General Forum

I was going through a stack of some cards I had set aside at some point, and realized that they were all cards that "should be serial numbered" according to the manufacturer. All of them are parallels from recent years and of different brands. There isn't really a question as to whether or not I have the right sets, but my question is this - How often do you come across parallels that aren't SN that should be? I got one of these in a pack, and the others are not likely to be replacements being as new as they are. I want to log them into my collection, but am hesitant only because they aren't numbered. I feel like they're fake...lol

Do any of you come across this as often as I seem to, and if you do, does it bother you that they aren't numbered as they should be?

I've pulled a few too that are supposed to be numbered but aren't. I think they planned to number them when the packaging was made up but changed plans. 

I think Upper Deck has sent me replacement cards for redemptions that they couldn't fulfill that were not serial numbered versions of cards that were only released with serial numbers.

Initially I thought you meant cards that should have an SN on here like the early-mid 90's NFL Collecror's Choice versions- ironically I recently (as in last week) did a "detailed add" for several of them and put the printed SN on my cards. Example:

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCollection.cfm/sid/33888?CollectionID=1

  Then I thought you meant something similar to a question I asked regarding sets like Topps Opening Day with their foil parallels (mainly the blue) that claim a certain number but there is never anything printed. That one taught me a lesson that SN and Print Run are two different things (not new info exactly) but people often incorreclty use them interchangeably thus the confusion. Example:

https://www.tcdb.com/Checklist.cfm/sid/199872/2019-Topps-Opening-Day---Opening-Day-Edition

Lastly, the replies explained a third option of either printing /manufacturing errors which I also have but never asked about. For example:

 https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/33850/cid/3457124/1995-Classic-NFL-Rookies---Die-Cuts-Silver-Signatures-1-Ki-Jana-Carter

I have 4 of these and even on the back of someone else's image and in the Release Notes it says SN 1750 but not one of my cards has a number nor signature.

Just thought I'd share how one question can evoke multiple ideas and from this I have a feeling not one of my ideas is what you meant so hopefully I will learn something new.

Cheers! Becky Elizabeth

Panini has gotten really bad about claiming that some cards are SN'd in their CL's and then they "forget" to actually SN them. I have several examples of that in my collection. It's especially prevalent when there are multiple versions of an AU and/or MEM card to a certain number of total cards for the person. Say 50 AU cards for a person with versions of SN25, SN15, SN5, SN3 and two different SN1 cards.  The SN25 card likely misses the SN stamping stage and just becomes a PR25 card. All card companies have gotten really lazy over the past several years and that goes back years before the pandemic started. The way that Topps and Panini have just failed across the board to provide quality products AND exactly what they claim to produce makes it continually more clear how Fanatics was able to "steal" all the licenses from them in the near future. I highly doubt Fanatics does any better when they take over since most of their clothing is overpriced and not the quality you'd expect for the price paid. I'm not even going to get into how much I hate the quality of Fanatics right now since it isn't about cards.

I think there are also some football issues that exist in both forms.  I have some from the early 2000's that I believe were issued with s/n's and then when the company went belly up, some extras were bought out and have made it into the market.  No idea about the details...