to group by Manufacturer/Producer, so we aren't grouping all Fleer together, all Topps together, all Upper Deck together, all Panini together, etc.; otherwise those lists would be massive and borderline pointless.

On the second point, yes the "Topps Chrome" brand would carry over to Non-Sport, so Star Wars, GPK, etc. should be under "Topps Chrome".

Thanks again.  Just to make sure I understand, for the sport Major Releases, the set name and the brand are the same?

Not necessarily; Topps Chrome is brand, Topps Chrome Update Sapphire is a set name.

This is why I asked about creating brand IDs earlier in the week:

https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/I/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=45750#272370

Thank you, yes, I saw your earlier post, but couldn’t find it when I created this one. I agree with your suggestion.  But in the meantime your comment doesn’t clarify the issue.  If Topps Chrome Update is not a brand, why is Topps Update a brand? Defining these brands for the major releases will be key to standardizing.

Clarification for like topps star wars how will the site make it known it's star wars so users are just not clicking a bunch of varios Topps sets in non sports. 

I also agree the current setup on names makes the most sense and most user friendly unless I'm not following 

There is no change to the way the site currently operates or looks.  When a member creates a set, they label the set name and the brand.  There are other searches that allow you to look for brands, so this thread is discussing how they should be organized.

Cool