1988 Star Don Mattingly Baseball Forum

There is a fielding image variation for card #3 in this set (both base and glossy), but I don't know the origins of why the variation exists or how it was it was distributed.  Should I just add it as a normal variation?

Attaching a photo I found on eBay of an uncut panel showing the front and backs of both #3 versions.  So it seems like these were printed at the same time rather than an error/correction.

I have the glossy version of the fielding image variation myself.  From what I am told by other Mattingly collectors, the fielding variation is much rarer.

Interesting. :)

I really need to get to my MLB/NBA stuff. I'm not sure about this one. And I'm not 100% sure about the sheet. You do understand that there has been a lot of fake Star stuff out there?

I'm not super familiar with the extent of fakes.  There is a sealed pack on eBay supposedly with the fielding variation (I'm going to message the seller to see how they know it is inside).  The glossy one I have looks good to me but I'm no expert.

I asked the seller of the sealed set how they know it's the one with the fielding variation, no definitive confirmation but this was their reply:

"So basically the person we got this collection from wrote out a lot of notes on almost every card and set, and with this set in particular he wrote down that the #3 card was the fielding variation. We've been using his notes for a few weeks and they haven't steered us wrong."

If it's sealed, how did the note-taker know? Odd.

I'm definitely curious! My only thoughts are either they manipulated the pack in such a way that they could see it (seems like that would be challenging) or maybe the set was distributed with the variation in such a way that they knew it was in there when they got it but it was not officially marked on the pack in any way.

We definitely didn't mark these in any fashion, that's for sure.

None of my "collection" of sets are sealed. My intention was to someday sheet everything. It would be a couple quite nice-looking binders of cards.

I got a lot going on now at work, so my WFH time will be spent on that  now (unlike recently where the WFH time was mostly trying to look busy to them). I don't see getting to them anytime in the next month.

No problem, happy for any insights you can provide when you have the time!

Just noting that PSA does have the two variations in their pop report:

https://www.psacard.com/pop/baseball-cards/1988/star-mattingly/46988

I purchased an open regular set and sealed glossy set (#31/1000) from a another collector.  The regular set had the fielding variation, and I was able to manipulate the cards in the sealed pack to see that it had the batting variation inside (see attached image).  I asked if he remembered anything about why the regular set had the fielding variation but he couldn't recall.

So for the auction for the sealed set I mentioned in a previous post, it is possible that the owner was able to manipulate the pack and see that it had the fielding variation.