Tweet
My Attraction to Faulty & Diverse Cardboard
Errors and variations on cardboard have fascinated me since I started collecting back in the early 80's and I'm pretty sure it boils down to two things: the 1981 Fleer baseball card set and the 1979 Topps Bump Wills.
1981 Fleer wasn't just Fleer's reentrance into the baseball card market after a long break. It was also the first baseball set I ever owned. One way or another I eventually discovered that my set was loaded with error cards and variations. And of course, this information only served to stir up my curiosity and further my interest in collecting cards.
The 1981 Fleer Steve Carltons are the perfect example. He has two cards in the set: #6 and #660.
There are three different versions of card #6:
#6A Golden Arm w/1066 (instead of 1966)
#6B Pitcher of the Year w/1066 (instead of 1966)
And two different versions of card #660:
#660A Golden Arm w/1066 (instead of 1966)
#660B Golden Arm w/1966 Correction
More...
1981 Fleer wasn't just Fleer's reentrance into the baseball card market after a long break. It was also the first baseball set I ever owned. One way or another I eventually discovered that my set was loaded with error cards and variations. And of course, this information only served to stir up my curiosity and further my interest in collecting cards.
The 1981 Fleer Steve Carltons are the perfect example. He has two cards in the set: #6 and #660.
There are three different versions of card #6:
#6A Golden Arm w/1066 (instead of 1966)
#6B Pitcher of the Year w/1066 (instead of 1966)
#6C Pitcher of the Year w/1966 Correction
And two different versions of card #660:
#660A Golden Arm w/1066 (instead of 1966)
#660B Golden Arm w/1966 Correction
Two cards... multiple variations. Pretty awesome, right? Fleer must have done this on purpose, because I remember going through my set several times checking to see which cards I had.
Just around that same time period, I was introduced to the 1979 Topps #368 Bump Wills:
Just around that same time period, I was introduced to the 1979 Topps #368 Bump Wills:
Down the street from my house, there was a store that sold all kinds of sports memorabilia, including cards. One day, I overheard a guy talking about the two differentWills cards and how he was one of the most expensive cards in the set.
I immediately ran home and found the Blue Jays version in a box of cards my neighbor had given me. It was just another moment in my childhood where a piece of cardboard brought happiness and excitement into my life.
Through the years, the card was either lost, sold, or given away. But it was never forgotten. It took me three decades, but I finally picked up both copies off of COMC for a total of 73ยข.
The seven cards featured in this post have a total book value of $11.50. Unfortunately all of them are in less than mint condition, which means they're closer to being worthless.
Nevertheless, these seven cards are a huge part of my personal hobby history and won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
I immediately ran home and found the Blue Jays version in a box of cards my neighbor had given me. It was just another moment in my childhood where a piece of cardboard brought happiness and excitement into my life.
Through the years, the card was either lost, sold, or given away. But it was never forgotten. It took me three decades, but I finally picked up both copies off of COMC for a total of 73ยข.
The seven cards featured in this post have a total book value of $11.50. Unfortunately all of them are in less than mint condition, which means they're closer to being worthless.
Nevertheless, these seven cards are a huge part of my personal hobby history and won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
More...