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Sportscaster Cards - How many countries/variations exists???
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Posts: 9 ✭
Hello folks, got a question that I HOPE somebody can answer? Does anybody know how many countries/variations of this set actually exist? Here are the countries listed by PSA for the masters set of the player I collect:
French
Belgian
Italy
Swedish
Finnish
UK
So a total of six(6), does anyone know of any others not listed above? Also, does anyone know of a good resource and/or website for these cards? A way to tell which country a card is from? Thanks in advance for any time and/or help offered, I really appreciate it!!
~T
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There are 2 US versions, Printed in Italy and printed in Japan.
Matt
Dutch
German
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stupid print dots
It is very important to understand the difference between "Italy" and "Italian" as well. "Italy" was printed in English for distribution in North America. "Italian" was printed in Italian for distribution in Italy. There are several threads here in the archives that get into Sportscasters with more detail, but here you go, listed in order of scarcity:
Dutch
Belgian
Italian
German
French
Swedish
North American - Japan
UK
Finnish
North American - Italy
The website http://www.atlaspicturecards.com/Sportscaster_cards.html was a very comprehensive source of info on these, but for some reason it does not seem to be working today.
That's a big post of goodness. Thanks for sharing!
Arthur
Is the checklist the same for all countries?
Arthur
No, the checklist is not the same for all countries, in two regards. First, the numbering can vary wildly from issuance nation to nation, even if the same card appears in multiple nations' sets. Second, not all cards appear in all nations' sets. I've spent a fair amount of time learning a lot about Sportscasters; it is easy to understand once you've delved into it, but intimidating at the start.
There are other variations that need to be stated for reference. Depending on the nation, there can be up to 5 print runs of a set. The first print run does not have a letter on back near the middle at the bottom. The second print run has an "A", third print run is "B", then "C" and "D".
From print run to print run, there are occasionally variances that go beyond just the letter. You will see the bio info on the back having updates as print runs go on, so a later run may include an extra paragraph or two on back compared to the first run. Also, there are adjustments made to the sport logo in the upper corner on front & back, such as 1 vs. 2 boxers, or changes in the density/quantity of the swimming waves, for examples.
Lastly, you'll see variations in publishing city. For example, you can get a North American (Italy) 1st, 2nd and 3rd print run all with Lausanne in the lower left corner, and then find 4th print run "C" cards with either Lausanne or Geneva. Though Sportscaster North America (Italy) is the most common highest run series to find, the North American (Italy) 4th run "C" Geneva cards are as tough to find as the Italian and German issue cards, if not harder.
PSA does not designate very many variances on their labels relative to what is out there. Also, the pop report is pretty screwed up because it was only about a year and a half ago that they started labeling the UK cards correctly, and prior to that had grouped them in as North America (Italy) even though there are numbering differences, not only with the country code half of the card number, but also the card number within the set too.
Holy moly. So then I'm assuming it's safe to say the checklist is considered incomplete for the end-of-the-line cards that are really rare?
Arthur
Hmm, not really sure what to say about that!
One more thing to add to the info here. There were Sportscaster Promo sets issued for the German, Swedish and French sets. These have a different region-code numbering prefix, and of course the card number in the set is different too.
For example, the German set is numbered with the 17 033 region code followed by the two digit series number, then a hyphen and then the card number within the series. However, the German Promos are numbered with the region prefix 17 993 and then the two digit card number (01 through 10), so the region code is different, there is no series number, and no hyphen. But, the promos look otherwise the same as their regular issue counterparts within the same set. Except, while having the characteristic round corners, the corners on the Promos are very slightly more squared off than the standard versions. The Swedish Promos are numbered with 47-993-## (including hyphens) (standard non-Promo Swedish region code is 47-021), and the French Promos are numbered with 16 993 ## (standard non-Promo French region code is 16 265).
And of course, the Promos are a lot tougher to find than the regular stuff!
I have quite a few of these and knew about many of the different languages but the info that was provided here is one reason these boards can be so valuable. Thank you.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I'm thinking about the cards toward the end like the Bird and Magic that are rare to begin with. I'm assuming it's theoretically possible more versions of those cards exist and have just not been discovered yet? Or is that impossible due to something about the set I don't understand? Thanks again for all your insight on this.
Arthur
There isn't a great source for a totally 100% complete checklist for each nation, so I suppose theoretically possible, but most of the end-line high numbers were unique to just a couple countries and varied at that. There are not more than just the North American and Finnish version of the Gretzky cards, for example. There are tons of mid-series cards that were available for each issuing nation, even if copies from some of them have not been graded yet. You definitely cannot rely on the population report or the PSA master player set registries to be all-inclusive yet, because there are so many cards that have not been graded. But, international versions of some of the more popular players are definitely out there to be eventually found.
miwlvrn has covered most of what I know, but if there are specific golfer cards you're curious about, I've been compiling a golf checklist of everything I've been able to accumulate over the past couple years. I also have duplicates of most everything up to middling difficulty.
While I agree in general with the country difficulty, a couple things to note:
Agreed w/ Kyle's post!
Here is a scan of a Sportscaster card I found (not mine) that shows PSA labeling it how I would consider to be correct, with the print run (B) and designation of Geneva as opposed to Lausanne. As you can see, it is a fairly old flip, having been graded in late 2012 based on the cert number. These Geneva ones are harder to find than the earlier print run Lausanne versions.
They seem to have abandoned this level of clarification as to exactly which version they are labeling, and I'm not sure why they would do that, since providing detail about version vs. version would be consistent with how almost all the other cards they grade are classified.
If you look up the cert in the PSA database, you'll find that the 3rd line of info on the flip has been deleted from the card specs in the database.
Nice, guys. You've created a great thread full of valuable information. Thanks for taking the time to share it all.
Arthur
Is there any other sites that have the info? The link shown above has been down for about 3 days now
I just sent a message to the guy who was running it to see what's up. Some info I just found that I'd copied from the website back when it was active:
USA / NORTH AMERICA SET: Set Number 03 005 --- 1977-1979 Editions Rencontre (DECKS 01-88, 101-103)
UNITED KINGDOM / GREAT BRITAIN SET: # 13 064 --- 1977-1980 Editions Rencontre (DECKS 01-88, 101-103 BUT MANY DIFFERENT CARDS FROM
THE USA SET)
FRANCE / FRENCH SET: # 16-265 --- 1976-1980 Editions Rencontre (DECKS 01-88 and 101-124)
SWEDEN / SWEDISH SET: # 47-021 --- 1977-1982 Editions Rencontre (DECKS 01-76)
FINLAND / FINNISH SET: No set number cards are numbered accumulatively with deck numbers so 1-1 to 1-24, then 2-25 to 2-48 and so on up to at least
115 decks and 2,760 cards)
GERMANY / GERMAN SET: # 17-033 --- 1977-1979 Editions Rencontre (DECKS 01-88, 101-106)
ITALY / ITALIAN SET: # 833 1976-1978 maybe longer, very rare set. Also an accumulative set from card 1-1 up to at least deck 37 and card 888.
BELGIUM / BELGIAN SET: # 0086/1030 --- 1977-1978 or longer, runs accumulative from 1-1 up to at least deck 70 and card 1680.
DENMARK / DANISH SET: Not much is known at this time about this rarest of Sportscaster sets.
Thanks for posting that Kyle. I was going to put the list of all the region codes here, but I did not have the deck & card-within-deck numbering system copied down since I always just used the website if I wanted that info.
No problem, just realized I'd copied it over in the notes of my golf inventory. One thing I don't know much about is the triptychs. Numbering appears to be [first two digits of country code] 992 [deck #]
Guessing the golf is a UK, and know for certain the soccer is US first printing.
Have you seen any golfers in the promos? I haven't run across any yet.
No, I have not seen any golfers in the promos. I have a few of them from various countries, but no golf ones.
To clarify for the readers of this thread, the triptychs are not the same as the promos; they are separate items.
The atlaspicturecards.com link will not be returning, response from the prior site owner "I have discontinued the site due to continued costs that were not worth it"
Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Thanks for checking on it.
i thought i saw PSA designate A printing B printing , Geneva printing etc etc recently
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Panama
so you are saying they are no longer posting Series B or A designation ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Panama
Not only no mention anymore of no letter/A/B/C/D, but they also seem to have stopped designating Lausanne vs. Geneva.
If you're correct in your other post and you actually have seen one recently, I'd be interested to know the cert number. Neither Geneva nor Lausanne will yield any results when adding with Sportscaster in the pop report search page, and if you go to the general Sportscaster North American set pop page, there are no items listed with either of those words, despite the designation having been included on some older flips.
As of a few months ago, some of 4SCs Sportscaster inventory still had the UK labeled as US. I've sent a few in as Mech Errors that became top pops in UK.