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Serious question here...what are the odds that if somebody tried hard enough, they could come up with something they could pass off as a "variation" for pretty much every card ever made?  I'm just starting to question whether continuing to enter my collection here is the right move for me.  I'm not trying to start a fight. Not looking for sympathy.  Not saying "do things my way or I'm quitting".  Not trying to change any minds. I'm just trying to avoid wasting my time by doing something I will eventually have to undo and redo over and over.  And if that's the decision I end up making, so be it.  I won't quit using the site as a reference.  I'll just quit entering my cards, or drastically modify how I go about it.

Please don't give an answer like "all variations have to be documented", or bring up your OCD, because that wasn't the question.  I guess I'm just asking, on the level, are there a lot of other major sets out there with known "variations" which this site has, up to now, ignored?  Do people anticipate a lot of changes to old, established checklists in the future?  Because, for people who don't care about asterisks and periods and invisible ink, you can't imagine how frustrating this stuff is. But I figure that unless Admin steps in, this stuff is here to stay, and will only increase.  And I know that many/most of you know more about cards than I do.  So I figure, who better to ask about the existence of more "variations" I hate so much, than the people who enjoy them?

I'm with you. For me it started with 1990 Topps football and the disclaimer backs. That messed up my collection for nearly a year. Then it was the one asterisk / two asterisk thing. Another reinventory. Soon after the UD Hologram fiasco....another reinventory. The glowbacks were it for me. Not only am I not buying a black light, I don't care. And didn't we just go through a Donruss factory set issue? I'll give those away before I reinventory to update my trade list.

The recent '84 Topps football issue strikes at the very heart of my colletion though. There's no way for me to avoid that one. I'm not happy about it, but I understand the logic. I figure its going to happen, might as well embrace it.

And to answer your question (at least partially)....I know that there are a lot of sets with variations that are not documented. I'm happy as they are, but I bet that somebody finds them someday.

Edit: I would like to add however, that I have hope that someday Admin will improve upon the "master" vs "basic" feature that was recently added. It's great feature and I feel it has the potential to reduce some of the issues that VARs/ERRs cause.

Chad, your edit is my exact thought.  If every set somehow offered a checklist with exactly one of each card number, followed by name and team, and you could check it off regardless of which version you have, it would solve most of my problems.  I would still be unable to trade, but I could see what I have and don't have.  I mean, I'm the guy who counts parallels toward base set count.  And you bet I don't care if a Pacific card was retail or hobby.

I would like to see a poll or survey to see how many people actually chase (buy or trade for)  variations in 80s forward.

I don't really have time to set one up but would like to see data on how many care about them. 

I think the answer may be different in the 60s and 70s..

Personally,  I do not chase variations but do not mind helping those who do in trades, as long as documented clearly here

Mark 

 I too have had it with this super anal retentive crap.  Everyone's constantly citing PSA as some type of lone authority. Maybe we should start responding to these request for variations with, "Does PSA recognize it? No? Then forget it!"

I will not answer the original question, because I do not know the answer. 

I will say that I chase no variations. From any year. If I get a variation, I keep it. I count it towards completing the base set. I think TCDB does, too. On my own spreadsheet, I have 101% of some sets because I have a variation of some card. I’m sure I have the wrong card marked as being in my collection numerous times. If I catch it, I fix it. If I don’t, it’s ok. 

I am fine with all of this. If people like chasing asterisks or typos (or shortprints, for that matter), fine. I know when I’ve completed a set. For the most part, TCDB does, too. 

Find your peace. Use the database to your best advantage and don’t let it, or others, or PSA, or Beckett’s tell you when you have a complete set. 

It’s YOUR collection. 

Have fun. 

V3

Mark, I would be equally curious to know what Admin thinks of it.  Many of these "variations" were well-known 11 or 12 years ago, when the site started, but they weren't included then.  I would think that was intentional on Admin's part.

Chuck, I'm glad you said it!

Vytas, our methods seem similar, though we collect different things.  I know I recently added a set I bought and it shows 101% because of an unnumbered contest card or something.  If I quit entering my collection, I would miss being able to see whether I need a card from my phone when I'm at the card shop. I would also lose the ability to see all my cards of a player or team in an album layout (I love that new feature).  So maybe I just add my cards, one per number, give up on the idea of trading, and leave it at that.

EDIT: autocorrect misspelled your name for me.  Fixed now.

I doubt that you have to give up on trading. The variations might pose the occasional problem, but it shouldn’t be a major hindrance. I don’t trade much, so I might be missing something. 

You might be overthinking this a bit...

I agree with V3's last comment. Don't overthink it! Add your collection and don't worry about all these VAR's that recently started getting added to CL's (by recent, I mean the past year). If you don't care about them, don't worry about them. You can still trade too. If the VAR's bother you, make a note somewhere with a list of all the sets that have had massive VAR additions. Then when someone wants to trade with you for cards from that set, you can check the list for VAR issues.

Before I even joined this site, I had 3 brands that I always questioned when trading for them JUST b/c of the retail/hobby variation (Absolute Memorabilia, SP Authentic and Ultra). After getting here, I realized how little info there was about those on this site. Then all these other much older sets started showing up. The disclaimer-backs, double asterisks and hologram variations really threw me off and I had to re-group on what I had listed as haves/wants/traders. I'm not really a set-collector, but those wouldn't throw me off if I was b/c I couldn't care less which version I have to complete a set. But as a player and team collector, I want every different version I can find of my people and teams. I don't care if it's a parallel, an intentional variation, or an un-intentional variation. I still want as many as I can find. BUT, I still ONLY want one copy of each. I don't want 3 or 4 copies of the exact same card when it only has 2 versions. That's why those hobby/retail sets above stayed in my mind for every trade I made that contained a card from those sets.

I DO think that variations between factory sets and pack-pulled cards should be documented here! I also think the retail and hobby variations should be documented here (usually just a foil or thickness change). Silver foil or mirror-foil instead of holofoil is a big difference to me, as is a logo change (SP vs. SP Authentic). As for all the missing dots and extra asterisks, I don't really care but I'll still alter my collection by the listings on this site.

It's all about how specific you want your collection to be listed on this site. If you don't want to be over-the-top-OCD about it, that's completely fine with most of us. I'm a little OCD about my cards, but not so much that I'm hunting for variations. I'm more OCD about having them organized correctly from the list in my own mind. For examples: Collector's Choice falls between Bowman and Donruss in the mid-90's. But all other UD products are in the U section for that year. In the late-90s, UD3, UD Choice, UD Ionix came before the Upper Deck flagship set. Black Diamond, Hologrfx, MVP, etc. But Ultra was between the UD and Upper Deck listings. I also have Topps Finest before Fleer products and Stadium Club before any Topps products. Bowman Gold parallels are placed before Bowman Chrome in my albums. All Topps flagship inserts should be before Topps A&G or Archives too. Some of this stuff is hard to figure out though. Topps has made this system extremely difficult for the past decade or so.

Before I came to this site, I had all my Black Diamond brand cards ahead of Bowman and all of my Absolute and Absolute Memorabilia cards in front of Black Diamond. I have since moved all BD cards to the Upper Deck portion and all Absolute cards to the Playoff portion of my collections. The new Absolute cards go in the Panini section, but that doesn't really change much these days.