1995 Bowmans Best Refractors

I collect Frank Thomas and have recently came across the 1995 Bowmans Best Refractor with and without the word refractor on the lower left hand corner on the back. Does anybody know which is harder to get and if so how hard are they to find. I have 3 without and 1 with the word refractor.

Justin,
I have 2 copies & both have refractor printed on the back.

edit: Took a quick look on COMC and didn't see any without refractor on the back.

Thanks Chad. The Lee Smith on COMC doesn't have the word refractor.

All 3 Pucketts I have say refractor on the back. Is a scan needed?

bustin_knuckles said:

I collect Frank Thomas and have recently came across the 1995 Bowmans Best Refractor with and without the word refractor on the lower left hand corner on the back. Does anybody know which is harder to get and if so how hard are they to find. I have 3 without and 1 with the word refractor.

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America loves FCB!!!

No scan needed. I have both versions. Just wondering which is tougher to find.

bustin_knuckles said:

No scan needed. I have both versions. Just wondering which is tougher to find.

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I've always been under the impression that 95 refractors unmarked were after market cards. I've seen a couple Pucketts that weren't marked refractor, and I stayed away. I've assumed they were after market cards brought apon by dishonest employees, but I don't have dissernable evidence proving or dis-proving either side. Obviously they're made by topps, but not pack released. I'm sure they are more scarce because they weren't supposed to be released other than replacements.


On a side note though, drop Angelfire and go to photobucket. Anything you post from Angelfire isn't going to show up here.

Sorry for adding the above in a second thread, apparently its something wrong on my end and I'll be looking into it. Sorry again.

-Andy

wolfmanalfredo: Not sure why you keep on insisting his scans will not work here. They seem to be (and have been) working fine for me. Maybe you should restart your browser?

Cobra29svt said:

wolfmanalfredo: Not sure why you keep on insisting his scans will not work here. They seem to be (and have been) working fine for me. Maybe you should restart your browser?

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I'm not the only one who can't see them. I'll eas up on the comments if that makes you feel more comfertable. I'm just curious as to see what the scans are.

Also any info on the non labeled refractors would be of help. Like I stated above I assumed they were after market cards, but I don't have proof whether thats true or not. I have 3 Puckett refractors labeles refractor and have stayed away from the 1 or 2 unlabeled that crossed my path over the last 10,12 years or so. I'd love to get more info because if they are just legit cards that are just after market, why not try an pick 1 or more up?

Scans also aren't showing up for me.

I think they were backdoored. I have one that is missing the refractor notation on the back and I have a regular base card that says refractor. I bought both from a seller who was selling tons of topps and pacific "proof" sheets, uncut sheets, 2-3 player panels that hadn't been cut, cards that were supposed to be die-cut but werent. The fact the seller had literally thousands of these random topps and pacific cards I gotta think they were backdoored and that very few exist.

I can't see the angelfire pics, either.

AWESOME TOPIC!

Yes, the non-marked refractor cards are rarer.

Yes, there are rumors that they were printed after the initial run. I'm glad that at least they are distinguishable from the pack cards (unlike many UD reprinted cards). I have opened about 10 boxes of this product (retail and hobby) and have never pulled a un-marked refractor card. I have graded more of these cards than anyone in the world and the un-marked refractor cards have sizing discrepancies and sharper edges and are better centered than the marked refractor cards. I also own a uncut proof sheet (red set) and cut out singles (blue set, bought them this way), both of these surprisingly enough HAVE the word refractor on them, yes, they were purchased from a Topps employee. Only the red veteran cards are found missing the refractor word.

PSA and BGS grade both versions equally and do mark the flips according to what version the card is. In fact, the 2009 Beckett Baseball Card Book says "The veteran red refractor cards have been seen with or without the word refractor on the back. These cards without the refractor markings are valued at the same price as the regular refractors". At one point a large number of the cards in the PSA set registry for this set were UNMARKED refractor parallels... which all came from the same order, at the time it blew the PSA 10 population report into space.

If anyone has any questions about this set post 'em!

EDIT: I have the Thomas in PSA 10 and BGS 9.5.

Would someone mind recopying those angelfire pictures and reposting them? For whatever reason, I can't see the pics either. I'm sure its my crappy computer or browser settings, but reposting the scans would be a big help guys.

Also the copyright information is different. The one without the refractor designation has the same copyright info as the regular 1995 Bowman's Best. Is there a possibility that the refractor got printed with a regular back?

quite possible but I will still contend the majority were sheet cut and not from packs.