5 Error Cards You Just HAVE to Lvoe (ERR)
5 Error Cards You Just HAVE to Love (COR)
Did you know that John Littlefield could once lay claim to appearing on one of the most desirable and valuable baseball cards in all the land?
Certainly the most expensive among new cards back when it was issued? Even if you reached back several years in your definition of “new”?
If don’t remember that, or just want a reminder of those crazy times, you might enjoy our take on the 1982 Fleer John Littlefield card showing the righty pitching lefty:
Of course, that Littlefield was a product of its time, when card companies’ collective motto seemed to be, “print first, worry about quality later.”
It was this card, and the diminutive “All” Hrabosky, and the blackless 1982 Topps, and so many others of the era that delivered us into Error Card Mania and helped us develop our collectors’ eagle eye.
Among the goodies we spotted were …
1981 Fleer C. Nettles
For me, this was the Holy Grail of error cards because 1) it featured a big name, 2) it was issued in Fleer’s inaugural set, 3) Graig Nettles spelled his first name funny, 4) I was happy to see Fleer bungled that name, too (and not just me), and 5) Fleer corrected their gaffe.
Everybody talked about this card, everybody wanted it, and prices went up, up, up as a result.
Unlike the Littlefield, though, you could actually find the Nettles on occasion, which kept us searching the semistar penny sleeves for years on end.
Truth be told, I *still* have to look at the back of every Nettles card I encounter to see if he is Graig or Craig.
1983 Donruss Byrn Smith
Another interesting first name that I had trouble with for years.
I mean, that “y” just didn’t look right to me, sandwiched there between the “Br” and the “n” but with no “a” to help curry the transaction.
Bryan, I knew about.
Bryn was a foreign concept to me.
And, just maybe, to Donruss, too.
Because, two years’ after Fleer’s card-back typo gained them hobby infamy, Donruss got Byrned, too (which isn’t to say Big D came out of 1981 unscathed — oh, boy! — that’s a book unto itself).
1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Johnny Ray Bonds
So, coming into the 1987 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates were terrible but had a few promising young players, including a guy named Barry Bonds who had hit .223 as a rookie.
Everyone, of course, thought that Bonds might turn into something someday, seeing as how his dad, Bobby, had rewritten the 30-30 record book.
But even in 1987 when he had a real MLB rookie season under his belt, no one really knew what to expect from Bonds.
And most fans didn’t really know what he looked like yet, either.
That same seemed to be true for Donruss, who showed Johnny Ray on Bonds’ Opening Day card issued later in the summer of 1987.
Understandable, since no one knew what Ray looked like, either — except for the fact that, you know, he was an All-Star level second baseman who had been appearing on baseball cards for about five years and who had even appeared in Donruss’s own Action All-Stars set back in 1985.
To their credit, Donruss corrected the problem lightning fast, creating one of the most desirable and valuable error cards of all time.
1974 Topps Jesus Alou (no position)
You know all about the 1974 Topps “NAT’L LEA.” cards, wherein Topps bought the prevailing winds about the San Diego Padres moving to Washington, D.C., and issued a bunch of new cards to reflect that “fact.”
Oops.
Long story short — Ray Kroc spent … Friars stayed put … Topps scrambled … variations abounded.
But do you remember the time, in putting together that same set, that Topps bought the story about how Jesus Alou would have no position in 1974 … or something?
Yeah, that one’s a bit less publicized and likely a Kroc of bologna, but the fact is, Topps did issue Alou’s card with no position listing in the upper righthand corner.
The card was eventually corrected, hilarity ensued, and now all those Jesus Alou master set collectors have a white whale of their own to chase.
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Those are just a few of my favorite card blunders over the years, but how about you?
Which errors and/or variations make you comb through the commons bins, even today … just in case?
As always, I’d love to hear about your favorites.
Until next time, let me know about the errors you find in this post, and I’ll be sure to issue a corrected version (OK, probably not … but maybe … you just never know).
Thanks for reading.
— Adam
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