Not so Sterling: Got my 6th card, but the print run is 5!

carrsallstars · Sep 7, 2012

Have not had time to post here much lately- but I wanted to get some opinions on this. After I picked up a 1/1 cherry wood frame for cheap, I managed to complete a rainbow of 2010 Topps Sterling Manny Ramirez #27 with one each of the 7 versions of the card produced. I also was picking up dups of the /5 gold framed version, as the prices were reasonable on those as well. However, I ended up with two copies of the gold framed #4/5. I just added a second copy of the gold framed #2/5. I also have #5/5, and a serial number that I would describe as being stamped 2/5 and then stamped 3/5. Confused yet? Me too. I have not seen a copy numbered 1/5, but I may have missed one on ebay shortly after release. A scan of the 6 cards is below.

This has happened before with Topps, with a late 90's hockey card first (Isn't that what ultimately led to individual serial numbering)? Didn't it happen again with a Bowman baseball red maybe a 2005 card /5?
Do I have any recourse here with Topps? This seems pretty bogus. I have done some poking around on ebay and COMC and Beckett and have not seen a duplicate serial number for another player (though the population out there is pretty limited).

Here's the complete run:

2010 Topps Sterling #173/250

2010 Topps Sterling white framed #7/50

2010 Topps Sterling burgundy #6/10

2010 Topps Sterling gold framed # 2/5,2/5,2-3/5, 4/5, 4/5, 5/5

2010 Topps Sterling white suede #1/3

2010 Topps Sterling refractor #1/1

2010 Topps Sterling cherry wood #1/1

carrsallstars · Sep 7, 2012

Attachments were not showing up...

theplasticman · Sep 7, 2012

Wow... that is both kinda cool and a bit crappy.

Not sure you can do anything.

TopOffLikeWALLACE · Sep 7, 2012

Some of them look different, Top Middle, Bottom Left, Bottom Right.

Maybe there's Bronze and Gold both numbered to 5?

schmidtfan20 · Sep 7, 2012

crazy sig bro

carrsallstars · Sep 7, 2012

theplasticman said:
Wow... that is both kinda cool and a bit crappy.

Not sure you can do anything.

Yup

afrobandit said:
Some of them look different, Top Middle, Bottom Left, Bottom Right.

Maybe there's Bronze and Gold both numbered to 5?

I was thinking that, as the backs of some are a slightly different color. The fronts are so similar- there's no way they can be intended as a different parallel. More importantly, there is no evidence of any other player having a 2010 sterling card that is #/5 that is ever called anything but a gold or gold framed parallel. The sell sheets I can find only show a gold parallel #/5 But one shows a leather frame 1/1 parallel which I don;t think they made. Also, the refractor framed 1/1 doesn;t seem t be mentioned anywhere either. The cherry wood 1/1's surfaced for a lot of other players though.

Bob Loblaw · Sep 7, 2012

Manny being Manny.

carrsallstars · Sep 7, 2012

schmidtfan20 said:
crazy sig bro

Thanks

carrsallstars · Sep 7, 2012

Bob Loblaw said:
Manny being Manny.

So no laying down of the law, eh?

Sjrmn91 · Sep 7, 2012

If only he would cut his hair...

To me, the second 2/5, first 4/5 and 5/5 look more orange and the others look to be more yellow/gold. But I agree, they look incredibly similar.

uniquebaseballcards · Sep 7, 2012

carrsallstars said:
I was thinking that, as the backs of some are a slightly different color. The fronts are so similar- there's no way they can be intended as a different parallel. More importantly, there is no evidence of any other player having a 2010 sterling card that is #/5 that is ever called anything but a gold or gold framed parallel. The sell sheets I can find only show a gold parallel #/5 But one shows a leather frame 1/1 parallel which I don;t think they made. Also, the refractor framed 1/1 doesn;t seem t be mentioned anywhere either. The cherry wood 1/1's surfaced for a lot of other players though.

There are three Mannys from that set - #27, #28, #29 - which may have confused Topps (?). I'm assuming all of yours have the same card #.

carrsallstars · Sep 7, 2012

uniquebaseballcards said:
There are three Mannys from that set - #27, #28, #29 - which may have confused Topps (?). I'm assuming all of yours have the same card #.

Correct. These are all #27.

#28 has him with the Red Sox, and #29 with the Dodgers- so those cards have different photographs.

carrsallstars · Sep 8, 2012

These look close enough in hand that you would not notice a difference in the front gold frame color until you have 6 of them and start scratching your head. The backs however seem to have two different colors. Here is a scan of the backs arranged by color:

And if I scan the fronts arranged the same way, I think the gold frames for the ones on top look the same, and a slight color shade different than the ones on the bottom.

carrsallstars · Sep 8, 2012

Additionally, here are some scans from COMC. I thought they all looked the same when I looked at them before (the fronts). But upon further review, some of the ones on there look like they have a gold colored back and some have a more bronze back (my Manny's have both).

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Not so Sterling: Got my 6th card, but the print run is 5!

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