Flagship Shortprint Variants

There are certain pictures on cards that are iconic. Until a few years ago, those pictures were the base photography or illustrations that appeared on normal cards. Then, we started seeing things like Action variants in Heritage and some “fun” photography in flagship.

This has evolved into players having multiple parallels even in the same set. For example, Ronald Acuna in 2018 Update has a short print, a horizontal super short print, and a vertical short print. The vertical super short print, affectionately called White Jersey - Batting, has become one of the top modern non-autograph cards with raw prices above $3000 and high grade examples going for... more.

But my favorite pictures are ones that tell a story. If anyone watched the 2019 World Series, you may remember the sub story of the Bregman bat carry versus the Soto bat carry. It was “all in good fun” but really sent a message to the Astros. And not the two-bangs-on-the-garbage-can type of message. He also carried the bat almost a quarter of the way around the diamond. This iconic picture made an appearance in 2020 Opening Day as a short print variant, which average about one per case. But since the set is 30 some odd cards, the Soto isn’t exactly super common.