Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

Hi everyone.. Continuously learning. lol.lol.

So I have been really confused when I was entering cards into database when one day i came upon the 2 sets alike, BUT

Hobby or Retail? Hmmmm which is it ?? some have shown a possible picture difference.. Ok .. Thats easy.. But then along comes the choise when they both have same front and back.. Hmmmm O BOY..  Today  i received some cards, RETAIL.

Looked like the one in my collection. I pulled it out of pocket.. OMG.. The feel.. One was thicker than the other.

So now my question... Is the thicker always the Hobby and thinner the retail  or Reverse  OR does that even change from set to set thick/thin thin/thick ...

Grrrrrrrrr.

Thanks for my frustration rant.... I wanna make sure I send a correct card when in that situation.

Donn

PS.. TCDB    you guys just rule with this site... A VERY HAPPY MEMBER

Hobby is at least generally the thicker.  I can't think of examples where it is not, but there may be some out there.

In 31 years in cards, I have never known of cards to be different in thickness due ONLY to the type of outlet they are being sold from. We could use a very large amount of more information in this post to clarify the details. No idea what cards are being referenced here.

 todays hmm..

Thanks. I just found this in a “Beckett forum,

Are you talking basic differences in cards? A general rule retail uses a thinner card stock vs the thicker in hobby, or hobby will have a shinny Finish vs a dull or lack of finish in retail or there may be foil differences like no foil in retail but foil in hobby.

I'm with cl-kyle on this one. I've never heard of a set where the hobby version was thinner than the retail version. When the difference between hobby and retail is only the thickness of the cards, the retail cards are usually the thickness of a base flagship Topps card while the hobby version is 2-4x thicker. When foil is the difference, hobby is usually holofoil and retail is bronze, silver or gold foil. Another version difference is die-cut vs. not die-cut (like Crown Royale) where the die-cut base cards are the hobby version.

Generally speaking, Spaz is right. I can think of one set (2014 Absolute) in which the retail is die-cut and the hobby is not. When there is a difference in thickness, I've never seen a case when the retail is thicker. Thank goodness there's a Trading Card Database to help us sort it all out!

So is this card stock thickness issue only in football cards, and only a couple of sets?

MrAnderson - I can't GUARANTEE a Yes OR a No, but it does seem that football cards were the main sets where this happened with thicknesses. I don't recall a single MLB set that had that as the only difference. I have no clue about NBA or NHL cards though. Topps did a LOT of retail/hobby versions when they were trying to obtain exclusive licenses. Most were almost indistinguishable from each other: especially Topps Platinum, Topps Strata, Topps Valor and THEN all kinds of Bowman Prospect, Bowman Chrome Prospect, Bowman Draft and Bowman Draft Prospect and ALL the other versions of the same cards with just different card numbers!

@TNT - Was that the set where the retail "Rookie Cards" were die-cut, but the hobby cards were not and were SN'd?

Bowman has a lot of these difference in baseball. Most of mine are from the 2000's.