2020 Topps Update Baseball Forum

I believe that the following cards are all mislabeled with SSP, when they should infact be SSSP.  All five of the cards code on the back end with -633. See chart below list for manufacturer's chart.  Not really sure who I would give this to so I thought I would start in this forum.  Thank you for your time.  Chris

1) U-82b Johnson

2) U-121d Ichiro

3) U-124c Ortiz

4) U-233b Brett

5) U-257d Jeter

Manufacturer's Card code chart:

• Base end in #588
• SP Variations end in #631
• SSP Variations end in #632
• SSSP Variations end in #633
• Advanced Stat Parallels end #634

"SSSP" isn't used on this site

This is one the reasons I haven't been doing much here lately. SP = Short Print. Now, let's look at an example of a set.

Set - Cards 1-200 - printed in the 100's of thousands

Cards 201-250 - about 5,000 printed (but exact print run not announced)

Cards 251-270 - about 1,000 printed (but exact print run not announced)

Cards 271-275 - about 100 printed (but exact print run not announced)

If there were no cards 201-270, the cards 271-275 would be SPs for the set as they are printed in smaller quantities that the bulk of the set. Same holds true if the set was only 1-200 and then 251-270. Therefore, anything that is printed in a smaller quantity, no matter what that quantity is, is a "Short Print" for that set. SP should be the ONLY indicator used in the Note field to show that a card was printed in a smaller quantity than the rest of the set.

If the hobby wants, the "degree" of "Short-printedness" can be indicated in the Note2 field (e.g., "VAR: SSP: Legend variation"). That should never be used in the Note field.

Besides, what do we do when we find out that our example set continues as:

Cards 276-280 - about 50 printed (but exact print run not announced)
Cards 281-285 - about 25 printed (but exact print run not announced)
Cards 286-290 - about 15 printed (but exact print run not announced)

Now do we mark the set as such?
1-200 - no Note
201-250 - SP
251-270 - SSP
271-275 - SSSP
276-280 - SSSSP
281-285 - SSSSSP
286-290 - SSSSSSP

Ridiculous? Yes. So let's stop the ridiculousness now. Everything from 201 to 290 is a SP, and nothing else.

Previous forum thread about this subject: 
https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/S/ID/209948/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=23648&PageIndex=2

A short print is a short print.  There is NO defined numeration for a short print.  Thus there is no defined numeration for SP, SSP, SSSP, making the terms SSP and SSSP indefinable and meaningless. If they are defined then it's not SP (or SSP, SSSP) it's print run (PR).

I have wondered about members adding Sp   SSP   SSSP   to cards

I can not remember which card it was but it was label  SSSP and I had 5 of it.   If I remember correct I brought it up in another posting about these labels.  It may have been changed.

The only times I've used "SSP" was for listable aftermarket stuff that's extremely tough to get OR those game cards where only one winner card was produced to win the grand prize; otherwise I use "SP"

I could be wrong but it seems to me that the thing to do here would be to make all of the various short prints have the "SP" note and then use NOTE2 or better yet the release notes to explain the differences. Does that seem reasonable?

That works too

I agree. But you'll still have people go back in and update the Note1's anyways changing them back to SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSP. It'll be a never ending battle. Someone will have the itch to include the Beckett/CC/3rd party annotations in here. Release Notes are always helpful...to those that take the 2 seconds to actually look at them.

Sarcasm aside, yes I like that idea and can always do my aprt ot change things back to SP.

JIm, I doubt it. If it's actually in Note2, which now displays on the checklist page, it's there to be seen. So as long as whoever makes these adjustments to the checklist does it correctly, and doesn't lose the S's, it would wind up being a redundancy to change Note.