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Earliest card#98
Earliest card research

Anthony Pettis
Earliest Card

What exists, what does not, and which card the archive treats as the earliest.

  • Earliest card2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98
  • SubjectAnthony Pettis
  • Year2011
  • ManufacturerTopps
  • ConfidenceProbable
  • Print runUnknown — not estimated
High confidence×1Probable×1Uncertain×1View sources & research

Why this is the earliest card

No source reachable this research shows an RC-designated Anthony Pettis card, so this is filed as his earliest card rather than a rookie card. 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 (released 4 May 2011 per Cardboard Connection) is the earliest Pettis card found: SportsCardsPro's set lists for 2010 Topps UFC Series 4, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout and 2010 Leaf MMA contain no Pettis entry, and Cardboard Connection's 2010 Series 4 checklist explicitly does not include him. The Title Shot base set is where Topps first carried WEC fighters, which is why his first card predates his UFC debut by a month. An eBay 'pick from list' seller checklist for the set marks its RC cards as RC and does not mark #98, and SportsCardsPro's rookie data field reads 'No' for #98, for Finest #49 and for Moment of Truth #218.

Pettis's first trading card, from the 150-card Title Shot base set released 4 May 2011 — the product in which Topps first put WEC fighters alongside UFC ones. It shipped a month before his UFC debut against Clay Guida, so it shows him as the reigning (and final) WEC lightweight champion rather than a UFC fighter. Every earlier 2010 MMA product checked — Topps Series 4, Main Event, Knockout and Leaf MMA — lists other WEC names but no Pettis.

The dispute

Sources disagree about whether Pettis has a rookie card at all. SportsCardsPro's rookie data field says 'No' for every 2011 Pettis card checked, while eBay sellers routinely advertise 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218 as his 'Rookie RC' and the Title Shot #FAR-AP autograph relic as a 'Rookie Auto Relic'. The usual RC-flag source, the Trading Card Database, was not reachable on this research, so no RC flag could be confirmed or ruled out.

Commonly misidentified

Listings call 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218 a 'Rookie RC' because it is a UFC Debut card; it is not his first card. Sellers also list the Title Shot #98 Gold, Silver and Bronze parallels as 'the rookie' when they are parallels of the same base card.

Identifying it

  • Base card #98, between #97 Ben Rothwell and #99 Yushin Okami on the Title Shot checklist
  • Base set runs #1–#150 and mixes UFC veterans, legends, debuting fighters and WEC fighters
  • Parallel versions are named in brackets by SportsCardsPro: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Red and Diamond

What gets mistaken for it

What you'll readWhat's true
Pettis has a 2010 rookie card from his WEC run.No Pettis entry appears in SportsCardsPro's set lists for 2010 Topps UFC Series 4, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout or 2010 Leaf MMA, and Cardboard Connection's Series 4 checklist states he is not in it — even though those sets do carry other WEC fighters such as Ben Henderson and Anthony Njokuani.
The Gold or Silver #98 is 'the rookie'.They are parallels of the same base card #98.

Parallels

Base
—
Unnumbered
Gold
—
Probable
Silver
—
Uncertain
Bronze
—
Uncertain
Red
/8 (per Cardboard Connection's product-level parallel list; not confirmed on the base card)
Uncertain
Diamond
1/1 (per Cardboard Connection's product-level parallel list)
Probable

Grading & population

Population figures will be taken directly from the grading companies and dated when they are. None are shown yet.

Sources & research High confidence×1Probable×1Uncertain×1

Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.

Probable

Anthony Pettis's earliest card: 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 — Anthony Pettis.

No source reachable this research shows an RC-designated Anthony Pettis card, so this is filed as his earliest card rather than a rookie card. 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 (released 4 May 2011 per Cardboard Connection) is the earliest Pettis card found: SportsCardsPro's set lists for 2010 Topps UFC Series 4, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout and 2010 Leaf MMA contain no Pettis entry, and Cardboard Connection's 2010 Series 4 checklist explicitly does not include him. The Title Shot base set is where Topps first carried WEC fighters, which is why his first card predates his UFC debut by a month. An eBay 'pick from list' seller checklist for the set marks its RC cards as RC and does not mark #98, and SportsCardsPro's rookie data field reads 'No' for #98, for Finest #49 and for Moment of Truth #218.

High confidence

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 — Anthony Pettis.

Uncertain

Parallel serial numbers are not confirmed at card level: Cardboard Connection's product parallel list (Diamond 1/1, Red /8, Onyx /88, Gold) does not match SportsCardsPro's base-card parallel names (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Red, Diamond).

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