1984 Nestle Don Mattingly
 

There is a 1984 Nestle "parallel" of the basic Topps cards. I've known this for years. In fact, my father had one of the Nestle cards (not Mattingly) in his collection for ~30 years.

He was always interested in picking up a copy of the Mattingly. However, back in the stone age (the 20th Century) of card collecting, information wasn't as readily available or as easily accessible as it is in 2025. He and I heard, from several dealers, a scrap of info regarding the 1984 Nestle Mattingly. I'll paraphrase it below:

"...if an '84 Nestle Mattingly is black and white, it's 100% fake, guaranteed..."

So, since the late '80s, I've operated under the belief that this was correct. Yet, I see several have sold recently on eBay. A handful of others are currently listed for sale....some of them being offered for well over $100 by sellers with 5-digit feedback.

Did I miss something? Was my intel bad? Have I gotten it wrong all these years?

Is there a genuine black and white '84 Nestle Mattingly?

Questions I would ask myself:
1) Are there genuine black and white of any card from the Nestle set?

2) If not, what is the likelihood that Topps created a black and white sheet of one card for a limited print run for Nestle?

3) And even if they did happen to do this for one player, why select Mattingly in 1984?
He'd exhausted rookie eligibility with only .280 / 4 / 33 in 300 at bats.

4) Is there any reason Nestle would have specifically requested a black and white sheet of Mattingly's back in 1984 when all their other cards (a complete set of nearly 800 cards, mind you) came in sheet form?

Therefore, QED: Fake.

Yep, that's what I thought. I was trying to keep an open mind, though. Just not so open that my brain fell out. :D

Simple Answer: We had those Black and White Mattingly's in the NY area in the 1980's when I was a full-time dealer. We knew they were not good then and guess what, they are not good now

Rich

topps Nestle cards were only available in sheet form & here is one of the black & white Mattingly versions picked this up mid 80's at a card show in South Jersey

FWIW there are some great counterfeit 1980s out there. I have a blank backed Ripken’rookie’ that looks really convincing.

If you have a 1982 Cello Pack with Ripken on top, the odds are about 99 out of 100 that's a blank back counterfeit.

Rich