Cards that look similar (but aren't the same)

Parallels are the scourge of the modern day card hobby, in my opinion, but the practice goes way back. As I've been acquiring more Tony Gwynn cards I've picked up a few that look like ones I've already blogged about. Here's a post about them.

Original card - Topps, 1993; #5 (blog card number 72)

Lookalikey:

Card Number 203: Topps Gold, 1993; #5

The name bit at the bottom is in gold foil and the logo says Topps Gold. (Not to be confused with Topps Black Gold from the same year.) One of these variants was included in every pack, three in the cellophane-wrapped rack packs, six in the 74-card jumbo packs, and a whopping 36 in the 400-card boxes that Topps sold that year. (Those boxes were also where the aforementioned Black Gold cards were found.)

The cardback is identical to the regular release

Now onto another lookalike card...

The original one was card number 103 on this blog, and was the "groundout" version of Upper Deck's sort of card game 'You Make the Play', released in 1996. The first one I showed looked like this:

Card Number 204: Upper Deck Collector's Choice You Make the Play, 1996; #17 (Single variant)

Basically, if this was the version of the card you played you scored a single instead of a groundout. Those were the two options for Tony. (Ken Griffey Jr, who was card #16 in the set was either "Home Run" or "Hit by Pitch"!) I'd love to know what the rules were for this game.

The cardback is exactly the same.

I like having some quirky cards like this in my collection. They're something a little bit different. I don't think they were a great success though, because they were only released for one season.

Total: 204/394