1991 Topps Baseball Forum

Thanks Zack for the Info....

Couple more comments:

5. I checked the Micros again - yep it appears to have the Glow and Non-Glow.  With the micro-size and back color - they are a bit harder to distinguish.  I am also using the simplest technique of holding the cards up to a blacklight bulb lol.  I need to find some type of wand or something a little more user friendly 

6B.  I forgot to check the Topps Traded grayback cello issue.  There was only one Cardinal cards in the set - so I only had the one to go by.  It was a glowback.   The white back ones do not glow

Im wondering about the Check list cards -- if all variations have both glowbacks and non-glowbacks?  Namely the three variations of #656

Enjoy!
Patrick

I never thought about checking the Micro set. I have an opened Factory Set. I'll have to check that out for glowbacks at some point.

OK New revelation with the micro parallel set -- NOT GLOWBACKS BUT GLOWFRONTS!

Uggg these Micros are driving me crazy but I found a breakthrough!!!!!!!!   

OK initially I did not think they had both glowbacks and non-glowbacks due to the white cardstock they were printed on.

Then looking at them I "concluded" their were both glowbacks and non-glows.   It was just difficult to distinguish as they were not as obvious as the glowbacks on the base cards (and Bowman base, etc..)   Im only dealing with Cardinals as that is the team I collect.  I went through about 100 or so micros and found 3 non-glows.  So I kept questioning myself if my eyes were deceiving me.  Again the base cards that have the glowbacks are super obvious. 

My set up is a simple lamp with a blacklight bulb in it.  I held the cards up and checked to see if they were glowbacks or not.  Today a  purchased a clip on lamp with a moveable neck so I can lay the cards on the table and check to see the glowbacks -- million times easier.   I kept looking at the micros over and over and over again.  The more I looked the more I began to question if there actuallly were glowbacks.   Then..........

.....I saw something as I had the cards all stacked together.as they were under the black light. The some of the white borders appeared to glow and some did not.   SO I went though each card that the edge appeared to glow and turned it over.  Well the backs still did not looked like they obviously glowed.   Boom I looked at the front of the card and Wallah - it is the front of the cards that may or may not glow!!!!!    So I looked at the front of each micro card and it was very obvious -- so now when it comes to the micros I guess we have glow fronts and non-glow fronts.

I did check the Topps base cards and Bowman base cards again and noticed that the fronts of the glowbacks had some glowing features on them as well - just not as illuminous as the backs!

As I write this Im laughing at myself at all the time and energy I have spent on this project!    Sorry if my previous information on the Micros was incomplete but I hope this new-found info can help those that collect all varieties.  Maybe some Topps employees from 30 years ago are laughing now LOL 

Hope this clears some things up.   I appologize as I could not get a picture of the "glowfronts" and "NON-glowfronts" next to each other -- the camera on my mobile sucks and it was difficult taking pics in the dark with only the light illuminating from the black light along with the flash from my cam.

You are absolutely right Patrick. I have pictures for proof. The backs do glow a little bit, but it's almost completely undiscernable. But the glow-fronts totally jump out at you b/c they are bright white. Here's a picture of the factory set box in front of a blacklight and then a pic of the first couple dozen cards spread out some in front of the same light.

OMG!  My 1991 Topps Baseball set is COMPLETE! DONE! FINISHED!  I am not buying into your glow in the dark conspiracies!.  You guys can make a variation out of a wet dream.  Stop!

We are strictly just reporting the actual variations with 1991 Topps cards. This UV glow version only appears to have happened in 1991 Topps and Bowman. It doesn't seem that it also happened in previous years. It also didn't happen afterwards b/c Topps switched from gray cardstock to white cardstock for 1992. Maybe they were testing inks for the planned switch and that is what led to ink variations in 1991. Who really knows?!

And hey, I'm with you on a complete set. My Micro set is a complete factory set, so I don't care if there is a mixture of glow and non-glow cards inside the box. It's still the complete set in a factory box. As for the main Topps set, I have no interest in completing the set, in any version.

Out of curiosity, is there going to be a Glow Back checklist on here? Asking for my cataloging purposes. 

I am totally one of those people who has separated my 91 Topps according to regular, glow back, dark logo and dark logo glow backs.

I agree, the chemical composition of the ink and paper IS NOT a variation.

No. These will not be listed.

Appreciate the quick response.