Quick Look: 1990 Upper Deck Checklist #800A Black Box On Back & Mike Witt #702

Since they seldom turn up, I’m sure some collectors have yet to see this card and may still find it interesting. Though now it resides in a great, permanent collection, here are images of the only copy that I have personally held in 30 years of searching.

It is worth noting that unlike the 1990 Upper Deck Mike Witt #702, just a few copies of this card have ever been offered for sale. And while it stands to reason that if an 800 count box full of Witt cards can turn up, there may exist one full of these as well, but, to date, they remain among the most elusive junk wax era variations.

1990 Pro Set Dexter Manley “NEVER released”

I keep a vast archive of old hobby publications, especially those ca. 1989-1993, the junkiest of the junk wax era. Typically I only keep pertinent and “lost” information such as old company news releases, old letters from collectors reporting their unusual findings, old product info/ads and articles outlining error and variation items of this period. Recently, I came across an advertisement by a company called 49er Headquarters, who, by 1993, seemed to be holding a decent amount of rare and/or hard to find Pro Set items: 1989 promos, 10-up sheets of Dickerson 338, Lombardi Holos and…Dexter Manley substance abuse error cards. For $124.99!

While it is just their word, in their ad blurb, I find it interesting (and likely) that they mention that the Manley substance abuse card was never released. Personally, I do not know one collector who can confirm pulling one out of sealed Final Update sets. Same for the No Bio cards. The only confirmed “source” of the Manley errors was a 10-up sheet found in a trash pile, revealed by a commenter here under the 1990 Pro Set rarities post (which, fyi, they had cut up and sold on ebay). I’m interested in hearing from collectors on this card and if anyone has any solid info to counter the ad’s claim. I will say, if true, it is very disappointing to me as I’ve opened hundreds of these sets over the years, even recently at their very-inflated current price point.

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.

1990 Pro Set Jim Morrissey #754 – Does It Exist?

An interesting find in the March 1991 issues of Beckett Football Card Magazine. In their first listing for the 1990 Pro Set Final Update set, they show card #754 as Jim Morrissey. As many already know, that card belongs to Steve Tasker (which can also be found in two variations) of the Buffalo Bills. Interestingly, the card of Chicago Bears player fits correctly in Pro Set’s 1990 team order, right between a Buffalo Bills player (James Lofton #753) and a Cleveland Browns “player” (Jim Shofner CO #755). Since Beckett and other hobby publications received preliminary checklist info from the companies, it is safe to assume that they had originally planned on Morrissey’s inclusion.

Was this card produced? Has anyone seen a copy? What happened to cause the switch out to Tasker? My guess? It’s out there. Someone has an unfinished, blank back type of proof for this card. If anyone has any info or photos to add to this mystery, please reply in the comments.

1990 Action Packed All-Madden Team Roger Craig #32 Prototype or Withdrawn Variation?

Here’s a bizarre item I stumbled across a few years back. A set that for the most part I have zero interest in diving into, but like many other new entries into the market at the time, it’s a set prone to mistakes and likely preceded by a number of proof and prototype cards in it’s efforts to secure a license. And as many collectors already know, this often leads to new variations and oddities for the collection.

Card 32 in the base set is reserved for Ronnie Lott but either early on in the run or prior to production, a card of Roger Craig was issued as 32. Take a look at the pics below. Feel free to comment with any info on the source or history of the card.

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.

The Mysterious 1990 Topps Debut ‘X’ Cards

I’ve been meaning to post about this bizarre card for a couple years now but couldn’t locate the scans I saved. In fact, these images are the only I’ve ever seen and were poached from a message board in 2009. Since I am in the mood to do a little bit of detective work, I feel now is the time to shed some light on this very unusual card:

 

 

Not much is known about this card, in fact, I’ve yet to hear any mention of it since it was posted in the legendary Frank Thomas NNOF thread on the Collectors Universe boards.

Here is what we do know:

• Pulled from a 20-set case of 1990 Topps Debut ’89 sets.
• 1990 Topps Debut ’89 features 152 subjects.
• Topps likes to print cards in multiples of 11 (33 Glossy All-Stars, 132 O-Pee-Chees, 792 base set, etc…)

Here is what I think:

152 subjects doesn’t work with Topps’ multiples of 11 sheet orientation, however, 154 does. This leads me to believe that on a single uncut 154 card sheet, you will find all 152 cards plus two of these “corner” cards. Obviously, the same formula can be applied to a theoretical 77 card sheet, but one X card per.

I believe that these cards were intended to be thrown out as printer’s waste but some, apparently very few, made their way into sets.

I do not believe that the X cards were intended to depict a player. Although I did not do the research, Topps claims that this set features every major league debut of the 1989 season, which would explain it’s unusual subject number (152) , which varied each of the subsequent years lending some truth to the claim.

What’s especially odd is that given Topps’ high production run during this era, those two “wasted” spots would seem like something of loss financially. Given how often Topps put advertisements and offer cards in products, why didn’t they use those spots for something useful? Food for thought.

Obviously, all of this could be simply explained with an image of an uncut sheet but until I get a hold of one, where’s the fun in that?

Cards you’ve never seen: 1990-91 Pro Set Edmonton Oilers Team Statistics

1990-91 Pro Set Hockey is a messy set. Many variations. Many uncorrected errors. Numerous printing flaws. My kind of set! Back in early 1991, Pro Set ran ads in a ton of magazines, showing a card that seems to have never seen production, Check out this ad, where Pro Set greets us in French, with a card no Oilers fan will ever own:

Why Pro Set chose this as the face of their new series is anyone’s guess. It was already approaching a year after the Oilers won the cup and much had happened since. A similar card was issued as part of the “team facts/logos” subset, but it went through a number of minor design changes before pack-out.

With Pro Set’s die-hard fan-base, and the amount of stuff that “escaped” into the market after their bankruptcy, I’m truly surprised that not a single copy of this card has ever surfaced for sale.

Card you’ve never seen: 1990 Topps John Elway Sample / Promo

What’s the big deal here? It’s just a regular 1990 Topps Football card, right? Nope. It’s some kind of sample shown in a 1990 issue of Topps magazine. You can immediately tell the difference by the inclusion of “Broncos” on front, at bottom left, instead of the Topps logo.

This may never have actually been produced and was maybe just a mock-up on a piece of paper, created by a Topps designer. The hand-drawn football is a big clue for this being the case.

In 1990,  the NFL did not grant Topps a license to produce football cards or use team logos (look how far we’ve come…), but Topps decided to print them anyway. Two major changes occurred: 1. The omission of team names or logos from the card fronts and 2. a disclaimer notice on back of every card, stating: “Topps football player cards are not manufactured, sponsored or authorized by any team or league.” Eventually, Topps was granted a license and the late-issued cards they produced for 1990, had the disclaimer removed from the back.

Little-known-fact: all 1990 Topps Football packaging, even the box bottom cards themselves, can be found with or without the disclaimer.

Little-known-fact Part 2: Topps was deep into the development of a 1990 Bowman Football set at the same time. This was shelved for unknown reasons (likely related to their NFL issues), but how cool would it have been to have had a 1990 Bowman Emmitt Smith RC. ‘Home of the Rookie Card,’ right?

Cards you’ve never seen: 1991 Score Rocket Ismail #318A

Most of us collectors old enough to know who Rocket Ismail is, probably remember the controversy caused by his signing with a CFL team on draft day, 1991. He was a potential #1 pick, wide-receiver from Notre Dame, loaded with hobby potential. His decision had a ripple effect that was felt by a few of the card companies that year, who had already slotted Rocket into their checklists. Even sending a handful of samples (or printed materials showing a mock-up) out of what his card would look like.

Pictured above is Rocket’s unreleased 1991 Score card #318. In 19 years, I can’t say I’ve ever seen an actual copy for sale. So at this point, the above image is the best we’ve got.

Imagine though, had Rocket had the career that was expected of him, instead of the one he actually had – which wasn’t bad, by all means, an okay one, really…but if he had a Jerry Rice or Andre Reed type career, I wonder if any physical samples of this card would’ve surfaced by now?

Any additional info regarding this card would be greatly appreciated and posted with a credit to the source.