Off-Topic Forum

I have found backs to be added a lot with newer cards that have parallels. I am thinking they don't have the parallel, but have added the back from the base, since it is the same. They don't have the actual parallel in hand. 

I started by only adding the fronts becuase I just wanted to see my collection represented. As adding images became more enjoyable for me, I started adding the backs as well. 

There are a very few cards I have only added the front scans to because they are the Rip It or Keep It cards. Most of those are ripped from the back which makes the back uneligable for adding to the database 

As a side note, I purchased them ripped and would never rip them myself.

Can give you a couple examples that I have stumbled across;

1 - Stickers (Panini, Topps, O~pee~chee etc) I know you asked about cards but the sticker collections are also listed on this site. So when you would place the sticker in the album usually the back gets thrown out. What I have seen looks like the scans were taken and cropped from the albums. I have a bunch of doubles so I was able to add as many of the backs as I could in this situation and was also able to replace some of the scans where the cropping wasn't so good. On my profile under items added - Backs = 2,735 ...  Fronts = 1,925 (a difference of almost a thousand). 

2 - Blank Back Inserts fronts in a lot of cases have either the same design as the base set, or one of the parallel inserts. So in this case someone loads up the fronts of either the base or regular parallel card that isn't an actual blank back card. Then there are cases I've seen where the opposite happens. Someone will get a blank back insert and scan the back to all the cards in the set on the site. LOL it looks kind of funny because all the backs look exactly the same, where the fronts are all over the spectrum in terms of brightness or contrast. 

Two more examples: 1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey and 1991 Upper Deck Baseball, where many of the cards have 4 different hologram variations. Since the fronts are the same on each card, users often copy and upload the same image to the empty VARs, then the backs just need to be uploaded as they're found.

While I always try to do both, there have been some instances where the image is of poor quality so I don't submit it.

I believe there are a few users who pull "scans" from other sites such as eBay or elsewhere in order to get the points. You'll notice who they are if you delve into certain sets where only the front has been scanned, and none of the backs.

I know of one user for sure, and suspect others, but even if I reported them I'm sure nothing would happen.

But it's frustrating for sure. I'm always scanning both sides because I actually have the card in hand.

This thread come up a lot, so I already have reheared my response!

For me, basically I only will scan an item once. If it comes out as a bad scan, I'm not going to keep rescanning until it is right. I just submit what I have. So if that means I only add a front or a back, then it is what it is.