Card Identification Forum

        My question is, What set should this card be in? TCDB has it listed in the set "1997 Flair Showcase". Beckett has it listed in "1997 Flair Showcase Row 2". In there set information area they state: The 1997 Flair Showcase set was issued in one series of 360 cards. This hobby exclusive set is divided into three 120 card sets(Row 2/Style, Row 1/Grace, and Row 0/Showcase). Both TCDB and Beckett have Rows 0 and 1 listed the same but you disagree on Row 2. So which should it be ( 1997 Flair Showcase or 1997 Flair Showcase Row 2)?  My thoughts are it should be listed as Row 2 as there is a #2 in the row position on the card while the Row 0 cards have a 0 and the Row 1 cards have a 1.  Thanks for the help in advance...   Paul..

This is one of the idiosyncrasies of the database.  It doesn't play well when the 'base' set has a name in addition to the name of the product.  In this case, if you add the "Row 2" to the name of the base set, then the parallels would become "1997 Flair Showcase Row 2 - Row 1" and "1997 Flair Showcase Row 2 - Row 0" which make even less sense.  It would also change the name of other insert sets, "1997 Flair Showcase - Midas Touch" would turn into "1997 Flair Showcase Row 2 - Midas Touch" for exammple.

This is why names like this aren't added to the base sets in the database.  There should be a note in the user comments or release notes that indicate that the base set was called "Row 2".

-Tom

          My feeble old mind really does not understand what you saidin your post but you have way more time on the site and should know more that I do. I will add my cards to the other set.  Thanks...

Take a look at this listing... because it was labeled as row 2 on the main set it now shows up on all the inserts as well. http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Subsets.cfm/sid/2478/1996-97-Flair-Showcase-Row-2---Class-of-'96

This set is vexing, to be sure. Notice this parallel, which indicates the same row (Row 2) on the back, but a different section (Sec 0):

http://www.tradingcarddb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/3957/cid/3570940/1997-Flair-Showcase---Legacy-A40-Mike-Alstott?PageIndex=1

I seem to recall that certain players (Jerry Rice comes to mind) have variant cards within the set which can also be distinguished by the word in the arc beneath the words FLAIR SHOWCASE on the front of the card. In the case of this Alstott card, this says "STYLE." I seem to recall there are other versions besides STYLE, which I noticed when I saw Rice cards from that set which appeared identical at a quick glance, but actually had different photography.

**Update: On poking around a bit more, I think the different Rows actually have the different photography, as well as the word STYLE being GRACE on Row 1 and SHOWCASE on Row 0, meaning some say FLAIR SHOWCASE SHOWCASE (in the interest of redundancy...)

I think the 1998 Topps Gold Label Class 1 set is the worst. It doesn't say on the back what "class" the card is, you can only tell by color of the font and what the player is doing. (They added the Class on the backs of 1999 sets). Someone has conveniently labeled the actions in the baseball set, and now you get insert sets like this one: 1998 Topps Gold Label Class 1 (Fielding, Follow-Thru) - Topps Gold Label Class 3 (Hitting, Hitting). Which renders the eBay search button useless. I posted a link to a description of how to tell the difference on the main page of the football set after I found multiple wrong images loaded. The link to BaseballCardPedia on the baseball set gives the info for that set.