Following on from the base cards we described last time, short prints seem like the next logical type to move on to.
Short prints, or SP, are cards which have fewer of them printed than the other base cards within a set. Particularly in recent years, SP usually have the same card number as the base equivalent but have a different image on the front.
These variation photographs are generally of the player not playing baseball or they can be of a totally different player.
For example, in Topps 2020 there is the base (and therefore more common) card of Matt Barnes of the Boston Red Sox with the card #60. But there is also a second card with same #60 in the same set - a short print of Roger Clemens. You can see that the Clemens' card uses a photograph of him being interviewed in front of his locker, which fits the different style of SP cards.
Short prints can be sometimes difficult to identify, especially in a product you're unfamiliar with. Luckily there is a trick you can use to help you work out if you have a base card or the SP variation.
At the bottom of the back of the card is where Topps put their copyright and trademark information. But hidden at the bottom of this information is a code number.
Using 2020 Topps as an example again, every single one of the base cards will have a code which ends in 269. The SP variations have a slightly different code which ends in 284.
So if you have a bunch of cards from the same set and all but 1 have the same code on the back, but one has a different code. The card with the different code will very likely be a SP.
Just to make things more complicated though are the existence of SSP cards, or Super Short Print cards. As their name suggests, these SSP cards are another variation of which even fewer are printed making them rarer still.
And following the trend are SSSP (Super Super Short prints) which are even rarer still.
These variations are not usually serial numbered which means we need to rely on the pack odds listed by the manufacturer.
For hobby packs of 2020 Topps, the chance of finding an SP is 1 in every 43 packs. This increases to 1 in every 1,272 packs to find an SSP card and there aren't even odds listed for the SSSP cards; they're that rare to come across.
Trading Card Database is a great resource that we often use to easily find checklists with the SP variations for sets of cards.
Lastly, a word of warning if you're looking to buy a short print card online. Between 1993 and 2009, Upper Deck produced a series of cards called SP, SPx and SP Authentic (we're unsure what their SP stood for, but believe it was "Super Premium". If you know otherwise, please let us know!).
So if searching for SP online, make sure that you're actually finding the card that you want.
Short printed cards can have some of the most interesting photographs on any of the cards out there. The 2020 Pete Alonso polar bear, the 2012 Skip Shoemaker rally squirrel and the 2020 Andrew McCutchen short print cards stand out as being some of the best..
Do you have a SP in your collection? Is there a great SP card that you think should be mentioned here?
Let us know in the comments or on twitter.
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