1992 Maxx (Black) Racing Forum

Next somebody will probably suggest listing them as variations of each other

No, it's clear they were issued as separate products. Si what should the set names be? I'm still very unclear on this (and I'm sure I'm not alone).

It says "5th Anniversary" on the packaging, but not the cards. On the baseball side, it was mentioned that the Topps anniversary issues don't call it out in their name. This was the regular 1992 Maxx set, so if we follow the baseball model it would just be "1992 Maxx Black" and "1992 Maxx Red". If we want to follow what is on the packaging, it would be "1992 Maxx 5th Anniversary Black" and "1992 Maxx 5th Anniversary Red". My vote would be to follow the precedence set by the Topps baseball anniversary issues, be consistent, and not include anniversary in the name. Am fine if the concensus is something else though.

We don't follow this precedent with wrestling though.  For about 3 or 4 years, Topps did their flagship WWE sets in 2 Series, with Series 2 called "Then Now Forever" ON THE PACKAGING ONLY.  Those words appear nowhere on the cards.  They were just cards #101 - 200 of the main Topps set, with no visible differences from Series 1.  But when I pointed this out in the forums, everyone said we have to go by the packaging, not the cards, even though nobody holding a card in hand would have any reason to think it was a different set or that they were called Then Now Forever.  Seems like we have multiple precedents on this.

I think it depends on the set. For example, Upper Deck had a few times where they called their Series 2 "Game Jersey Edition" instead and put it on the cards themselves, but in reality it was just Series 2 and continued off from the first series. We didn't create "2000-01 Upper Deck Game Jersey Edition" as a separate set or see a need to include "Game Jersey Edition" in the set name (but we made mention of it in the Release Notes). In 2001, their Series 2 baseball was "Mid-Summer Classic" and wasn't on the cards themselves, but again we knew it was Series 2 and continued off from the first series and instead just put a note about MSC in the Release Notes. My personal opinion, I think it should be Maxx Black and Maxx Red to differentiate and maybe add a note about "5th Anniversary Edition" in Release Notes along with how those sets were released. Looking at Beckett, it seems these were both considered Hobby releases but they consider Black a "premium" of Red?

Also one quick FYI for spaz: any Major Release set requires double approval from L8s to change the name and/or brand, so nobody can go in and change it whenever they want.

The Black product had one less 1992 card in each pack that was replaced by a "vintage" card (from 1988-1991). That is why they have the premium moniker. If these 2 sets weren't released completely separate from each other, the black cards would just be a parallel of the red set. Since that isn't the case and the Black cards have a slightly lesser print run, the sets are separate listings. Both products were a hobby release. I don't care if "5th Anniversary" is in the title, but the cards need the border colors listed in the title for both of them. If someone is looking only at a list of cards in their collection or wantlist where the scans don't show up, how do they know which one is black border and which one is red border without clicking every single card? The border color is a specific descriptor to the entire set in both versions. That is the ONLY difference in the cards in either set.

Ed, I know your FYI applies now, but it didn't in the past when L8's didn't have the options that we do now. A quick PM to Admin kept getting the title of the Black set changed over and over. Admin stays too busy to have noticed that it was happening multiple times with the same set.

You forgot that the Black set Has Gold foil Lines and names where the red just has goldish color not foil. 

To throw my 2 cents in as a Racing collectorI thin they shout have the color in the name.

You are absolutely right Jeff! I forgot about that with the Black cards having foil and the Red not having foil. Either way, they are 2 separate sets and both are a promotion for the 5th anniversary of Maxx cards. Neither one is JUST the 5th Anniversary version. 

Should I put in an IR for this?  Not sure if there is a concensus or not, but can direct Admin to this thread to make the final call.  Here is how I see it-

Currently Listed as-

1992 Maxx

1992 Maxx 5th Anniversary

Option A-

1992 Maxx Red

1992 Maxx Black

Option B-

1992 Maxx 5th Anniversary Red

1992 Maxx 5th Anniversary Black

I lean towards option A knowing how the Topps Anniversary issues are labeled here, but would be good with option B as well.  I agree with the above comment that both sets should be labeled the same regarding "5th Anniversary", if one has it, both should as the packaging is identical for how it is worded between the two issues.  It would have been nice if these were retail/hobby, but Maxx sent these both to all outlets, although the red is much more common (neither is hard to find though as we are talking junk wax era).