Card Identification Forum

does anyone know how to tell the difference between a refractor and a regular chrome

A refractor will have a rainbow shine to it when you hold it under a light. It's subtle but should be easy to spot if you know what to look for

I ask my son.  I'm not kidding, I can see the difference about once out of every 100 cards.  He will patiently point out the shine and I just don't see it. Maybe it's my 56 year old eyes. (I never could see the 3D pictures either when they were popular a few years ago.)

I have one that supposedly is a refractor and one that isn't and I can't tell them apart. Thanks

Scan them. If they are different, they will scan differently.

I hate this "Refractor" parallel.  It is so hard to tell the difference that for some years, the cards were actually labelled "Refractor" on the back. I have never been able to tell if I have Refractors among the first sets that came out.  One of the worst gimmicks Topps/Bowman ever came out with.

Yes...When I saw your post I went searching images at Beckett and COMC.  When scanned there is a noteable difference. Here is a comparisson example from Beckett.

Base

http://www.beckett.com/baseball/2015/bowman-chrome-draft/83-alex-reyes-11722628

Refractor

http://www.beckett.com/baseball/2015/bowman-chrome-draft-refractors/83-alex-reyes-11722829

The idea behind Refractors (the cards) is that they reflect a light spectrum, as in, a rainbow of light. The best way to tell whether or not a card is a refractor is to hold it up to a light source and see if you can see a spectrum of colors. Regular Chrome cards will not reflect any sort of rainbow light, it should just reflect the light from the source.

Of course, actual refraction doesn't happen because the cards themselves are not transparent.

http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/vdivener/notes/prism_refract.gif

As usual, Topps makes things confusing by not being consistent with labeling refractors, sometimes releasing cards that are "refractors" but don't have a non-refractor version, and doing other rainbowy-type stuff with cards.