Card Identification Forum

I need help, I'm trying to identify this card. It's a 1980 Topps Steve Carlton replica made out of plastic and measures 2 15/16 x 4 3/16 it has no dates, no numbers, no markings of any kind. Does anyone know what this card is?

I rember seeing these before. If I remember correctly it was a promotion, but I can’t remember what company.

Hey Bossman, 

Is it a "Cardboard" based card or is it more plastic like? If those pics are the front and back then does the back habe a reversed pic or are we seeing the front thru the back? Some Toy Stores sold them with things like a game, action figure or a novelty issue. I don't see any (TM) or (C) so it could be a "homemade card" card too. I have a stack of Michael Jordon - Birmingham Barons Cards that local print shops made without a license to do so. They usually have a "Sports Stars",  "Frontier Sports", or "Stadium Sports" or thats what my Jordon Baseball has on these home made or local print shop types which can be very collectible. 

I located this list and it might be a "Brand" or "Advertising" card like the Jordon Cups & Fries Boxes for McDonald's in or around 96. This list shows several company's names that produced the 1980 Steve Carlton Cards for Topps and Advertising

Here's a direct page address for the info I found a few minutes ago.

http://baseballcardpedia.com/index.php/Search_by_Player

Hope this helps or can jog a memory someone will have. I have many Jordon Fries Boxes from McDonald's that were never used so to keep put up and they look like a card too if you cut it out etc. My bet is it's a advertising card or handout bcc I don't see; card #, (c), (TM) - Trademark Should Be On It BCZ it's a reprint of the actual 1980 Topps Card & Photography so reproducing photography is illegal even without  (C) or (TM) marketing, so I bet the Topps Trading Card Business would be able to give info & if they haven't seen a pic of it before then they might want to investigate it themselves as to who reproduced it, where and when. It's not illegal to use a photograph that is copywrite covered bit it cannot be an exact duplicate so to market it unless the original copywrite or credit is given to the OG.

The size is odd too. That's actually 3" x 4.25" if you round up bcz most cards do round up or they are only off no more than a "32nd" so to allow collectors, traders and grading services avoid the "Trimmed" card issue where people take production or printing company sheet cutters & square a card up by shaving up to 1/64th off to remove a ding, chipping or skew so it looks better and there are millions of those out there that have done this too. I measure every card I buy online, and photograph them in package, out and out of sleeves or cases bcz of this. A 1/64" shave is almost impossible to spot with naked eye. I used really high end machinist steel rulers, a PEAK1984 Lupenw/Lens Attachments that have measuring grids like a rifle scope has "Mil-Dots" for up, down, left or right to contain a "holdover" for calculating bullet drop or spin drift and wind calculations. They aren't cheap but they pay for themselves after you catch a - eBay Power Seller - altering cards for better sales and individuals on there do it a lot! I've seen fake serial # items where they use a print shop or label maker to produce the 1/10 label, then they cut, peel and stick it! While on subject, there are programs like Photoshop that have some extra add-ons that allow for the scanners to do extremely high detailed scans of autographs, they analyse the ink color, stroke habit, pressure variations, and other areas to reproduce them on cards that a high tech printer with a sharpie litteraly in the printers plotter arm will autograph paper or a card like the one they are forging and then rescan for the PC software to compare the original auto and it's reproduction and make changes to the printers pressure, stroke & speed etc to get it closer!!! This isn't a "I heard peiple do this" statement. I have over 30 years experience in high end offic3 machines, blue print plotters, duplicators, color copiers, high end scanners and about anything in a print shops arsenal or office machines well via working for both Xerox & Canon Inc as a Senior Regional Service Manager & Technician for every county in mid-Alabama to the Tenn line and several areas in Mississippi that I manager for those large companies and I know the "trade-secrets" or "tradecraft" of forgery via machine signs. All digital machines leave a defect on purpose so to track them down if like 2 boys in Seattle did after the first color COPIERS came out, they printed 2 million $ worth of trackers checks, opened accounts in Canada and cashed them into those banks before sending it back to American banks. They got caught via the digital signature tech that those machines have. That was in 1988!! So imagine the tech now right?

Sorry about off topic but it really isn't bcz your item could be a home produced card as some are. I can't or don't know how to add pics to my posts here or messages so to show you the product cards I have found in Birmingham with Jordon in Barons baseball uniforms.

Have a blessed week ahead! Holler if I can help or U have questions.

God Bless,

R.C Burns - bamaman - Roll Tide!!

Thanx for the info bamaman, the card is plastic and pictured are the front and reverse of the card. I've searched the web endlessly and found nothing. I think I bought this at the Philadelphia convention center during a card show. Anyone else have any ideas?

Here's the answer. Probably hand cut.

Good job.  Sure looks like someone cut-up the display ad.

I would LOVE to have that display!

I don't know about Burger King, but there is a fairly active online trading community for McDonald's translite advertising signs. I was lucky enough to find a couple from way back in the day when Hut drove the McD #27 car.

Wow !

Thank you Analogkid !