Key Card Registry Set Questions

vandweller

I haven't decided if I'm posting about this to satisfy a legitimate curiosity or just whinging, so pardon me if it's the latter.

I've been looking for a new registry set to start, something a little less voluminous and daunting than my Dwight Evans master set, so I came across the Boston Red Sox World Series Champions key card set for 2004. That team was a pretty big deal for me, so I'm going with it. My understanding is that these sets are supposed to contain the "key cards" for each member of the World Series roster for the team. Presumably, this would mean cards for each of 25 players and the manager.

My questions are: Are the composites for sets like this formulated by PSA or are they proposed by individual set registry participants? How serious are they that "[t]here will be no additions or deletions to the list of cards required, which can be viewed on the Set Composition page."

The reason I ask is that seems like some of the choices for key cards don't make immediate sense to me, as I was out of the hobby during the time most of these cards were released.

Examples:

1. 1991 Upper Deck is selected as the key card for Mike Timlin, but he has a Bowman card released that year, which is a much more attractive and distinctive looking card, and it's my understanding that Bowman is the go-to rookie card for any player if one is available.

2. 1992 Pinnacle was selected as the key card for Manny Ramirez. Same rationale as above but only more so, as I think it's commonly accepted that 1992 Bowman is a landmark set and is the key card for any player whose first card was issued in it.

3. 1994 Collector's Choice (though it incorrectly was listed as 1993 until I requested an edit) was selected as the key card for Trot Nixon when he has a 1994 SP Foil. Wouldn't the SP foil be more likely to be considered his key card rather than Collector's Choice, which was a budget issue?

4. 1996 Topps was chosen for Mark Bellhorn instead of his Bowman issue.

5. Where is DAVE FREAKIN' ROBERTS? Ya know, the author of arguably the most important single play in Red Sox history? While he didn't appear in the World Series, he was on the roster. Would he be eligible for inclusion?

And a general question: would a player's Bowman Chrome card from this period (the 90's to early 2000's) be more likely to be regarded as a key card than his regular ol' paper Bowman?

Anyhow, my impression is that these sets were probably requested and formulated by individual registry participants, which is why they seem to have idiosyncratic card choices and spelling errors (e.g. "Mientkiewicz" was spelled incorrectly until I requested an edit; Mike "Meyers" is still spelled incorrectly).

What's the possibility that they would change the composition of these sets with enough rational argumentation? Or is that chance pretty slim given that a couple of participants already have completed it?

Anyhow, I've acquired a few of the cards already, begrudgingly. I think, however, that once I've gotten pretty close to completion, that I'm going to do my own "Master Set" on this theme, collecting every rookie card of every player on the list. If only PSA would recognize thing. They won't, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

vandweller

Holy moley, why won't my paragraphs render?

EDIT: Used the bullet tag as a workaround to get it to show paragraphs, which it did...except that it doesn't actually show the bullets.

womp womp