Quick Look: 1991 Score Nolan Ryan No-Hit Club #701 Variations

1991 Score is one of those sets that I typically avoid sorting through in effort to find new varieties. One of the reasons being that there is so much text and stat info on backs that it’s difficult to notice differences between copies. Another reason would be that I was never really impressed by the issue (like most of the Score products), but since a handful of varieties have shown up over the last 5-6 years that feature highly-collected star players, I figured it best to post a few examples of unlisted errors in the set (see also: 1991 Score Bo Jackson posting). This hard-to-find variation features Nolan Ryan:

A. Stat box is WHITE on back (scarce).

B. Stat box is BLUE on back (common).

New 1991 Upper Deck hologram variation discovered! That’s 5 different types now!

This weekend I came across a small collection of Nolan Ryan stuff. Mainly just base junk with some oddball sprinkled in, but as always, I flipped over the 1991 Upper Decks included, to see if any of the rarer hologram types were printed on back.This time it was a hologram that looked familiar but didn’t fit any of the 4 known types. It turns out, its the hologram UD used for it’s 1990-issued, Comic Ball 1 set. Keep in mind that these variations scan terribly, but in person are easily recognizable:

Ughh. Those scans are awful, but the best I can get for the time being. The actual pattern is what appears to be a series of trophies, the words “upper deck” and “90.” And the Comic Ball set is the only UD issue that I could find matching this. Pretty fitting that I find this variety on a Nolan Ryan card when he would eventually become a spokesman for the Comic Ball line in 1991.

To recap the already-known hologram varieties (see my in-depth, previous blog on them for details):

-1990 MLB type: This hologram is the exact same one used on UD’s 1990 cards. A pattern of baseballs shows up when held under the light.

-1990-91 NHL type: This hologram has a crossed hockey sticks and ’90-91′ pattern if held under the light.

-1991 MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL type: This hologram is the most common, and shows a pattern of ‘1991 Upper Deck’ when held under a light source.

-1992 MLB type: This hologram depicts a pattern of UD’s diamond-logo and is commonly found on most 1992 issued card sets. Funny that these were being found on 1991 cards!