I Cracked the Topps Picture Code

Topps was kind enough to scan all of their base cards from 1952 - 2010 for the million card give away last year and they are using the same pictures for the Diamond giveaway this year.

I was playing around at their web site and I think I've got the URL code figured out so you can get a look at the front or back of each and every card:

This url....

http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1959-BB-TS1-350-NA_F_285x412.jpg

...will bring up this card, Ernie Banks,1959.



You can see there are several pieces to the URL, and they are fairly easy to decode.

Every card starts the same
http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/

Next, the season is added: http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1959-BB-

Next, comes the series marker, either TS1 for series one, or TS2 for series two. BUT, this applies only to cards from 1993 and beyond. Everything prior to 1993 is TS1.

http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1959-BB-TS1-

The next piece is the cards number: http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1959-BB-TS1-350-NA_

Now you add F for the front of the card or B for the back
http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1959-BB-TS1-350-NA_F_

And they all end with the same jpeg dimension:
http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1959-BB-TS1-350-NA_F_285x412.jpg

If I want the back of Ron Santo's card from 1963, #252, the url would be

http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1963-BB-TS1-252-NA_B_285x412.jpg



It only gets tricky for 1993 and beyond, when you need to know where series one ends and series two starts. This handy little chart of the series two numbers should help:

1993	397-825
1994	397-792
1995	397-660
1996	221-440
1997	276-496
1998	283-504
1999	243-496
2000	239-478
2001	406-790
2002	366-718
2003	368-720
2004	368-732
2005	368-732
2006	331-660
2007	331-660
2008	331-660
2009	331-660
2010	331-660

If you know a cards year, number, and for 1993 and beyond, series, you can find a nice clean picture of any Topps card quickly and easily. Then you can save it to your computer and load it into blogger.

To make it even easier, just cut and paste this template into your browser and make the appropriate changes to find your card.

http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/YEAR-BB-TS1-Cardnumber-NA_F_285x412.jpg

I bookmarked the template, and so I just make the changes and I'm there!

Congratulations, you know have all of Topps baseball cards at your fingertips!

EDIT: As mentioned by Night Owl in the comments, here is a different way I came up with last year, though it is a bit more complicated.