What is the origin of Barry Bonds Open.Day ERR?

[RiceBondsMntna2Young]

Interesting details, Mark, thanks. Do you remember how you first heard about the error? Was it Beckett, another dealer, a vendor, a customer, or somewhere/one else? Was it common knowledge by the time you found out about it or still very "inside baseball" within the hobby at that time?

Originally Posted by Mark17

Not saying anything was intentional. Frankly, Bonds was a highly touted rookie, the son of a Major League player, he had speed and power, was the God-son of Willie Mays, etc.

Your recollection was that he was highly touted out the gate? I was only a 7yo back then but I don't remember Bonds having even top 10 buzz. I was in the SF Bay Area so that certainly had some effect but he wasn't even on the radar and his dad used to be a star on the SF Giants.

Originally Posted by Mark17

A Bonds error or variation would have been far more valuable than a Johnny Ray error which is what this card apparently is, based on my and other peoples' experiences.

This seems a lot more plausible to me than any intent by Donruss to make an error, which was a theory you floated earlier. Wouldn't it be something if the two most valuable error cards of the 80s turned out to be a case of a printing defect in the case of NNOF and a card that was really a Johnny Ray error masquerading as a Bonds error in the case of Opening Day.

Originally Posted by Mark17

I do not recall if there was a corrected Ray card in the set that included my error. I suspect not, after reading all the posts in this thread. I know there was a corrected Bonds as he was one of the cards I was pulling on that break...Sorting that way, shuffling past the commons to the next pull card, I did not notice or care if the corrected Johnny Ray card was there or not. Same with any other common. Again, based on the comments here, the error Ray was probably in place of what should've been a corrected Ray.

I've seen nothing yet outside of your very vivid recollection to suggest that that's what happened since @dariushou appeared to be 50/50 as to whether it was mean to be a Ray or Bonds card. That you ended up with an even 600 of correct Bonds cards definitely nudges us in the other direction, but is it possible you counted the error as one of the 600?

Originally Posted by Mark17

What always made me wonder, though, is why there was only one in 600 sets. And I was definitely looking for it. I could see having 39 cases with none and then one case with 15 errors, or something like that, but how did just one error card set end up in that case? As has been pointed out, one would think the error, once caught, would no longer be made.

We don't really know how Donruss collated their sets as they were placed into cases, nor do we know how they collated their cards as they were put into sets. I have wondered if we're going to hear about hot cases the way there appeared to be for the NNOF.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by RiceBondsMntna2Young

Interesting details, Mark, thanks. Do you remember how you first heard about the error? Was it Beckett, another dealer, a vendor, a customer, or somewhere/one else? Was it common knowledge by the time you found out about it or still very "inside baseball" within the hobby at that time?

I was a full time card dealer from the early 1980s through about 1991 (when I started working with/for Brent Lee... and then the 1994 strike killed my business dead and made virtually worthless my remaining inventory.) Carson Ritchey was my partner from 1981-1988 and he was very well connected in southern California, and I was personal friends with the Barnings who published Baseball Hobby News. Any news of a scarcity travelled like lightning. But I don't recall because it wasn't huge news at the time - just something to be aware of.

Originally Posted by RiceBondsMntna2Young

Your recollection was that he was highly touted out the gate? I was only a 7yo back then but I don't remember Bonds having even top 10 buzz. I was in the SF Bay Area so that certainly had some effect but he wasn't even on the radar and his dad used to be a star on the SF Giants.

Each year from 1985-1990 I made an initial order with Topps, usually 300 vending cases, and then I pre-sold cards beginning in November, with the understanding cards would be shipped in April or May after being sorted. We didn't know for sure which rookies would be in the set so sometimes we had to issue refunds. I recall setting the pre-buy price on Bonds somewhere between 40 and 75 cents. Bo Jackson was 1.50, Joyner and Canseco 2.00 each, McGwire 15 cents (that was the bargain as it turned out, though not a true rookie card) and so on. Point is, Bonds was a well above average prospect in November, 1986.

Originally Posted by RiceBondsMntna2Young

This seems a lot more plausible to me than any intent by Donruss to make an error, which was a theory you floated earlier. Wouldn't it be something if the two most valuable error cards of the 80s turned out to be a case of a printing defect in the case of NNOF and a card that was really a Johnny Ray error masquerading as a Bonds error in the case of Opening Day.

Yes I was wrong to say it was likely intentional. Until this conversation started I had always thought of the error as a Bonds card and couldn't explain how they could put 2 Bonds cards - the correct one and the error - in the same set. I figured they just tossed the second, error, one in there as a bonus. Now I believe it was likely an honest mistake and it was there in place of a correct Ray card. Why I only found one though, from 40 factory sealed set cases, still seems odd.

[Kzoo]

So, I bought a case of Opening Day about 5 years ago for $100 from an old collector, hoping that when I opened it up someday it might have the 'Bonds' error.....I always dreamed of pulling out one in every one of the 15 unopened packages. At least that's how collectors usually think.

Well, it came to a point about 3 weeks ago that I just couldn't take the 'unknown' any longer and on a Friday night, I cracked open an extra beer and opened about 6 of them. I had cards stacked all over our kitchen. I carefully opened the pack with Bonds on the back each time. Friday night was a bust.... nothing. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about the other 8 or 9 remaining boxes and finally got up around 6 on Saturday (when I normally try to sleep into 8) and busted open the rest.....and still none. Now I know the truth and at least I've created some extra shelf space in my closet.

A couple observations.... Even though I carefully opened up the wrapper on each 'Bonds' pack, every single Bonds card had at least one bent corner.....right from the factory. None would even get a '9' grade. I did end up with about 6-7 pretty nice Bo Jackson's with good centering and there's a ton of other nice HOF'ers. All the Barry Larkin's were off center or had a weird print mark. After opening the first couple boxes, I ended up just focusing on 3 of the 5 wrapped packs the rest of the way to look for the Bonds, Jackson and Larkin cards, so I still have 'bricks' of unopened cards.

Kind of fun, but I was hoping for so much more!

[swarmee]

It's cool you opened them all, but didn't you realize after the first one that you busted that they would all be the corrected version? They shouldn't be interspersed inside a factory sealed case. Just like with other error cards, 1989 Fleer Ripken etc. If you have the right box/case, they should all be the same since they're rolling off the factory line at the same time.

So if anyone pulls the Frank Thomas NNOF and tosses the rest of the box, they're committing a major infraction. There are like 15 cards that were affected by the missing black and all of those cards sell for at least $100 raw.

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by swarmee

It's cool you opened them all, but didn't you realize after the first one that you busted that they would all be the corrected version? They shouldn't be interspersed inside a factory sealed case. Just like with other error cards, 1989 Fleer Ripken etc. If you have the right box/case, they should all be the same since they're rolling off the factory line at the same time.

So if anyone pulls the Frank Thomas NNOF and tosses the rest of the box, they're committing a major infraction. There are like 15 cards that were affected by the missing black and all of those cards sell for at least $100 raw.

It happens. Not common but it does. I can confirm with 1990 Fleer BB, 1990 and 1991 Pro Set FB, 1990-91 Pro Set HK and 1991 Topps BB.

And those other blackless 1990 Topps cards sell for much more than $100. In fact, I’ll pay $100 right now for any you might want to part with.

[swarmee]

I don't own any missing black 1990s because I'm not from the right state. You're right that it does happen, but I'd bet the vast majority of cases are uniform throughout. You crack a ton of wax and are kind of the exception to the rule.