Another 1999 Topps Football question

[JWinn]

This time my questions is about the flagship 1999 Topps cards.

Does anyone know, did the base cards also come in "mystery" form? With a black sticker/shield over the cards?

There's a card up on eBay, and I am not sure it's legit. Here it is:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1999-Topps-...QAAOSwm1Vcycn~

The thing is I cannot find anything about this card. Topps had a Mystery set in this product, that should have the shield, but they are a 20 card set, with four players on the back, and all carry an M prefix - M1 thru M20.

Could this be an MVP Promotion I see listed in my old copy of Beckett Annual? This book, which was great as it listed EVERY CARD MADE, has nothing about the base cards having mystery parallel, but it does list an MVP Promotion parallel.

Were the MVP Promotion cards covered with a shield like this? I don't think I ever pulled one. But I DID pull a Mystery Chrome, which is why this card seems so odd to me. I know what those look like, and it's not like this card.

I'm suspicious that someone in the last 20 years just carefully peeled off the shield of a mystery card, and carefully put it back on a 10 cent base card. Like this one.

Those shields for me peeled right off, and I remember they didn't want to re-attach at all. Just like the clear ones Topps used on Finest back then. Once you peeled them, they didn't want to go back on.

Has someone figured out a way to re-attach them, and to BASE Topps cards? Every card I ever pulled with those shields (Protectors, that's what they were called!) had a Chrome or Finest finish. Never on a base, paper card.


Anyone know anything about this? I was a pretty enthusiastic collector back then, and I don't remember these having mystery parallels at all. And as I said, I cannot find any reference to them today, in print, or online.

Any help would be appreciated. Should I go for this, or pass on a scam?

[jplcom]

I wonder if he scanned/uploaded the wrong back to the card. He mentions in the auction the mystery of whether it's a refractor or not. However in 1999 the back of the card would have had "refractor" next to the card number. It wasn't until 2014 that Topps ceased printing "refractor" on the back.

The 1999 base set never had a protective cover on it. The card stock was too thin and peeling the protective coating off would have damaged the card and potentially foil printing on it.

The MVP promotion set was a silver logo about a half inch in size at the bottom left or right corner of the card.

[JWinn]

I wonder if he scanned/uploaded the wrong back to the card. He mentions in the auction the mystery of whether it's a refractor or not. However in 1999 the back of the card would have had "refractor" next to the card number. It wasn't until 2014 that Topps ceased printing "refractor" on the back.

The 1999 base set never had a protective cover on it. The card stock was too thin and peeling the protective coating off would have damaged the card and potentially foil printing on it.

The MVP promotion set was a silver logo about a half inch in size at the bottom left or right corner of the card.

Thanks for the response, jpl. I trust your opinion on this stuff.

Thanks for describing the MVP version. Sounds like the Season Opener, which had a blue border, as opposed to the base card's green.

The season opener is also card #66, where the regular version is #118, (not 119 like the listing says) and the Chrome is #37.

Further, the Chrome cards have a Topps Chrome silver logo on the back, where the red Topps logo is. And yup, on the Chrome refractors back then, they actually said it, right under or next to the number.

This photo of the back is the regular #118, which should have a green paper border on the front. A Chrome card would at the very least have the silver logo on the back. So no, it's not a refractor, or even a chrome card. (That would be #37 anyway)

Seems more and more like a scam to me.

I agree. Peeling a protector from a paper card would likely damage it. Possibly even pull the photo right off the front after all these years on a paper card like that. If you peel It right, you could curve it just like a chrome card, but without the chrome. haha

Ya know, all my Chrome from that era still have the curve, lol. I pulled out my Rod from both sets, and all the Chrome still have the curve.

So, seems curiouser and curiouser. A paper card should have no protector, and the base cards did NOT come in a mystery parallel.

To go a little further, what would be the point in Topps putting a black protector over a base card, or even a chrome parallel of a base card, and calling it "Mystery" when it's clear by looking at the ONE player(w/stats) on the back, who is on the front?

I get the idea of putting four players on the back, and the guessing game of peeling to find out who's on the front, but this makes just no sense. There were no alternate photo variants back then, so it's not a different photo.

Why put a black protecter on it and call it a mystery? There's no mystery who 's on the front.

I'd hate to pass on something unusual from my collection. I like samples (think Playoff samples in Becketts back then), misprints, no foil errors. That kind of stuff adds something different to the collection, ya know?

But I'd hate to find someone in the last twenty years found a way to add "protectors" to common 10 cent cards, and tried to make them seem like something they are not.

Which is what seems to be happening here.

Could be one for the Scammer thread......

[pwaldo]

I'm not familiar with the Mystery cards in football (just baseball) but the MVP Promotion cards looked like normal Topps cards with the MVP logo on the front while the backs were different. They resembled redemption cards and explained the whole contest. I mean you might not notice the big gold MVP logo on the front but if you were looking at the backs of a bunch of Topps cards you would 100% notice the MVP cards that way. So it is 100% not that cards for this auction.

[JWinn]

Thanks pwaldo! That answers that question.

After doing a bit more research on this card, I've decided to pass on this. I think it's a scam.

I checked out 1999 Topps Mystery cards on ebay, and of the over 300 I found for both baseball and football, this is an oddity. The only one that's a common card with a black protector. ALL of the others are true Mystery cards, with an M prefix, and a multi-player back. All except a lone Barry Bonds that has just a shot of him on the back, but also says it's clearly a mystery card, with an M prefix also. Has MYSTERY in big letter across the top of the back.

So I guess they DID make at least a Barry Bonds Mystery that wasn't such a mystery after all. Like I said below, doesn't seem like there's much mystery in that card.

But not one other common, from any year listed as a Mystery card, with a protector attached to it.

Leading me to believe someone other than Topps attached that thing to it, and that there's just a common dime card underneath.

Already have that.....

Thanks for your reply guys! It really helps to have a few other opinions on cards like this to help make decisions.

[jplcom]

Good man. It's hard to pass up a tasty oddball card. I love 1999 Finest and when the market flooded but tons of non-serial numbered inserts from the set I thought I had my work cut out for me. But I came to find out that these were either cut from sheets or backdoored as former replacement cards I stopped. The most egregious ones are the Gold Refractors. They are supposed to have die cut edging and #/100 but the uncut ones have neither. Beckett has been MORE than willing to grade them and let shady people try to pass them off as legit.

[JWinn]

Good man. It's hard to pass up a tasty oddball card. I love 1999 Finest and when the market flooded but tons of non-serial numbered inserts from the set I thought I had my work cut out for me. But I came to find out that these were either cut from sheets or backdoored as former replacement cards I stopped. The most egregious ones are the Gold Refractors. They are supposed to have die cut edging and #/100 but the uncut ones have neither. Beckett has been MORE than willing to grade them and let shady people try to pass them off as legit.

Yup, I know the cards! I've seen a bunch of those for Rod. Uncut "sheets" of two cards with Vinnie Testeverde, and non die cut un-numbered versions like you described. Been listed on ebay for years now.

Passed on all of those. Thought most of them were just priced too high for me. I've gotten hot box xfractors #/20 for less than they want for those uncut leftover cards.

And they seem more like trash than leftover cards, like Panini is passing as buybacks today. I just got the feeling those were pre-production cards that Topps threw away, and someone dug out of the trash. Probably wrong on that assumption, but it's just the vibe I get when looking over those auctions. Like flea market stuff.

Not that I wouldn't mind having a bit of pre-production stuff in my collection.

This one is tempting, I admit. I love adding old oddballs into my collection. But this card just seems too questionable to me. I just don't feel it came out of the factory like that. It shouldn't have at least.

Unless someone can tell me Topps used to put black protectors on common flagship cards, and make me believe it.

Again, Thanks for the help!!!