Topps Trivia Question of the Week, October 13, 2008

Last week I asked a simple question to kick off our newest segment...Topps Trivia Question of the Week. I also promised prizes if I found a question that I thought would be challenging. I think I have one here, and there will be a prize awarded to the first person to get this question right.

This week's category is...2004 Topps Traded and Rookies Checklists.

Here's a little background on this undervalued, yet innovative set. (Wait...he's calling a bunch of cheap checklists...INNOVATIVE??!)

When packs of 2004 Topps Traded and Rookies were introduced to the mass market, each pack included one checklist. Each checklist card was as thick as a regular relic card, meaning that these were used to deter packsearching. Clever concept which was carried over from the year before (2003 Topps Traded and Rookies). However the checklist was one sided and inclued roughly 25-30 cards per checklist. Which means you needed 10 of these cards to have a complete checklist. Why??? Here was the quote printed on every checklist:

Pictured on the front of this checklist are images of all 732 regular base cards from 2004 Topps Series 1 and 2 Baseball. This card is ## of 110 cards needed to complete the front images.

That meant that each checklist was part of an 10 x 11 card puzzle (or 21.5 inch by 38.5 inch) checklist poster of all the cards from 2004 Topps Baseball. So now what to do? Most people throw out their checklists, but this time, they're actually collectible (to make it even more of a challenge, the hobby packs had red colored banners on the top of the cards and the retail ones had blue ones). And you'd get a cool puzzle to boot. But who would have the time and how would it be possible to get all 110 checklists without breaking an entire case of product?

Well, it was possible to acquire all 110 cards (thanks to those on the Topps Message Board), and I think I am one of the few (yet insane) people that have all 110 cards (big deal) and have it framed (okay...nut job).

The completed puzzle needed a really large frame to have it displayed. I went to a craft store, and found the biggest possible frame (and luckily the poster fit). To attach to the frame, and to make sure that the cards don't just shuffle around after hanging it, I used double sided, yet not permanent, tape so that it would be easy to move the cards around to fit for the puzzle. With all checklists being glossy on the back side, I didn't have to worry about tape residue either way because the tape was removable. The finished project is really cool, but unfortunately, I can't get a good shot of it without getting any glare from the lights or the camera. You'll just have to do with this three-card scan as an illustration.

It's not the clearest in the world, but you get the idea. Okay, so on to this week's trivia question.

Due to what I could only call poor editing on everybody's part at Topps, not everyone's card appeared on the puzzle/poster/sheet. The question:

How many cards were erroneously excluded from the poster, and who were the player or players missing?

Now the only reason why I'm also asking who's missing is because it's easy to guess a number, but to make it challenging, to get the question right, you also need to tell me who's cards they were. The prize will be a 2008 Topps Series II Ichiro Suzuki relic card.

The first person to get both answers right will get the Ichiro card. As always, please leave the answers in the comments section. One answer per person, you are not allowed to edit your responses, and yes, you can obviously use the same number as another person, provided that you include the names of the players involved. So good luck.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama