For the final time...

This is a legit error card.



This is a gimmick card.



And this... The jury is still out on.



Got it? Good.

Stuff Joe Collector Likes: #1 Chrome

There is no doubt that Joe Collector loves chromium stock trading cards -- especially those that are virtually identical to other trading cards. Yes, it’s true that Joe isn't the only one who gets easily distracted by bright, shiny, objects. But I promise you that the first person who ripped open a pack of 1996 Topps Chrome (and actually liked it) was Joe. You could kind of tell he didn’t enjoy it, but year after year, he kept ripping boxes of Topps Chrome until he learned to liked it.

Joe needs to bust wax like Topps Chrome and Bowman Chrome. Hell, he'll even find a box of garbage like 1998 Topps Super Chrome on eBay and rip that. He's also fond of saying “Why does Topps even make regular Bowman anymore?” Joe will also collect anything that resembles Chrome: 1998 Donruss Collections, 2000 Stadium Club Chrome, 2006 Upper Deck Special F/X, and of course, post-2002 Finest. (It's got "AUTOGRAPH MOJO!!!!!!!")

If you want to go for extra points - Joe really loves Chrome REFRACTORS, because paying ten times more for what is essentially the same card, means he's a better card collector than you.

I Get Letters: 2007 Bowman Chrome

Let me state for the 534th time, I don't "get" Bowman Chrome. (For all the "Chromies" out there, spare me your hate mail.) I've never opened a pack of the stuff, and I have no intention of ever doing so.

With that said, long time Stale Gum reader Dane Muramoto alerted me to a quality control issue with this year's BowChro. I reprint his warning as a public service to collectors everywhere.

I started opening 3 boxes of Bowman Chrome and noticed the following pattern emerge. The "chase" cards seem to appear most often in the 3rd from top pack position. Out of three boxes, one pack didn't have a chase, and that box, the card was in the 4th from top (2nd from bottom) position.

Also, the autographs were in all three cases in the bottom half (the side with 4 packs per stack) of the box. At first I thought the emergent pattern was lower left corner, but one of the boxes (the one with the non-blue auto) was lower right corner.

So this leads me to two theories on this release.

#1 If your box has a blue auto, it will be lower left corner.
#2 It is impossible to finish a set with 4 boxes.

I think #2 is a MAJOR pet peeve for me. With the boxes ranging $75-$120 (eBay to local), I cannot see paying $500 to complete a set.

This is getting ridiculously out of hand.

Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads up on it. Also a warning to readers to not buy single packs.