Any guesses?
From straight on it is hard to tell (hence the angled pictures), but in the Marcus Thames card (top), the coating on the card that makes it "Gold" covers the colored bubbles that spell out Tigers. In the Armando Galarraga card (bottom) the Tigers Bubbles are spared the Gold treatment. The result is a nicer looking card where the blue and orange really pop, especially in the right light, while the Tigers bubbles on the Thames card can fade into the background.
For those of you without a checklist in front of you, the Thames card is in Series 2 (series 1 looks the same), and the Galarraga card is in Updates & Highlights, where all of its U&H brethren look the same.
Well, I thought that was kind of neat, so I started to flip back to older series. I don't have that many Gold cards pre-2007, but I have a few and found something strange there too. Can you spot it?
By the way, no wonder the Tigers were so bad for so long. Look at those prospects! Good Lord...
Anyway, these are some 2002 Topps Golds. Looking at the cards shown, that Mike Rivera card seems a little odd. Where's the Topps?
Ohhhhhhhhh
That card is from the regular series. All the other prospects cards are from the Traded Series. Now, the Raburn is from the regular series too, but is labeled a "Draft Pick." How about a regular card?
Craig Paquette has one too. Could it be that only Topps Gold Prospect cards from Series 1 and 2 have the light Topps imprint instead of the foil? Or, more importantly, could I have a rare 1/1 Mike Rivera Gold Prospect card that is undoubtedly worth hundreds of dollars? The possibilities are racing through my mind (now if only I could find that Mike Rivera supercollector).
Perhaps some other collectors can shed some light on the issue. I think we're looking for a counterpositive here so, what do your Topps Gold Prospects from Series 1 or Series 2 look like? Where's the Topps?
