Quick Look: 1991 Topps Desert Storm #186 Variation

Another seemingly rare variation to turn up from the Topps Desert Storm set, this time from the relatively variation-light series three. I reached out to the few remaining DS master set collectors that I know for info such as origin source and potential ownership but all denied knowing anything about it.

Previously sold on COMC, a copy of card #186 King Fahd, showing his named spelled incorrectly on front. Some collector out there is the lucky recipient of a King Faht.

Quick Look: 1991 Topps Desert Storm Norman Schwarzkopf “Smiling” Photo Variation

This card was only recently checked off my list after nearly 15 years of sporadic hunting for it. For an image of it even! For me, this niche corner of the hobby is like fishing: I find out about, learn about, hear whispers of a variation and I chase after it but I have no intention of keeping. This card is a perfect example. Easily in my top-10 most elusive Topps variations, I just don’t feel the need to own it despite the fact that it is an unbelievably scarce junk era item. One reason being is that it is a withdrawn card. Another is that it comes from the second series of a product that was already experiencing a drop in collectors/collecting activity after three (3!!) printings of series one (excluding the deluxe/tiffany factory set issues). And it is a drastic change from 1st to 2nd printing: the image, its tone and size of subject are very different from one another, something not seen very often in post-1960s Topps issues.

There are four other very short printed errors changed early in the second series set and three confirmed in the third series set. I will update with info as it comes in.

1989 Topps Batman Sticker Variations

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a Prince fan and a comics fan. So naturally, any film that combines those two things is going to be among my favorites; and Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) does just that. Besides being a fan of both of the above mentioned things, I’m also a card collector and an enthusiastic variation-hunter and one card product combines all of this stuff:

1989 Topps Batman (series 1 and 2) are some of my favorite box breaks. Mint, centered cards from these packs are almost always impossible to find and forget the stickers, Topps packed the gum on top of them!

Like many other cards produced by Topps around this time, the variations that exist are in the copyright line. One version has a single asterisk * and the other version has two asterisks * * just before the copyright line. All of the stickers in series 1 and 2 are available in this variation.

Another cool aspect of this set is that it features the “rookie card” of director Tim Burton (the card is even titled: “Filmmaker, Tim Burton”) and what may possibly be the “rookie card” of Jack Nicholson, which names him, the actor, on front, rather than “Joker” or “Jack Napier.”