Differences between 1996-97 Score Artist's Proofs and Special Artist's Proofs

[Lemieux66]

What are the differences between the 1996-97 Score Artist's Proofs and the Special Artist's Proofs?

I've heard that the card stock is different, but in what way?

Is the Special Artist's Proofs card stock the same as the Dealer's Choice Artist's Proofs card stock?

[centrehice]

The word "Special" was added to the Artist's Proof Paralell and could only be read with a special lens which was supplied to some Hobby Shops for such a purpose. The card was a Redemption Card only and the LCS also received a Special card when they sent in the Redemtion for the customer.

All rather confusing if you ask me. I have never seen one, and I don't know how you would stop the forgery of somebody claiming to have one, if you actually found one. It would be easier to find Elvis at a 7-11.

[centrehice]

From the text I have, it does not say if the Customer's Redeemed Card has the word "Special" on it, or whether the LCS's version has the word "Special".

It also does not say which of the cards have to be read with a special lens, of if they both do. It appears that perhaps the LCS card differs also from what the customer receives.

If you have a large well-entrenched LCS dealer that you can ask that was around when these were somewhat available, it might be more help than I can offer. As mentioned, all very confusing to me.

[Lemieux66]

Thanks for the comments, centrehice. I don't have any local card shops that could help with it.

Here are examples I've found online. I'm not sure if the Artist's Proofs and Special Artist's Proofs cards are identified correctly, but it came from a very thorough Roy collector's website.

Untitled.jpg

[centrehice]

I am going to say, from left to right:

1. Normal Artist Proof - I have a couple of these somewhere

2. Artist Proof Redemption Card - Needed to be sent by LCS Dealer into Score.

3. Artist "Special" Proof - Don't know if this is the Customer or Dealer Redeemed card. Maybe both cards are the same? I bet they are.

If I am wrong, then ……

The Middle Card is the one that needed the Special Lens to see whatever there is that cannot be seen with the naked eye?


Confusing as hell.

[maradona]

I could swear I once saw guys talking about these cards on a Finnish forum. One of them had bought that lens and also managed to find a Special Artist's Proof of his PC player. It was a long, long time ago, though...

[30ranfordfan]

Lemieux66 - Were you the same guy that had talked to me via eBay about these recently? Totally forgot to go have a look at mine, and confirm what I suspect to be true of them.


Here's scans of each of them (only the fronts, sorry) I'll show base + ALL variations.... and I'll look a little closer when I get home, to see exactly what the differences are:

Base Card:




Golden Blades (technically, two versions of this one too - I'll get into that later):



Golden Blades Winners Punched (look at the Score logo, compared to the pic above):




Artist's Proof:


Special Artist's Proof:


Dealer's Choice Artists's Proof:

[30ranfordfan]

So, here's the deal:


Base (obviously), Golden Blades, and Artist's Proof were pack inserted. I don't recall the insert ratios, which one (Golden Blades or Artist's Proof) was rarer.


The Artist's Proof are just a basic parallel card. They've got the parallel logo, glossier finish (compared to the base).

The Golden Blades is where the funs starts.....

On the back of the card (I'll take a scan tonight, and show you) there is small box that can be decoded. There was a decoder sent to card shops, basically just hold your card behind the decoders, and it would unscramble the letters (I've seen scans done before... you can actually pick out the difference quite easily if you know what to look for, even without the decoder).

So - there are two versions of the Golden Blades. One says 'WINNER' (or 'WIN', or something like that) and I don't remember the other... probably not 'LOSER', maybe 'TRY AGAIN'.... something. I don't recall. But you get the idea. A limited number of the Golden Blades cards were redeemable.


If you sent your Golden Blades winner card back to Pinnacle (Score) - they would return it punched (you can see that scan of mine. There is a Pinnacle logo punched over top of the Score logo). They would also send you the "Special Artist's Proof" card. The punch was the way to make sure each winner was only redemeemed once.

If a dealer (card shop) was the one sending the card in to be redeemed (rather than me, random customer) then they would get three cards back: The punched Golden Blades, the Special Artist's Proof, and the Dealer's Choice Artist's Proof (which is easy to pick out from the others, becuase of the different foil logo on it). I think the idea was to try and help build the relationship between the card shops and their customers. If you had to talk to go through your dealer to get the extra card.... you're more likely to be on a first name basis with the people running the shop, maybe become a more regular customer? I remembe reading that there were a lot of complaints about this aspect of the program though - shocking (not really, lol) some dealers didn't want to do it for free. They were helping the customer get something extra, so they expected something in return kinda deal. I don't know how much of an issue this was... I never redeemed any of these cards myself (and I busted a lot of it at the time: I just never got any winning cards).


The two cards, as the OP points out, that are confusing - are the Artist's Proof (pack pulled) vs Special Artist's Proof (redemption card, from having a winning Golden Blades). You can see in my scans - they look identical. Impossible to tell them apart looking at a scan over the internet.


My best recolection (I'm writing this all off the top of my head, I'm @ the office and my cards are not with me, lol) is that the Special AP has a slightly thicker card stock. When you've got both in hand, its easy to tell they are different. I will come back later (this evening) and confirm that - but I'm pretty sure that's how you can tell the difference.

Of course, if you're sitting on a bunch of these cards..... and they were something you collected back in the day, you probably know what you've got. From packs, they're regular AP. From redemptions, they're SAP. Cards that have exchanged hands 38 times since then.... little more difficult to know. If you're trying to track them down (which I assume is why this post was made in the first place) you're doing exactly the right thing: Confirm what the differences are, and then ask any dealer you might buy from online what exactly it is he's got. Someone with several cards from that issue of Score... they should be very willing to quickly check for you that the card they think is a Special AP actually has the thicker card stock or not (or that the reverse is true, card stock is normal, for the regular AP)

[30ranfordfan]

Okay. Just took a look at my cards, and can confirm the differences I mentioned before.

The Special AP is thicker, and glossier than the regular (pack pulled) AP. Thickness and gloss is the same as the Dealer's Choice. I can't imagine a scan working well enough to show you the difference, but if you're talking to anyone trying to move one (or more) of these cards, they should be able to confirm for you if the "Special" is, in fact, thicker than a regular card from that set.


Hope it helps.

[Lemieux66]

Thanks for checking your cards! Once I have mine in hand I'll be able to tell if I recieved a Special AP or a Regular AP. (I paid for a regular.)

I also find it odd that the Beckett multiplier for the Special APs is higher than the Dealer's Choice APs. If collectors were able to submit the Golden Blades winners without going through a dealer that would mean there should be more Special APs than Dealer's Choice APs. Right?