Griffey Printer Scrap

I picked up a Griffey card that was being sold as an error, but it really isn’t an error. The card is a test card that was a printer’s scrap. The card began life as a 1995 Stadium Club Super Skills #SS11 but ended up being used by Topps to practice die-cuts that would later be used in both 1996 Laser Baseball and 1996 Laser Football.

While I am not certain who the football player is, I believe it to be Troy Aikman because it looks like a star on the helmet. I also think the image on the back of the Griffey card is the "front" of the Aikman card.

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1960 Fleer Sam Salerno

This month’s VCoM is from the 1960 Fleer Football release, but there is more too it besides being vintage. Let me introduce you to one of the most error filled cards that I have ever seen, this 1960 Fleer Sam Salerno. The comedy of errors:

Miscut- Top to bottom

Miscut- Left to right

Miscut- Diamond cut

Yellow color bomb on the front

Missing the black printing plate on the front

Wrong back

Griffey Procession I

Another of Griffey’s 1989 Upper Deck error cards makes its way in to my collection. This time it is a blank front and triple print error with a twist. The back of the card is the Griffey #1 back and the Don Baylor #601 back, which is the most common double print back. The third misprint is the addition of Alan Trammell #290 front and the twist is a misfire of the Magenta Trammell front adding the pinkish color and this is the first time I’ve seen this much of a color bomb with a 1989 Upper Deck error.

The Corrected Error I May Never Own, Even Though I Already Kinda Do

This year Topps had two errors with their Topps Now releases, the first being card #264 John/Jose Harrison error which eventually led to a lawsuit being filed against Topps after they corrected the error in the artwork prior to printing the card and sending out the corrected Josh Harrison cards to buyers.

 

The second error was a mix up with cards #474 and #483 where Mookie Betts and Nomar Carciaparra appeared on the front of both cards instead of Carlos Correa and Alex Rodriguez on card #474. They didn’t say why but Topps decided to ship the error card #474 with the wrong image, my guess is based on the previous lawsuit and they wanted to ensure the cards got out in a timely manner.

 

But it now appears that Topps has gone back and printed card #264 with the name John Harrison and card #474 with Carolos Correa and Alex Rodriguez on the front and they are sending them out to buyers. I am not sure of this process and how the shipments are working but there are currently two #264 John Harrison error cards and they are priced at $100 and $5,000. There are three of the corrected versions of card #474 Carlos Correa/Alex Rodriguez and they are priced at $225, $300 and $300. There are no sales of either of these re-printed cards.

 

I did purchase the card through a seller on eBay as a pre-sell so I may be out of luck getting the corrected card for my Mariners collection but I did send an email to the seller and explained things so hopefully he will be willing to send on the card to me.

Why Yes Topps, It Is Your Bad

When Topps offered Topps Now on-demand printing it seemed like there was a universal understanding that the card would only be offered for 24 hours and would be printed and delivered within a timely manner, apparently “without error” was not included in the unspoken agreement.

 

I just received my Carlos Correa/Alex Rodriguez card and whoops the wrong picture was used. Instead card #474 was printed with the images of card #483 which is Mookie Betts and Nomar Garciaparra. The text and date are correct on the front of card #474 as well as the correct back but the wrong image and team logos were used. Card #483, which is supposed to have Betts and Nomar is correct without error.

 

I was torn on ordering this card but in my need to be a completest I bought it so I would have the complete Mariners set for the 2016 Topps Now set not to mention I only paid $6.99 on a pre-sale through an eBay seller so it isn’t as bad as paying the $10 cost through Topps’ site. So far Topps has not made an announcement on what they plan to do with a correction, or even if they will do a correction.

 

And for those in Florida, hunker down and stay safe.

C-3PO Makes It Three In A Row (For You Fuji)

 

The last two days I have done Star Wars related posts so I decided to make it a trilogy with today’s post, as suggested by Fuji, and I am going with the famous C-3PO golden rod error card. This is one of my Top 10 Wants cards that I recently picked up.

The card is from the 1977 Topps Star Wars Series 4 (Green) release and is card #207, which depicts a scene of C-3PO (Anthony Davis). Now the scene itself is nothing special but what made this card collectible is the additional “unit” that C-3PO is sporting making him look more like a porn star than a human-cyborg relations protocol droid.

There have been a couple of explanations, that seem reasonable when considered, as to why C-3PO appears to have an erection. Some claim it was a disgruntled Topps employee but Topps has been clear that the image came directly from LucasFilms, and contact sheets show that the original image sent to Topps does contain the shot of C-3PO packing so Topps is off the hook. LucasFilms responded by stating it was just a case of bad timing and that when the picture was taken a piece of the C-3PO costume was falling and just happened to be a case of “Whoops” and not noticed when the image was sent to Topps.  

But we may finally have an answer from author Gary Gerani in his recently released book Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Volume One. In the book, which is dedicated to Topps Star Wars trading cards, Gerani (Who worked for Topps at the time) states that he was on the set while the movie was being filmed and one day the employees of the LucasFilms costume department were screwing around and gave C-3PO the extra equipment and taking pictures and somehow one of the pictures was included in the contact sheets sent to Topps.

Considering that Gary Gerani worked for Topps at the time and was present on the movie set during the filming of Episode IV and has nothing to gain by making this claim (His book would have sold no matter what he said about the card) I am apt to believe him.

Topps eventually airbrushed out the unit and re-released the card. There has never been an announcement as to how many of the error card and corrected card were released but it is believed that the corrected clean version of the card may actually be more limited than the X-rated version.

The prices of the individual cards can vary greatly, I have seen some of the corrected versions sell for anywhere from $8-10 up to $25-30 for ungraded versions while the Golden Rod version running from $20-25 up to $100 for ungraded versions. I picked up both of the cards in one purchase and while they are not pristine cards they are in reasonable condition but with slight paper separation at the corners, the corrected version is significantly off-center and the coloring is not as brilliant as the Golden Rod version.

 

 

Where The Cards Bleed Red

 

I always love picking up unique cards of the players that I collect, even better when it is a Ken Griffey Jr. card like this 1990 Fleer #513. These cards are usually called “Color Wash” when certain colors bleed over the card in excess but in a case like this when it is so extreme they are called “Color Bombed” for obvious reasons.

Both the front and back were oversaturated with Magenta leaving the card overly red. The front is not as noticeable but when you look closely you see that the blues appear purple and the seats in the stands are streaky with red. The back on the other hand is quite noticeable.

There are certain sets where this was quite common, namely the 1990 Pro Set Football release. Some were so bad in that release that a few of the cards were just a complete single color wash and the image was unrecognizable.

One Stinking Word

Don’t you hate when a small error or variation is made somewhere along the line of a cards design and you feel compelled to hunt down the error and corrected card variations for your collection?

Case in point the 1991 Fleer baseball release, there are 8 variations/errors including Ken Griffey Jr.’s card. The error? Card #450A says “Bat  .300” where the corrected #450B says “Bat around .300” in the bio on the back of the card, I have highlighted the addition of a single word that made me crazy enough to purchase both versions.

 

I also noticed that the version with the word "Around" also has the bio paragraph closer to the stats but that appears to just be a placement during printing.

Get My Razor, We About To Cut A B!t¢h

Errors are not new to sports cards. The wrong player, wrong name, wrong stats, missing name, missing stats, printing errors, multi-prints, mis-cuts, blank cards, reversed images, vulgarity and so on. Some got media coverage like Billy Ripken’s 1989 Fleer “Fuck Face” card or 1990 Topps Frank Thomas NNOF, which if you were fortunate enough to pull and sell you could make a nice payment towards your student loan (one Thomas card sold earlier this week for $2,175 plus $30 shipping).

Really the value is based on the player/subject matter, the type or error, was the error corrected and how many cards are on the market. The 1989 Score Paul Gibson with the background player adjusting himself can be had for under $5 but if you are interested in picking up a 1977 Topps  C-3PO “Droid Junk” card you are going to be spending more in the $25 range for an un-graded version.

I enjoy error cards, they are a unique addition to a collection. I don’t have an “Error” collection but if I come across a reasonably priced Griffey error I will happily pick it up. If I had to pick a specific error type I would go with printing errors. I like cards that are missing foil or names or a nice double print image.

One error that I have never been able to get in to are the cut-out cards where the player was cut out for whatever reason. Two of the more recent cards that come to mind are the 2000 Upper Deck MVP LaVar Arrington and the 2006 Topps and 2006 Topps Heritage Alex Gordon cards.

The 2000 UD MVP LaVar Arrington was cutout because Arrington had not signed with the NFLPA thus was not eligible to appear on any NFL cards. Arrington went on to play 7 seasons with the Redskins and Giants and he had a solid career making it to 3 Pro Bowls but defensive players don’t normally draw big attention unless they are stellar (Richard Sherman) or evil (Ndamukong Suh) so while his cut-out made hobby news it didn’t normally sell for much over $25 around the time of release and is now down to around $5-10 range.

Alex Gordon’s Topps cut-outs where big time with stories showing up in various hobby news outlets, ESPN and even local news so there was a bigger rush. In 2006 the MLBPA had made changes to the “RC” requirements so only players who had appeared in a professional game prior to the season could appear in sets besides the Bowman minor league sets. Since Gordon had not been in a game Topps found themselves in a predicament so they took to cutting up Gordon’s Topps and Heritage cards.

The 2006 Topps #297 Gordon had five versions make it to the pack out process. The complete card, complete cut-out, center cut-out, Gold Foil and Silver Foil. The complete versions are the big sellers, topping $1,000 at the time and even now still topping $150 for raw copies. The cut-outs and foil versions now sell for under $50 each. One of the big national stories connected to the Topps card was when one collector in Wichita Eagle, Kansas found 5 complete versions from Walmart blasters. He bought 7 blasters total and found 2 in one pack and 3 in another pack, I guess you could say there was a bit of a collation issue.

Complete version

Complete Cut-out

Center Cut-out

Gold Foil Only

Silver Foil Only

The other is the 2006 Topps Heritage #255 Alex Gordon card. I think the reason this one is less known is because a complete version was never packed out, the only cards that made it out were the center cut-out and puzzle cut-out and from my research I found out that quite a few of them made it to PXs at U.S. military bases in Germany. The only complete version I have seen is owned by Keith Olbermann who received a paper proof directly from Topps. Because there seems to be less of the Heritage cut-outs the prices are significantly higher, hitting the $250 recently for ungraded copies. I cannot find any puzzle cut-outs for sale so I do not know any pricing.

Paper Proof owned by Olbermann

Center Cut-out

Puzzle Cut-out

I was also able to find some information that there are a number of 1997 Upper Deck Edgar Renteria #77 cut-out copies out there but I do not know why they were cut out and I do not see any for sale. One person suggested it may have just been a mis-cut during the cutting stage.

What has me baffled is why did Upper Deck and Topps allow the LaVar Arrington and Alex Gordon cards to get to the pack out stage? If there were specific rules in effect on these players appearing in cards sets I can understand why the companies cut out the player’s image and you would think this was done with the intent that the cards would be destroyed and they wanted to make sure that they didn’t go out the back door but these cards somehow made it from printing to cut-out phase to pack out and nobody questioned it.

Why were they not destroyed instead of just being cut-out? Some people have suggested that at least Topps did it to get a top prospect in to the packs and could claim innocence and ignorance by proving they attempted to destroy the cards. The “Hey, it wasn’t my fault” defense.

Outside of Arrington/Redskins and Gordon/Royals collectors would you hunt down these cards?

A Trip Down Error Memory Lane

I was hunting down a 1990 Topps card on my Griffey want list and I came across another card that actually was the first “Monster” card that I remember hearing about when I returned to the hobby in 1992.

At the time Griffey was young and tearing up the league and both his 1989 Upper Deck #1 and 1990 Leaf #245 were hot but it was an error card of some kid from Auburn that really set the fire on Beckett’s pages.

The card… 1990 Topps Frank Thomas No Name On Front (or NNO) card. The card was selling for hundreds in the early 1990s but after a Hall of Fame career that included multiple MVP Awards, a .301 lifetime batting average and 521 homeruns the card is selling for big bucks, a BGS 9 sold for nearly $4000 recently. Even raw copies are topping $800 and what surprises me is that the 2010 Topps NNO reprint is selling for $15 and up, more than the corrected base 1990 Topps version which can be picked up for under $5 shipped.