Question about card set sizes

Reader Kevin sent me a email with a question regarding roster sizes of the card sets.  I think it’s worth bringing up.  If one person is confused about it and wrote in about it, there are probably 100 others who are wondering the same thing… most likely those who are new to the game. 

Kevin writes:

Hi, I am a little confused about the cards in APBA sets. I went to the APBA "Stadium Shop" to look for the latest card set, which I believe is the "2008" set with cards from the 2008 season (as opposed to sets issued by baseball card companies, which at this point would have cards for the upcoming 2009 season).

 

My confusion regards the number of cards in the set. On the APBA Product List page, they list 1999-2007 as "30 teams with 20 players per team", though the card list you posted for 2008 has 30 players per team. If I went to APBA’s Statium Shop and ordered the $39.95 2008 set, would I be getting 600 cards or 300?

 

I appreciate any clarification you can offer.

 

Thanks!

It’s a good question, revolving around the issue of XB’s and the 2008 carded player list he refers to.  Admittedly, the carded list is APBA’s way of catering to those of us APBA veterans who absolutely must know ahead of time who is going to get a card and who won’t (thank you, APBA, btw!)

But I suppose it does create some confusion for those not used to the idea of XBs. 

I replied to Kevin:

Kevin,
The regular set you buy will contain 20 players per team (or 600 for the whole set). 

For those who are serious about doing a replay or whatever, APBA also puts out an extra card set (also as XBs) which total to 10 players per team. 

That’s where the 30 players per team is arrived at. 

…the regular set is enough to get you started but to do anything meaningful, it’s helpful to have the XBs. 

I should emphasize that this goes for the recent seasons (1999-present) only.  The older sets and historical might have different roster sizes and XB availability may vary.