Early Russian hacking experiment ?

1987 Donruss Opening Day

Barry Bonds error
A card of Barry Bonds showing the picture of his Pirates teammate Johnny Ray was corrected very early in the press run, and supposedly less than two percent of the sets have the error.

Lol awesome, guess @ALR-bishop and @Cliff Bowman know what they're talking about! There's still so little known about these cards, other than the scant info on baseballcardpedia pointed out by @magicpapa. Figured you'd know as much as anyone about these. Any thoughts on which PSA 10 is the finest known example? You mentioned PSA 9 was the top available grade back in 2010 and I wouldn't be surprised if several of yours did or would earn 10s upon review.


The graphic designer who caught - and corrected - the error probably disagrees with you. Plus, there may not be an interesting origin story to it all but what if there was? Considering the card, set, year, and player, this isn't just a run-of-the-mill error variant. Just like the NNOF isn't just a run-of-the-mill printing snafu.


Thanks for the information, any little bit helps. If you ever remember the name of your predecessor, especially if he's still in the hobby? Maybe I could track him down and ask him if there's anything he remembers.

I probably don’t know any more about the card than the next guy. I remember the first raw one I ever saw at a National, and I sort of became obsessed with the sucker. I bought my first in a two-card auction lot—a PSA 9 Bonds error and (surprisingly relevant) a 1990 Frank Thomas NNOF PSA 9. I’m pretty sure the hammer price was $2,400 for the pair. After that, I bought every PSA 9 Bonds that came up for sale for around $700-$900 apiece. I owned over half the 9’s at one time (Al will call me a hoarder again). :cool:

That's quite a way to get into the 80s error game. I believe you're well established in vintage on the registry, so that must've been a departure for you. What a neat way to hear about how you got started since the digital footprint for these cards begins and ends with you, at least on the message boards. I was trying to learn as much as possible about these cards in preparation for landing one for myself, which I ultimately did.

Anyways, a hoarder is exactly who I need to talk to in order to take a census on the Bonds errors. Would you be willing to show off your stash? I'd like to try to track down every PSA 9 and 10 if possible and that would be a nice dent in the project. And maybe even establish a ranking for the PSA registry since the Dmitri Young should definitely be atop the list...

Having been in Bob's basement I doubt he could find where he stashed his stash. He is also the go to guy for the 1978 Topps Zest Soap set.

Not really a departure, since my collection goes through 1991—it was simply a departure in the graded area. My 1980-91 sets are ungraded with a few exceptions: 1980-Present HOF Rookies, 1985 Topps Mini, 1990 Donruss Aqueous Test, 1987 All-State Insurance, and 1991 Topps Desert Shield. :)

Freaking. Amazing. Are any of these worthy of 10s do you think? Any worth sending back to PSA for a second look, I mean?


Lol this comment was so over my head, I had to research it first. Thought maybe you were going with the underground bunker take like, "this guy has the most impressive set of 1982 Irish Spring reserves this side of the Mississippi." I was wrong.


I'm learning a little bit more every day about the oddballs and errors in this hobby. As you can see from above.

Many of the hobby's oddest balls can be found right here :)