25th Anniversary - 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken Error Card!

[jp1216]

Thanks for the replies!
Love the stories. Keep them coming!
The Paul Gibson is great. I remember looking through about 10 - 3200ct boxes looking for the corrected version in 1990. Had more of the errors. If anyone has other 'Adult' error cards to add to my website - let me know!

[7nohitter]

Paul Gibson...hated that guy...I used to watch games and see him come in and think, "Christ, I could crank one off that geek."
Guys like him: Tom Bolton, Joe Hesketh, Tony Fossas....the guys who when you turn a game on you think, "maybe I should have stuck with baseball beyond high school..."

[Beatles Guy]

I went to a card show shortly after the "error" was discovered and decided to pick up a couple of packs. The first pack I opened, boom, there it was. The dealer offered me $100 on the spot but I declined (hard to do for a 15 year old). I ended up trading it a year later for a friend's entire collection. I picked one up a couple of years ago for $5 at my LCS for old time's sake.

[David W]

The thing I remember most about the FF card, was all the variations and the debate over which was rarer.

In the pre internet days, it seemed as if no one really knew.

You'd go to a card show and guys would have different versions of it, all priced at crazy prices.

It was definitely hot for a while.

[ALR-bishop]

What I found interesting was all the fakes and how they became collectibles in their own right

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

What I found interesting was all the fakes and how they became collectibles in their own right

What fakes? The only ones I know of are the Black and White test run cards and The faked whiteouts people made. Any pictures of any other fakes would be greatly appreciated.

[ALR-bishop]

I agree with you many of the white outs are fake. I also believe many of the canceled or cut outs were faked

[Zach Wheat]

Al,

That Pederson card....the scan is a little blurry. They obviously airbrushed his arm out of the image - but where did it go? Is it just missing? This is a serious question. Just curious.

Z Wheat

[ALR-bishop]

Maybe it is now stroking his rear end

[Oil Can Dan]

Originally Posted by jp1216

Thanks for the replies!
Love the stories. Keep them coming!
The Paul Gibson is great. I remember looking through about 10 - 3200ct boxes looking for the corrected version in 1990. Had more of the errors. If anyone has other 'Adult' error cards to add to my website - let me know!

I have a FF story. I bought a box of '89 Fleer the day my local card shop (AJ's Sports Stop in Vienna, VA) got them in. Took them home, ripped the box, and returned to the store later that day. The owner, Jim, was talking about how he had heard that the Billy Ripken had FF on the knob. I left the store, went home to see if I had scored it, and BOOM - I had! I took it back to the shop to show Jim, and at that point another customer was in the store and his wife worked for USA Today. He asked me if he could take the card home to see if his wife/USA Today would be interested in a story on it. Jim vouched for the guy and so I let him take it, and it appeared in the paper a day or two later.

[jp1216]

[jp1216]

Final post for the 25th Anniversary of this card! Billy's 50th birthday too.
Thanks to everyone that has posted, emailed, provided information and shared cards this year. Long live the FF.
<Holiday Tri-Color FF version>
BILLRIPKEN.COM