[Hollywood42]

Would love to get some thoughts on any like minded collectors hyper-fixated on proper/logical classification of cards

Background: Working on my ultimate Twins inventorying project of putting together a master checklist of all Twins cards ever created. I am trying to be very specific with how I categorize each card (i.e. this card belongs to this subset, from this set, from this year). But cards that were released in both pack form as well as via factory sets are causing some back and forth in my mind that I'm not sure which way I want to go with yet.

I see 3 main use cases that I'm trying to determine:

1. Pack versions and factory set versions have no distinction. Example: any Topps flagship card from the past several years. For these, I don't see a reason (or ability) to consider the pack version vs factory set version as distinct cards from each other, and only 1 card needs to be logged. No problem here

2. Pack versions and factory set versions are different. Example: some 80s/90s Donruss cards have distinctions between their pack form and factory set form, such as card orientation, or slight differences in the border pattern. I know I want to classify these as two distinct cards, but should they both be considered to belong to, for example, "1990 Donruss" ("base" and "factory set" subsets), or should the pack version belong to "1990 Donruss" and the factory set version to "1990 Donruss Factory Set"?

3. Factory set exclusives. Example: Flagship foilboard parallels from the past several years. Or, factory set releases that parallel another release, i.e. Topps Tiffany. These types of cards are certainly distinct and should be listed as unique cards. This topic likely is determined by the answer to #2. But same question there, should these factory set exclusives belong to the main parent release, i.e. "2022 Topps" (foilboard subset), or to a unique factory set release, i.e. "2022 Topps Factory Set" (foilboard subset)?

So far, my thinking has been to classify them as different sets entirely (i.e. "2022 Topps" and "2022 Topps Factory Set" rather than one set and distinct subsets, i.e. "2022 Topps - Factory Set"). Since they are different cards and released in different formats (and sometimes at completely different times), that makes sense to me. And that's pretty easy for something like Topps Tiffany sets that were not available in packs, were not inserts to factory sets, and are clear, distinct cards from the pack versions. However it gets blurrier when considering the 80s/90s Donruss factory set versions that may not have been clear intentionally distinct cards. And part of me wants to classify them all under the same set and just consider them to be sibling subsets so like cards get grouped together. Although there are some modern examples that turn even this into a slippery slope, such as Home Run Challenge Winners...

Definitely minor nuances, but it's something I'd like to be able to settle on an answer for, and so far haven't been able to make up my mind. Curious for any thoughts anyone may have!