1992 Topps John Ramos

John Ramos really does have a card in the 1992 Topps set. Sort of. In 1992, Topps issued their first paralell set (excluding Tiffanys), the ToppsGold set. The Gold cards were the same as the original cards, except that the section with the players name and team was overlayed in Gold foil. You could get the cards a few different ways. They were inserted in packs (1 in 36 regular packs, I think the odds in jumbos and rack packs were easier. Each 500 count vending box had 5 Gold cards, and you got 10 in every factory set.), they issued a Gold factory set at the end of the season, and they had game cards where you could win them.

The game cards had 8 sections you could rub off, and the object of the game was to match 3 sections that had stats. If you matched the stats, you could send in the card, and win whatever prize was listed in the box (usually 10 ToppsGold cards). There was also a way to collect "runs" at the bottom of the game card, and you could save up your runs, and once you got 100, send them in with 2 dollars, and get 10 ToppsGold cards. People figured out how to cheat at the game, and in response, Topps printed *Winner* on cards that were won from the Match the Stats game, and the cards that were pulled from packs, or were from the factory set didn't have the *Winner* stamp. I don't know if Topps did the *Winner* stamp on just the cards won from Runs or the Match the Stats game. You would figure you would still have to bust a lot of packs in order to get enough game cards to get 100 runs, and it many people were cheating at the Match the Stats game that Topps would've printed the *Winner* stamp on cards that were won from the Match the Stats game. I actually won 10 ToppsGold cards from the Stats game sometime in 1992, and the ToppsGold cards I recieved didn't have the *Winner* stamp on them. This leads me to believe that I probably won my cards before the game was compromised, and it was maybe later in the year (maybe around the time that Series 2 card hit the shelves nowdays) that Topps decided to put the stamp on the cards. As I was writing this I googled a picture of the Match the Stats card, and found This article, dated January 17, 1992, only days or weeks after 1992 Topps probably hit the shelves. Maybe I did win the game on the first try, but I swear it was midway through the year.

Back to the Ramos card, since all 792 cards in the set had a Gold card, Topps decided to place 6 players who didn't appear in the regular set in place of the 6 checklists. Ramos was 1 of them. I decided to use the back of his 1992 Topps Gold card, and make a different front. I think it turned out ok, and now John Ramos has a card in the 1992 Topps and 1992 ToppsGold sets, and the 1992 Topps Debut set.