Site Forum

From the FAQ:
"Team cards can link every player pictured as long as each player can be differentiated."

Please DO NOT link names to team photo cards unless every player can be positively identified. A card like the 1956 Topps (left image above) DOES positively identify (differentiate) every player.

Jersey numbers DO NOT positively identify a player. 
The photo on the right above is the 1958 Cleveland Browns team photo. It is the lone photo that was used by Topps for five straight years; 1959 through 1963.  The team had numerous personnel changes in that five-year span. Just using player #70 (front row center) as an example, here's who wore that jersey number:

1958 - Don Colo
1959 - Fran O'Brien
1960 - Jim Prestel
1961 - Errol Linden
1962 - John Brown
1963 - John Brown

1959--
1960--
1961--
1962--
1963--

Though I know that they can be linked to individual players, I personally think it is stupid.  If I collect a certain player, I really don't want the team card as part of the collection. I know, others think differently.

So that means all player links on 1958 Topps team cards https://www.tcdb.com/Notes.cfm/sid/3201/1958-Topps?Note=TC

are invalid and should be removed ?

Basically, if the card company doesn't expressly say who the players are on the front, it may be impossible to identify the players are, expecially on these full team photos. That's why the rule is that only positively identified persons should be linked, and not ones that are only "believed" to be on the card (or simply the people named in the checklist on the back).

Additionally, even "current" team photos are usually from the previous season at some point, usually not at the end of the season. Late season additions, although named on the checklist, are probably not in the photo.

bump

Since the team photos on cards are almost always official team photos that are accompanied elsewhere in official items with a list identifying everyone from left to right, row by row, it's almost always possible to identify each and every player pictured. Just takes a bit of research and documentation. Once an official list is located and the players in a team photo are confirmed, I see no logical reason to exclude that team card from a player's database. Even in the case of a team card featuring a years-old team photo that includes an already-long-retired player, that player's database should still list that card, just as a database will list various obscure tribute cards from decades after a player has retired. The whole point of such a database is to be completist. If a collector prefers to ignore team cards, that's his or her prerogative, but that preference shouldn't determine the completist parameters here, in my opinion. So, for example, Red Auerbach is on the 1975 Topps team card for the Celtics, and Bill Russell is on the 1975 Topps team card for the Supersonics, and I think it's absurd for neither card to be listed in their databases here, considering the multitude of obscure tribute cards listed here that were produced decades after they had both altogether retired from the sport. These were official Topps cards, produced when they were active in the sport, which clearly depict them on the front. And their depiction was not an accident like Jordan being seen on a Sam Vincent card, they intentionally posed for the photo. If there is some other discussion of this issue which more thoroughly explains the reasoning behind excluding unnamed team photos, I'd love to see it, because as of right now, it doesn't make sense to me, at all.

You are aware this is a crowd sourced site? If you believe that official lists for the players in the team photos exist then you can find them, confirm them, identify all the players as correct and then correctly link them as per the site guidelines.

No one is saying it can not be done. They are saying it is difficult to do so correctly and accurately. You can't just find a random list and go "close enough" and start chucking names in.

Thanks, I will consider doing that in the future. But since I signed up here literally today, it seems presumptuous for me to do that right now. I am primarily interested in just discussing the issue right now, and seeing whether or not a consensus can be developed.

I believe identification is based on card-in-hand, not an outside source.  More importantly, I believe Admin's stance was the subject of the cards. The subject being "TEAM" cards not individual players' cards.  And Admin is the consensus.

Here's an example of a card where the subject is the team, and the players are not identified on the card, but the card is still listed in individual player databases.

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/2048/cid/2987421/1984-85-Star-Arena-Boston-Celtics-9-Robert-Parish-/-Larry-Bird-/-Kevin-McHale-/-Jimmy-Rodgers-/-K.C.-Jones-/-Chris-Ford

Is there a threshold for how many players can be in an unidentified team-subject photo before it's disqualified from individual databases?

Is the reluctance to list team photo cards in individual databases actually based on dreading the prospect of the tedious work of identifying and cross-listing all the players in all such cards over the years?