1991 Topps Baseball Forum

Greetings,

I've recently been going through all of my master set (Regular Back/Glow Back/Regular Bold Back/Glow Bold Back) looking for the errors/variations I need.  It seems that some are more rare based on whether or not they are a Regular Back/Glow Back.  Here are my choices for rarities, based on what I have (3 plus 2400 count boxes plus 13 complete sets (11 glow/2 regular) and what I search for on ebay.  I would love for you to share yours as well:

Regardless of back type:

Doug Drabek and Chris Hoiles white border

Joe Morgan "Boggs 87 hits"

Marc Whiten full hands

Dennis Boyd full banner present (not pink flag)

Ken Patterson TM top of banner

Regular Back:

Dennis Boyd Pink Flag

 

Glow Back:

Dennis Boyd full wrist

Robin Ventura full red border

 

In general when opening packs I think it goes in this order, from most common to least common:

Glow Back

Regular Back

Bold Glow

Bold Regular

 

I would love to hear your thoughts.

V

I have found the Joe Morgan 87 Hits to be the most difficult (I still need one if anyone has one they are looking to trade!), followed very closely by the Dennis Boyd black border card.  In my research, I have found that not all variations exist in all back types.  For instance, the Dennis Boyd cards with the hand over the 40th Anniversary Flag I have only ever found in non-glow versions, and the pink flag I have only found in the glow back versions.  Patterson is another.  I have a ton of those, but the ones that are higher on the banner are all non-glow back and the lower on the banner are all glow back.

I haven't really noticed a difference in availability of certain back types.  I opened multiple cases of wax, vendor, and cello packs as well as some factory sets and found a fairly equal mix of each once they were all merged together for sorting.  I didn't think to research which backs were coming from which packs until it was too late (and I wasn't buying more cases!)  The bold backs are more rare, but there are also fewer of them out there (only impacted the A and B sheets) so when you take that into account, it mostly evens out as to the likelihood of pulling one or another for a certain card.

1. Joe Morgan 87 is the rarest, confirmed 1991 Topps variation. 
2. Efrain Valdez 6-11-66, if it exists is top of the list (confirmed by Rich Klein in May 1991 Beckett magazine).
3. Chipper, Fernandez, Checklists without 40th logos on back (other cards from the F* sheet may exist, mentioned in annual Beckett set blurb)
4. Boyd full black border around banner would be next.
5. A*B* sheet code cards.
6. Randy Bush without D* sheet code in copyright.
7. Trebelhorn with A* sheet code.
8. Whiten hand outside border is not terribly rare these days, there are always several on ebay. I don't know where I'd place him now.
9. Drabek & Hoiles white inner frame are fairly rare but again, usually but not always, a few options on ebay.

On the Valdez...I've been searching since the initial release of that May 1991 Beckett publication.  I had all of the others that were listed in Beckett, and came across them all with relative ease.  But I have never seen a Valdez in 33 years of searching.  Well...maybe 25 years.  I did give up some time ago.

This card came up again and Rich addressed it over on the Net54 forums. I trust that he saw confirmation back then but it is also likely that so few escaped we may never see a copy. Remember that the first mention of it came from Topps Media spokesman Ken Liss in a memo (regarding what mistakes they would be correcting) to hobby media before the hobby media had a chance to sort out what was what with the set.

I've gone back and forth over the years on whether I believe it exists or not, at the moment I'm a believer.