Site Forum

As I enter my PC under multiple collections, as well as defining abbreviations in the Things To Do List, I have become aware of still limited knowledge on the proper use of these NOTE entries.  This reminder is in no way directed to anyone other than the community at large in the hope of improving future entries. We appreciate everyone's contribution in continuing to strive for 100% accuracy.

1. If a card has a variant, then both cards need to be annotated "VAR".  After all, if one is a variant of the other, then the first one is a variant of the second one.  What's more, it is important to have both with VAR in the NOTE field AND an explanation of the VAR in the Note 2 field expressed like this "VAR: green tint" (for example). I just stumbled upon a "VAR - green tint" entry. With this entry using a dash instead of the colon, the # sub-box for the letter identifier was not available. These cards are to be numbered (re-numbered) "123 (sub a)" and "123 (sub b)". If you are not familiar with this change in numbering, ask.

2. The same is for ERR / COR cards.  Both the error and the correction have to be explained in the Note 2 field. Without this explanation, the card numbers cannot be made correctly, that is with the sub-box.

3. When entering a NOTE (acronym or abbreviation) to any card, you should then make sure that the entry is defined in the Glossary.  In the last few days, I have been going to the "Missing Abbreviations Descriptions" in the Things to do List, hoping to keep it at zero needs to be defined. Every day, one or two slip in from people making amendments to individual cards' NOTE fields. One extra step by all of us will keep this list at zero.

In the last year, there has been a huge increase in the # of new members (it would be interesting to know how many through the years - Admin?) and everyone is enthusiastic about making the site even better.  This is all appreciated as there is plenty to do. Some of the things to do are because of changes we, as members have asked Admin to make available such as the sub-box for card numbers in order to make the filter for card # work efficiently.  But these changes make some of the older entries in error.  If everyone who stumbles upon one of these takes the 30 seconds to correct it, slowly we will pick them all up and have them corrected. FOR NEW CHECKLISTS, hopefully this is being done correctly.

Thanks to all who continue to whittle away at the things to do lists.

1. If a card has a variant, then both cards need to be annotated "VAR".  After all, if one is a variant of the other, then the first one is a variant of the second one.  

Question/comment on this point...

The note "BASE: xxx" also allows the sub-box to appear.  In cases like the recent Topps sets where there is 1 card that is commonly found compared to the short print variants, is it acceptable to use that as a note instead?

1 (sub 'a') [note2] BASE: Batting 
1 (sub 'b') [note2] VAR: Helmet off
1 (sub 'c') [note2] VAR: Photoshopped face tattoo

Sorry Sandy but I respectfully disagree.  The base card should never be listed as a variation.  It is the original, intended version of the card.  Anything after that is a variation on the original.  Naming the base card a variation would also affect the menu option of listing all cards missing variations.  I use this option often when adding a new set, (such as add all missing cards to wantlist, missing variations.)  This would cause me to NOT be searching for a base card because it is now not listed in my want list.  I do not actively collect variation cards, although I do keep the ones that I pull from packs and boxes at the back of each set.  My opinion on this but it would negatively impact the way I list and search for my cards.

So, if a new member is entering his cards into the site and he comes across this particular card http://www.tradingcarddb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/55/cid/28362?Editing=off&PageIndex=1, how does he know if there is a VAR or not and if he has that one or this one http://www.tradingcarddb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/55/cid/6413506?Editing=off&PageIndex=1?

If he is on the site and wanting to look at or enter the card in his collection,  he would see that there are 2 versions.  The original and the green tint variation.  I think the way that it is listed now is by far the best way to show the information.  That is how I enter and check the version of all cards by looking and checking it myself.  And on a completely different point, and I know I am in the minority here,  changes in tint from the printing process is NOT a variation in my opinion.  The backs of some of the 2016 Topps cards could have multiple different variations then because the tints are often slightly different.  

A month or so ago, I was in many minor league baseball sets.  There were Notes for CO, PC, and HC.  I personally prefer them to all be CO (coach) and not HC (hitting coach) and PC (pitching coach), although I could probably easily be persuaded the other way. 

Also, there were many MG and many MGR notes.  Not sure which one is defined for the site, but MGR seems to me to make more sense.

We're in the process of fixing the MG cards. Problem I run into - when I go into one of those sets, I wind up in a rabbit hole. That's where I find a lot of other issues that need to be fixed. I get through about 5 in an hour! The site used to auto-define MG as Manager in the glossary. Now, it only auto-defined MGR. And the members decided that MGR was a better abbreviation.

As for the CO vs. HC / PC / SCO / etc - we had that debate on here a while back, and there were some good, clear arguments for specifying. Although, you will find sets that do not have images yet will just be generic CO because we don't know.

Where do I find a list of the sets that need fixing on the MG/MGR and the CO notes?  I can help fix, and I might even know some of the ones with missing images betweeen PC and HC.

I agree 100% here. The base card is NOT a variation and should NOT be listed with a VAR in the note field.

splinter - check PM.