1989 O-Pee-Chee Stickers Baseball Forum

Absolutely nothing against the two individuals who added all of the "VAR" but all I can say is what a mess. No, not the work they did as both are very capable individuals but now this set, like the Topps stickers versions in all years with sticker backs, is a complete mess with the idea that a different removable back makes a VAR.  I went through my collection recently and I can say that NOT ALL VAR in the Topps sets are listed as I have many where the back of the stickers I have are different than any of those listed.  And no, I did not add the VAR as I do not believe that this is the right way to list these sets and I refuse to contribute to its growth.  They are two sets; the stickers can be removed from the backs and inserted into an album.  If the stickers have VAR of the backs why then doesn't the sticker back set have VAR listing all the possible stickers one might find on them? If one argument holds true for one set, then why not the other?

The for and against was divided on this issue. Unfortunately the For was louder, repeatedly louder, and got their way yet when it came time to build the lists, many of them contributed very little other than annoyingly demanding posts about "When is this going to be done". As I said, I can tell you that the Topps sets of stickers is far from complete with all the VAR of sticker backs for each sticker. No doubt, this will hold true for the OPC sets.

I had hoped that the OPC versions would stay clean but now I see that they won't.  I already glimpsed at what it has done to my collection and I can see I now have to go through all my cards, Wants, and Traders to correct my lists. I know the site cannot please everyone. But this is one of the decisions that ranks in the top 5 decisions that is simply wrong and I wish it would be reversed. And one of the reasons I do less and less on this site. Sorry if I offend anyone but I've always been honest in my thoughts.

Edit: Having gone through my collections in this set,I see that the work done by the 2 dedicatedmembers of this site was to combine the listings of the stickers that are paired up.  This caused my collection to show that I had two of each or wanted two of those I did not yet have.  I have gone through and removed teh duplicates inmy own collection. But there is an infiltration of "VAR" for different sticker backs; that is my beef against how these sticker sets are listed.  In that regard,my feelings remain as expressed.

Knowing I might get thrashed for this I propose a potential solution. Then again, this may have already been mentioned in the past. Can't we just make 2 sets out of these types of sets? The main set is just the stickers fronts regardless of what is on the back. My understanding is that the fronts never changes; the same combination of players are always present. The backs can be made their own set regardless of what stickers are on the front. Not  sure how'd they be classified, regular insert set?

I know an issue everyone would have is that they will want to mark their specific version of what back or front they have on here. That's how these sets got into this boat. The simpole solution is that the Comments field can be utilized for that. Person has sticker #1 with Player A and Player B. The back is Player C. Player C goes intothe Comments field. If the person gets another of sticker #1 with a different back they enter the new information. When they go to view their collection they will see both stickers with the Comment assigned to it. It's almost better because when you view your Collection you don't see the Note2 field so you wouldn't know what VAR it is right away.

Just my two cents. Suppose I should try to get some actual work done on a beautiful Friday....    

Three sets, just like we do with panels.  We list the full panels of cards and we list the separated singles from those panels. Think of the stickers/card backs as panels.

1) full listing of all the complete cards (backs) and the stickers (fronts) and all the combinations (Variations).
2) a listing of each individual sticker (and cropped images of just the single sticker); back image would be blank
3) a listing of the cards (backs); back image would be blank

That is how they were before some asked for every possible VAR to be listed.  As I said earlier, the # of VAR this will cause is still unknown and definitely not complete in the Topps sets.

I do like Chuck's suggestion so that the two different types of collectors are satisfied.  I can then ignore all of the sets that list the incomplete list of VAR.

Since I was the original driver of this project, working closely with Admin, let me address a couple points.

Jim - that was the original way it was done. Members weren't happy. They couldn't track their collections properly. Chuck and I were hard-fast proponents of that system and we lobbied hard to keep it that way once a couple variations started popping up. I had several back and forth e-mails with Admin about this over a couple year period. I fought hard to keep it. Then as i about to fire off "the final" e-mail about staing my case why they should be 2 "blank backed" (or back agnostic) sets (all I had left to type was "Thanks, Dan"), it hit me that because this is the way they come directly in the package, this is how they need to be listed here. I deleted a large portion of the e-mail and sent a VERY different e-mail to Admin asking how we should list them.

I then made several different suggestions. Each one was shot down due to one reason or another. Finally, the method being used now was the one Admin approved of. A sticker-only set seemed implausible due to the fact that stickers, without backs, are impossible to trade.

It was determined that a "Sticker Back" set could stand on it's own as stickers could be removed, but the backs remain. This is why they are deemed a "second" set. To add "stickers" as their backs, would be creating precisely redundant sets.

I give my 2 cent worth to vrooomed early on.   They did not do it the way I would have liked it.   But as a player collection it does get me what I need.   By my understanding we know that there would be more VAR added as time went along.   I do collect VAR but at times I wonder WHY.

I do understand that the set builders do not like it as it adds more cards to the set.