Card Identification Forum

I see there is a Retail version and a hobby version.  I don't know which one I have.  Looking at both sets the cards look identical.  Does anyone know what I am supposed to be looking for to determine if it is retail or hobby?  If you look at both sets you will see what I mean.  Personally I have card 38 Dewayne Bowe....chiefs.

if you have them in your hand, sometimes the hobby version will have more of a slightly glossy look to it compared to the retail (more plain looking). looking at this set, i buy hobby. and for an example card #9 Quinton Coples has a different picture on it compared from hobby to retail. so this set may have a different pic on the retail side. (***that's just looking at one card)

I think the hobby version is a thicker stock. If you go to that set on here there is most likely some verbiage explaining the difference.

Thanks for that guys.  I'm going to go with Hobby version.  The card I possess is thicker than your average guys.  I appreciate the help!!

Hobby is thicker, for the hobbiest. The retail version is retailed to everyone.

Yes, the card-stock is the difference. The retail cards are much thinner than the hobby cards. Not as thin as the Topps flagship set, but maybe 2 of those stacked together would equal the thickness of the Strata retail cards. The hobby cards are about twice as thick as the retail version.

Now you got me looking again Spaz....lol.  So what I have may acutally be retail after all.  It is about as thick as two normal base cards.  So you are saying the hobby is thick like a relic card?

I agree Hobby is a thicker card stock than the retail.

OT: @860502 Love your SI Cover Rams Avatar.

Actually, I was incorrect with what I said before. The 2012 Strata retail cards ARE the same thickness as the flagship Topps cards. The hobby cards are thicker, maybe 3 regular Topps cards. Topps changed the stock the next year in several releases where they did a hobby and a retail version. In 2012, gloss was not a factor for most retail vs. hobby sets. But Topps keeps going back and forth with both gloss and thickness. Topps Fire and Topps Valor go with the same thickness-only difference b/t retail and hobby. Some of the thicker hobby versions of Topps sets actually show multiple layers of card-stock (as do all MEM cards) when looked at edge-on.

It would be much easier to tell these apart (and explain them) if the companies would stop switching every couple of years or so!