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2004 Topps Fan Favorites -Football

 Why are these listed 2004? The backs say 2005?

This has actually come up in IRs before. People trying to get it moved. Actually, by having this in the Forum for this set, this may help.

Before discussing the football set, let's talk baseball. The baseball season starts in April (sometimes late March) and runs through September or early October. Makes things real nice as all events for a particular season all occur during a calendar year. In the early 1980s, card companies tried to get a jump on the next season and in many instances, the next season's cards were actually out before Christmas. In the case of 1983 Donruss, they even copyrighted all the cards (c) 1982 (since they were printed and released while 1982 was still on the calendar. That didn't make them 1982 cards. They are still listed everywhere as "1983 Donruss". Because they were released for the 1983 season.

Hockey and basketball both start in one year and end in the other. Their sets will have copyright dates of either year (so for a 2002-03 season release, you'll see (c) 2002 and (c) 2003). Now, I know for a fact that in hockey we had some interesting things happen in the off-season as there were "early" sets as well as "late" sets, so during the summer of say 2002, we had the late 2001-02 sets coming out AFTER the early 2002-03 sets. I'd be willing to guess that there were sets like this for basketball as well.

Now, let's talk the football season. It's an interesting thing, because for the most part, the regular season is played within one calendar year (which is the year named on the set), yet the post-season is played (and occasionally the regular season leaks over into) the next calendar year. So the Super Bowl played in 2005 is actually to determine the chanpion of the 2004 season. So any sets slated to be release late in the season or during the post-season may have a copyright date on them for the year AFTER the season just played. This is how a 2004 set can have a 2005 copyright line on them. And frankly, it's surprising that there aren't more sets like this out there for football. I guess companies have the option of setting the copyright back since most of the time the printing is probably taking place during the regular season for the later-released sets.

Sorry Dan I may have been one who did an IR and request to add the 2005 set.

I recieved a Roger Craig card from that set and it was sold as a 2005.   Later I traded for the 2004 card thinking they were diff and at that time I find out there was no 2005 set.   Thanks to this site!!!

There are a few more set (football) like that.

As a Lions fan the season is always over in December. i've heard stories of games being after that but can't substantiate those rumors.

In the future, we may want to reconsider naming them the 2 years.  I hear the next CBA the owners are pushing for a 17th game and cutting 2 preseason games out of the schedule, but also talks of pushing the Super Bowl into late February (which I will hate).  If it extends that far, might as well span it over the two years.