New Blog Feature: Ongoing Checklists

One feature I’ve been meaning to work into the blog for at least a year now, is an ongoing checklist category. Essentially, it will be a “living” checklist of featured sets that will be added to as new variations are found. I will continue to update the posts in the same way I continue to add to the 1990 Pro Set Master Set Checklist post. This will hopefully function as a valuable source of information for junk era set completion.

Suggestions, new info and comments are very welcome with this, but keep in mind that wrong backs, blank backs/fronts and missing foil errors will not make the cut beyond an occasional note of “such and such printing flaws are very common in this issue” etc.

Also, I may note when a particular variation is exceptionally rare or seldom (or never) offered for sale, but I would rather not receive a bunch of “value” or “worth” requests of such cards or “how much will you pay for this” type comments. Mainly because the E&V market tends to fluctuate dramatically on a weekly basis. The lack of catalog info on many variations tends to create a hesitant buying market. One of the key goals of this blog is to provide and share information on variations and to eventually get many of these variations properly cataloged in future annual guides.

Taking a closer look at 1991 Topps Baseball, the 40th Anniversary issue

1991 Topps is remembered by most collectors for it’s “1 of every card ever produced” sweepstakes. And most collectors who pursued Topps’ challenge to “find the Mick” in the 1991 packs were very dissappointed to discover that after hundreds or thousands of opened packs, not a single vintage card, or for the extremely lucky among them, a VG 1974 Topps common!

Though the 1991 set does boast some of Topps’ best photography up to that point and an already classic design, it’s also Topps’ most variation-heavy set ever produced! And since it was the last Topps set where the company made the effort to stop their presses and correct a large portion of errors, several of the rarest variations in Topps’ catalog can be found in this set. Here is a look at some of the toughest Topps variations from  the 1991 issue:

#685 Doug Drabek with WHITE inset border. Probably the most sought-after error in this set, Topps originally printed the card with a white border over his picture instead of the correctly-themed black. Tthis extremely difficult variation is believed to only be found in a limited amount of jumbo packs. Often times, the corrected version appears in boxes that contain the Chris Hoiles variation of similar type. Sales have seen over $100 for this card in previous years!