General Forum

I go through the Topps baseball card set pretty carefully each year. I sort the cards by team, put them in order of quality of player in each team, etc. I just finished that phase for this year. Took a couple hours at most. And of course there's an easy to spot error--two Geraldo Parra cards with different numbers. This was easy to spot without even using 21st century computer technology. I'm sure I'll find other errors when I carefully review the backs of the cards  

So are these dumb errors done on purpose as an added collector point of interest? Or are they that sloppy every. single. year? 
v3

It's very strange that they did this. I don't see any reason why. Is it better then a Mickey Mantle card in the #7 spot to boost your Yankees collection? 

I really believe that it is just Topps doesn't really care about certain teams or players at all.  If it is not the 8-10 most popular teams or a rookie, then they don't worry about it.  How else can you explain the exclusion of C.J. Cron (28 HRs, 92 RBIs in 2021...All Star in 2022) from the entire 2022 Topps set while Chris Owings (43 ABs in 2021...played for Baltimore in 2022) was included with the Rockies in Series 2?  In Topps's defense, I think they simply put Owings in instead of Cron on accident because Cron was in the Rockies 2022 factory team set...but it is still just weird.

The Rockies have actually had the same thing as Parra happen at least three other times

2000 - Mike Lansing in both Series 1 & 2

2011 - Jason Hammel 2 cards both in Series 2

2014 - Ryan Wheeler, Brett Anderson and Justin Morneau all had Rockies cards in both series 2 and Update.  Anderson and Morneau both had Photoshopped uniforms in Series 2 and real shots in Update, btu it was still overkill.

I just write it off as the cost of collecting a "forgotten team" in Topps's world.

I caught this quite early since I collect all Nationals flagship cards and couldn't believe it when I saw the same exact Parra card trotted out (not to mention there was really no reason to put him in Series 2, as he had retired along with Ryan Zimmerman and both of them were in Series 1). With all the parallels out there, player collectors are already overburdened with decisions, but I can't imagine being faced with that as a Parra collector (if there are any). 

I also learned Chris Carter had the same exact card in 2013 Series 2 and Update. It seems that it hadn't happened for a little while, but its not completely unprecedented. Topps isn't winning any awards for quality control, but neither is Panini, so there doesn't seem to be much care or motivation when it comes to fixing these kinds of errors. 

Where there is oversight there will be oversight.

They are that sloppy every single year.  They just don't care.

It will never be as bad as Pro Set was.

I am pretty sure Topps does not care now nor have they ever really cared about what fans/collectors think about their sets. 

So why people continues to buy and collect their products? Could it be that they are lazy? Plausible. Are they not giving a d*mn? I don't think so. They can have an exclusive license, if they print just pure junk, sales will go down and people will spend their money elsewhere. I am sure that they know that, even if it doesn't always look like that.

Pro Set hadn't been in business for 70+ years