[nittany13]

GINGE01, I want to provide my insights to your 1997 Finest question.<br />
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1997 Finest<br />
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I first started seeing them appear around 2000, some dealers had all 50 Gold non embossed non diecuts, one dealer on Beckett was selling 3 of each card. Is this an official card or was it surplus stock that was released by Topps?? Is Beckett going to recognize the non embossed non diecut parallel.

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Whether or not these non-die cut variation cards should be listed in the OPG or Beckett annuals is predicated on the answer of one of the following questions: <br />
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A. Were these cards distributed in packs, as redemptions or dealer samples given away by Topps? <br />
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or...<br />
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B. Did Topps purposely produce extra atomic refractor parallels as backup just in case the machine did not properly cut the cards and no one from the company ever bothered to destroy the resultant unneccessary extras? Perhaps instead these variations were "cutting room floor" versions and plans for release in packs that year were later recalled? <br />
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If the factual answer to this conundrum is "A" then by all means these variations should be listed, if however the answer is "B" then these cards should not be listed IMHO. I am inclined to believe in this case that these variations fall into the category of "B", backups.<br />
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Here are a couple of examples that I deem similar to help illustrate my point (I do not own the following cards):<br />
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The card on the left is missing the lettering on the front that this card would normally have and the one on the right is missing both the lettering and it's appropriate "die cut look". These were not official parallels but were instead internal company test samples that were never intended to be released by the company.<br />
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In summation if my hunch is correct your 1997 Finest variations are similar to the examples that I provided, and if indeed true I understand why these would be omissions to the OPG and other price guides.<br />
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