Frustrating variation stories?

[onionring9]

I finally nailed down a variation I've been hunting for years. It's worth about $0.50-$1.00 but took me almost 2 decades to find.

The 1988 Bazooka.

There are a total of four variations of this:

Single Star in the copyright line, gray stock.
Two Star in the copyright line, gray stock.
Single Star in the copyright line, white stock.
Two Star in the copyright line, white stock.

I had been looking for the Single Star, Gray Stock version. After years of having nobody respond to my queries to look at the cards (obviously for a card that inexpensive it'll be tough to find someone that will bother looking at the details for you), I finally just started buying every one I could. Ended up in my first batch buying 37 and lo and behold, found a total of one!

This got me thinking, I wonder does anyone else has a similar story, hopefully better?

 

[George_Calfas]

I am still searching for these 1998 Lankford TEK patterns.
45, 65, 77, 79, 83

BTW I once owned 77 but it was the last that a fellow Lankford collector needed......he turned out to be a real jerk after the fact.

 

[AnthonyCorona]

I gave up on 2013 gypsy queen photo variations. More about money

 

[RStadlerASU22]

There are a few Topps/Bowman Blank Front/Back Clark's that I think/know exist that I haven't landed yet.


Ryan

 

[brian26]

I've been a huge Topps Heritage collector through the years. Have all the master sets up to last year. Was looking at the variations this year, and I'm like "done". There's a card where the player's autograph does not contain a dot over the "i", and THAT is the considered the variation. A single dot on the card. I like the idea of SPs and making it somewhat difficult to put the set together. Not a big fan of SSPs and SSSPs, but doing a variation with a simple dot, that's just too much.

 

[onionring9]

I am still searching for these 1998 Lankford TEK patterns.
45, 65, 77, 79, 83

BTW I once owned 77 but it was the last that a fellow Lankford collector needed......he turned out to be a real jerk after the fact.

We've been lucky in the McGwire community. There have been a few bad apples, but they've long since gone. I remember when I was down to 5, seemed like an eternity to knock them out!

 

[onionring9]

There are a few Topps/Bowman Blank Front/Back Clark's that I think/know exist that I haven't landed yet.


Ryan

The worst are the ones you know about. The ones you don't know about are the fun ones

 

[onionring9]

I've been a huge Topps Heritage collector through the years. Have all the master sets up to last year. Was looking at the variations this year, and I'm like "done". There's a card where the player's autograph does not contain a dot over the "i", and THAT is the considered the variation. A single dot on the card. I like the idea of SPs and making it somewhat difficult to put the set together. Not a big fan of SSPs and SSSPs, but doing a variation with a simple dot, that's just too much.

I've always felt you can't call it a variation unless there were a set amount produced, otherwise it's an error. I know others feel differently, but that's something I've always felt.

 

[AnthonyCorona]

I've been a huge Topps Heritage collector through the years. Have all the master sets up to last year. Was looking at the variations this year, and I'm like "done". There's a card where the player's autograph does not contain a dot over the "i", and THAT is the considered the variation. A single dot on the card. I like the idea of SPs and making it somewhat difficult to put the set together. Not a big fan of SSPs and SSSPs, but doing a variation with a simple dot, that's just too much.

This year is out of control. The dot over an I, a bat with a green end but the nuttiest one to me is the Joe Mauer "error" no black line under his total stats. Look that up and explain how that is some ssp, that annoyed the crap outta me

 

[onionring9]

This year is out of control. The dot over an I, a bat with a green end but the nuttiest one to me is the Joe Mauer "error" no black line under his total stats. Look that up and explain how that is some ssp, that annoyed the crap outta me

Wow the prices on those are ridiculous

 

[AnthonyCorona]

Wow the prices on those are ridiculous

Very

 

[tribefan26]

Wow the prices on those are ridiculous

The OCD Heritage SuperMaster guys are nuts. You could spend $15K to put together as set of throwback uniform variations (25 cards) or $30K for a set of Redbacks.

And they seem to keep their value as so few appear.

 

[AnthonyCorona]

The OCD Heritage SuperMaster guys are nuts. You could spend $15K to put together as set of throwback uniform variations (25 cards) or $30K for a set of Redbacks.

And they seem to keep their value as so few appear.

Thank the good Lord I'm not OCD

 

[gracecollector]

I'm about to do the same thing with Mark Grace's 1992 Leaf Black Gold card. Story is pretty similar to yours.

The base card I have in two varieties, with and without a period after INC

I know for certain that some players have the same variation on their Black Gold cards.

But I have never found a Grace black gold with a period - INC. - just without.

No one wants to check them, so I may buy some up too like you did. Or just be patient and keep watching COMC for one, since they scan the backs. All this work over a little dot, that may or may not even exist.

 

[RStadlerASU22]

^^^ Seeing the . on COMC can be a challenge in some cases. At least on my computer it can be hard to see.

Ryan

 

[gracecollector]

^^^ Seeing the . on COMC can be a challenge in some cases. At least on my computer it can be hard to see.

Ryan

You're right on that. I've just been going through all the 92 Leaf Black backs on COMC. After much squinting (then zooming) I think only Series 2 players can be found with both versions. Series 1 players all seem to be without the period EXCEPT the Cal Ripken card, which does have a period (but no version without a period on 17 copies). So I guess there's a small chance that there are two versions, but I'm 99.9% sure now Grace only has the one version.

 

[MatthewN]

The . on COMC can be hard to see, I lean forward and stare at these things regularly. That said, COMC sure makes finding a lot of these small variations a lot easier to find thanks to the front/back scanning, even if there are some inconsistencies. Recently picked up the 1990 Fleer Puckett cards with the "U.S.A" variation (missing the last .), which would not have been easy without COMC.

My irritation has been trying to find two 1987 Sportflics Puckett cards with the 1987 Copyright. 1986 is readily available and seems much more prevalent.

1987 Sportflics (1987 Copyright) #7
1987 Sportflics Tri-Stars A.L. Centerfielders with Henderson/Lynn (1987 Copyright) #198

I was aware of the 1988 Bazooka */** variations, but somehow on the variations list, I had missed that the 1988 Bazooka has white/gray stock differences. I would have thought it would be obvious to see on COMC and elsewhere, but is this a pretty subtle white/gray difference, and if it is pretty subtle, what are the tricks to discerning the difference? Just trying to make sure I know what I'm looking for. Thanks!

 

[onionring9]

I'm about to do the same thing with Mark Grace's 1992 Leaf Black Gold card. Story is pretty similar to yours.

The base card I have in two varieties, with and without a period after INC

I know for certain that some players have the same variation on their Black Gold cards.

But I have never found a Grace black gold with a period - INC. - just without.

No one wants to check them, so I may buy some up too like you did. Or just be patient and keep watching COMC for one, since they scan the backs. All this work over a little dot, that may or may not even exist.

Oh my dear lord I've been looking for an INC. of McGwire forever. I did find a Black Gold Previews of each so if Grace is in that set, I do know those exist. The other question is, if they do in fact exist for the Black Gold, do they also exist for the Black Gold "silver" variant? Now that would be a nightmare.

 

[George_Calfas]

I have a bunch of Leaf Black Gold. I will see if I can find that box and take a look see if I have cards for you.

 

[onionring9]

The . on COMC can be hard to see, I lean forward and stare at these things regularly. That said, COMC sure makes finding a lot of these small variations a lot easier to find thanks to the front/back scanning, even if there are some inconsistencies. Recently picked up the 1990 Fleer Puckett cards with the "U.S.A" variation (missing the last .), which would not have been easy without COMC.

My irritation has been trying to find two 1987 Sportflics Puckett cards with the 1987 Copyright. 1986 is readily available and seems much more prevalent.

1987 Sportflics (1987 Copyright) #7
1987 Sportflics Tri-Stars A.L. Centerfielders with Henderson/Lynn (1987 Copyright) #198

I was aware of the 1988 Bazooka */** variations, but somehow on the variations list, I had missed that the 1988 Bazooka has white/gray stock differences. I would have thought it would be obvious to see on COMC and elsewhere, but is this a pretty subtle white/gray difference, and if it is pretty subtle, what are the tricks to discerning the difference? Just trying to make sure I know what I'm looking for. Thanks!

It's extremely hard to tell because some scanners brighten the cards more so this is never 100% accurate.

For gray I look at the blue on the front in the bottom right. For gray stock, the blue always pops and is more sharp. Meanwhile the white it is normally dull and more pixelated. For example I would say the one on the left is gray and the right is white.

For white on the other hand, there are two things. In the above you see the color difference. Whites tend to have the faded white more often. But the easiest way I've seen that seems to always guarantee a white (but not all whites have it); on the back look at the blue border on the sides. If it looks like it has a line of dull blue on the outside edges and then turns to a different blue about right when the white border begins, that has always been white stock for me.

For example if you look at the Mattingly's on comc you can see how on either side it starts light blue, then goes dark as if the center portion was printed over another layer.

If you end up wanting to gamble on bulk, I'd suggest going to sportlots.