Junk era variations: let's try to confirm some elusive ones
 

A whole lot of the people here are familiar with Dick Gilkseon's E&V guide, Bob Lemke and Rich Klein's work at SCD and Beckett (and COMC) and maintain interest in the odd variations documented in these guides and other circulating wantlists so I figured it would be interesting to attempt to confirm some of the more elusive stuff from the 80s and 90s.

I'll start. Can anyone confirm the following cards exist:

1. 1988 Sportflics Reggie Jackson 563 HRs Variation
   
2. 1989 Pro Set James Jefferson w/ Seahawks Helmet on front
   
3. 1989 Pro Set James Jefferson w/ Scouting Photo on front (shown in the 1991 Pro Set book)
   
4. 1990 Score Earl Cunningham Unedited Bat Handle Variation
   
5. 1990 Upper Deck Ben McDonald 'White Circle' Variation (not an erased card but printed without either logo)
   
6. 1990-91 Pro Set No Traded Stripe Variations (Chelios, Andreychuck, Hawerchuck, Savard, Nilan)
   
7. 1990-91 Fleer Dan Majerle "1988 Portsmouth" Variation
   
8. 1990-91 Hoops Terry Porter No NBA Logo Variation (would love to see a photo, tcdb scans have turned out to be photoshopped before so I'm still unsure of this one)
   
9. 1991 Pro Set Erik Kramer Autograph (Final Update Sets)
   
10. 1991 Score Ronnie Lott Crunch Crew 49ers Variation (shown in several 1991 hobby mags)
    
11. 1991 Score Rocket Ismail #318 (shown in several 1991 hobby mags, on checklists issued to media/dealers)
    
12. 1991 Stadium Club Chuck Knoblauch No Position on Back Variation
    
13. 1991 Topps Efrain Valdez 6-11-66 Birthdate Variation
    
14. 1991 Upper Deck Michael Jordan SP1 With MLB Players Logo on back
    
15. 1992 Topps Debut Todd Van Poppel Pre-Production/Promo

I'd really love to be confirm as many of these as possible. But also very eager to see what others are hoping to confirm the existence of.

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It's been a number of years, but when I was building a master 1991 Topps set, I became convinced Efrain Valdez with the wrong B'Day doesn't exist.
I believe there was once an 'image' of such a variation on TCDB but it's long gone.

When I was building my 1983 Donruss set, they had an image there of a 3rd Bryn Smith variation, but it too was taken down and was assuredly a fake.

Interesting. Ken Liss stated in 1991 that the Efrain had been corrected among the list of corrections he sent out to the media. I'm getting pretty close to concluding it doesn't exist.

Like a number of the cards in the OP, I would add one I suspect does not actually exist but could and would be a very exciting 'junk find' and I would love to see.

1990 Pro Set #754 Jim Morrissey, as appeared on the original checklists. 1990 Pro Set is a variation hunters goldmine, and one of my favorite cheap sets of the junk era for its excellent photography. #754 is Steve Tasker in the actual set, but Pro Set's early checklists listed Morrissey and considering the huge amount of print runs they did at this time and the very small % of 1990 Pro Set cards people actually look at, it's entirely possible it does exist somewhere.

I almost included the Morrissey, I did a blog about it on JWG. And its true, with Pro Set you never know. I feel like there's still a chance some odd stuff will turn as people involved with the company get older and pass.

I think you've nailed it. With the large amount of different runs of the same set, the chances of employee owned stuff coming out in the future and that so much of Pro Set remains unopened (or opened and never seen by people who have ripped a cheap box or few for fun and have no idea about all the variations and what matters; they are most known for being junk) there is probably a fair bit of interesting stuff we don't know about yet. Pro Set is really hard to predict, and every time I crack a box I find defects in it that I didn't think should be found in a box with certain other cards. I've long given up on tracking what pairs with what.

Incidentally, it's a shame Pro Set is so overproduced that it's 'junk' and doesn't get looked at by more people than just the variation geeks - they picked excellent photographs. Comparing 1989 Topps with its sideline photos of guys drinking water and looking the other direction versus the 1989 Pro Set photos is embarrassing for Topps. Score, Pro Set and then Upper Deck were really competing to put out good product. The junk football era has some of the best football cards if looked at as pure fun instead of for value.

Pretty much forgot about this one

• 1995 Topps Jason Jacome 335 missing Mitsubishi logo on back

This was in either the Beckett annual or the SCD one, I dont recall, for many editions. I recall chasing it in the early days of sportlots, buying bulk lots blind.

I remember looking for that one

DFW used to have a lot of those cards pop up since Pro Set was located and printed cards locally here. I don't see that as often now as I did 10-15 years ago.

I'd still like to see a 1990 Donruss #659 Nolan Ryan 5,000 K with the correct back but numbered #665. Never heard of anyone that's seen one but I'm holding out hope.

Arthur

Probably the ghost Ive chased the hardest since acquiring Gilkeson's book in the early 00s...

1. 1987 Topps Davey Lopes RB #4 with 1985 copyright on back

The card's copyright area is very vulnerable to printing mishaps creating all kinds of odd dates (1957 or 198? for examples) but after looking at several thousand copies of this card over the years, I have yet to see a 1985 date on one.

Interesting to note that 1987 Topps had issues with some factory sets getting packaged in boxes with 1985 copyrights on them.