1991 Upper Deck Baseball Forum

So might be less of a which card/set is it question and more of an is this an authentic card question. I picked up a couple of re-packaged assortments of team cards at Opening Day this week (50 card re-packs, $10 at White Sox, $12 at Milwaukee). This UD Heroes of Baseball Hank Aaron card from 1991 was the face card for the pack. I was pretty sure I didn't own it, so not to bad a start for 50 cards.

After unpacking, I flip to the back and find, not a 1991 Upper Deck hologram, but a black home-plate shape with the upper deck text of the holo. Looking more closely, I notice that the card stock is a bit different from my other 1991 Upper Deck cards. The front is more glossy, and the back much less so--I'd compare it more to the Pinnacle '92 stock. It also seems to me like there are artifacts from scanning and converting images, but I could also be seeing that after looking for it. I didn't have any other baseball heroes cards for that year to compare.

I realize there could be valid reasons for a card like this to exist, such as an art proof or pre-production proof. So I thought I'd ask about the card here. 

Thanks for your collective wisdom.

Ted

That hologram is the 1991 style. Looks normal to me? I own that set and the Aaron Baseball Heroes insert has the same consistency as the base cards.

Thanks Ed for confirming the expectation for the card.

The catch is that it's not a foil hologram, but appears to black ink on the card at the same level as the rest of the card image. It looks more like someone took an image of the back of a card. 

A couple images taken with my iPhone rather than scanned.

You should be able to feel the hologram. It's not really raised, but my finger kinda sticks to that surface more than the card back. If the feel of the card does not change, you may have a fake.

Sounds like a reprint (fake) used as the pack cover card. 

ahhhh didn't catch the ink from the original scans. The iPhone pics show the "hologram" better

Looks like you might have a fake. My question is why anyone would bother to fake that card?

not sure I would call it a fake. you should get more cards like that in the subset to compare side by side

There would be a waste of good paper to make a fake of the $1?? card

Thanks all for the insights. I'm relegating the card to my bookmark stack. Maybe it'll become a filler card for a future trade.