Quick Look: 1991 Upper Deck Milt Thompson “Bullseye” Error

Here’s a rare sighting, a printing flaw that even Beckett and SCD acknowledge in their catalogs: 1991 Upper Deck Milt Thompson #309A with “bullseye” over 86 stats on back.

Most “fish-eye” printing flaw stuff doesn’t get cataloged and for good reason,as it would be impossible to list each and every printing aberration in mass-produced sets. However, some of them seem to have affected enough of the total print run that collectors from all over were reporting them, Frank Thomas NNOF and Joe Namath’s ‘butterfly’ errors are good examples of this. But see the pattern? These types of errors only get recognition if it affects a key rookie card or star player, something of a double-standard. There are probably a hundred cards out there from the junk wax era, as rare as the Frank Thomas NNOF card, that will never see catalog and subsequently mass-collector recognition, which makes this card an obscure exception to the rule. Very scarce by early-90s Upper Deck production numbers but still, at the end of the day, a printing flaw on a Milt Thompson card.

1991 Upper Deck baseball hologram variations and more.

For the last 4 or 5 years now, checking the backs of any 1991 upper deck cards is priority when I come across them. Already known variations like Luis Salazar and Milt Thompson’s (circle around i in Louis and bullseye in 86 stats for Milt) are a couple of very scarce varieties that affect the reverse of their 1991 cards.

But for some unknown reason, Upper Deck used up to 4 different holograms for their 1991 issue.

The most common is the repeated pattern of “1991 Upper Deck”. This was used across several 1991 and 1991-92 (in BK and HK’s case) sets that year, due, likely to it’s unspecific-sport aspect.

But some cards have shown up that show several other hologram types:

–1990 Upper Deck Baseball hologram are a pattern of baseballs and “upper deck” repeated. I have seen at least 25% of the set with these holograms, even high number cards debunking my theory that the ’90 holo variations were the first batch of ’91’s due to UD using remaining holograms from the previous year. Below is an example of this type: