1991 Topps / DS Packaging

[ALR-bishop]

I have a Desert Shield set, and they do all glow. And I can confirm I have both glow and non glow cards in my regular 91 set.

I have mentioned before that I think the 1991 set has more variations and or print defects than any other Topps set by far. At one time I was thinking of trying to put together a true master set and checklist, but have given up. I think I do have all the bold 40 emblem cards and many of the front and back differences. But am not sure precisely how many of the cards can be found with glow ink or if the entire set can be made in all non glow ink. Nor did I get very far on the back sheet page code variants.

If someone out there has what they think is a complete master checklist, I would love to see it

[Zach Wheat]

Joe,

Thanks for responding. I really wanted you to chime in on this topic before going further. First Ben has indicated some of the fronts glow - which I had never checked before - in both sets. A new discovery every day.

Second, I will have to re-check my results on the DS set as both Sheet A & Sheet B are different than the other sheets, but I don't think all DS cards flouresce under black light. I think the majority of the cards flouresce - ie maybe 95%, but not all.

I believe most of the way through the print run for 1991 Topps cards, they switched inks and added a brightener to the orange ink and probably other colors as well. The brightener enhanced orange ink is most obvious (under UV light) around the 40th Anniversary logo on the perimeter orange box on the reverse of the cards. And yes you can detect the differences in the ink through the back of the wrapper. This importance of this, is that it should allow you to reduce the probability of obtaining a fake DS pack.

I will chime back in later with a more details on flourescing ink on DS cards.

Z Wheat

[ALR-bishop]

I admit I did not check every card in the my DS set. I have them in sheets in a binder and sampled every couple of pages through out. The ones I looked at all glowed. I tried to check the unopened pack I keep with that set but can not view the back of the card clearly through the wrapper to see it under a black light

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I admit I did not check every card in the my DS set. I have them in sheets in a binder and sampled every couple of pages through out. The ones I looked at all glowed. I tried to check the unopened pack I keep with that set but can not view the back of the card clearly through the wrapper to see it under a black light

Al,

Check the back of the pack wrapper on the border where the packaging is white. Your black light might not be strong enough to make the ink glow - but on all of my packs I can clearly see the orange ink fluorescing in this area of the pack. Or maybe try a room that is completely dark as well.

Z Wheat

[bnorth]

I still have some of the regular 91 wax boxes and they all glowed under BL.

[4reals]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I still have some of the regular 91 wax boxes and they all glowed under BL.

I found that the wax packs that contained glow ink cards had half of the pack that glowed and half that did not. They were collated in the packs based on sheet codes and the glow ink cards would be consistent with the same two sheets throughout the entire box. For instance Ben, if you opened one of those boxes, while A&B sheet cards might glow throughout the entire box, C-F sheet cards will not. Or if E-F sheet cards glow throughout the entire box, A-D will not. The rack packs I opened were slightly different in that the first two sections contained cards from sheets C-F and glowed but the third section contained bold back cards from sheets A-B and did not glow. Vending boxes contained either all glow or all non-glow. Non-glow was more prevalent by about 80-20 in the ones I obtained.

Here's some pics of a rack pack containing glow ink cards with a section of non-glow back/bold backs in the far right section:

[bnorth]

Great info everyone, thanks for sharing. Here is a little more info on my experience. I bought about 1 case worth of wax boxes over maybe a 4-6 week period. All the boxes I have left(8) glow. I did not get any of the bold backs and only about 10% of the cards I have glow on the backs.
Here are the pics of my 3 DS print error cards. The Jose Rijo is my favorite.

[4reals]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I think I do have all the bold 40 emblem cards and many of the front and back differences. But am not sure precisely how many of the cards can be found with glow ink or if the entire set can be made in all non glow ink.

I have put together both a complete glow set and a complete non-glow set without bold back logos. Bold back logos were found only on A & B sheet cards. Putting together a glow set is the easier of the two because I also found in my research that every factory set I purchased (approx. 10) had only glow back cards. Perhaps others can check their 91 factory sets as well to confirm this. In my opinion this would mean a much smaller number of non-glow sets exist since they would have to be put together by hand. While non glow sets may be in smaller quantities than the glow sets, I have not found that to be the case with singles obtained through packaged product (packs). I have gone through a ton of rack packs, cello packs, wax packs, vending boxes, etc. and found that the glow backs outnumbered the non-glow backs by about 60-40.

I have also put together a complete non-glow set with bold back logos. I am, however, still missing some glow back/bold back cards leaving that set incomplete. I am 100% confident they exist I just haven't come across a few of them. In the 20,000+ 91s I've obtained I have about twice as many non-glow bold backs as I do glow bold backs. This leads me to believe the glow back bold back cards are the most difficult to obtain.

The glow back / bold back cards that still need to be confirmed are:

#144, 271, 502, 505, 532, 542, 546, 563, 564, 574, 591, 610, 667, 671, 727, 746, 768, 774, 783, 792.

I think it's weird these are all in the upper portion of the set. What likely happened is that I have them but I misplaced them in a pile of cards or misfiled them or something. Nevertheless, they're unconfirmed. If anyone has duplicates of these and wants to put together their own set I would be happy to trade with them.

I'm not going to start a new thread like I mentioned before, I'll just keep adding more info on this one since the momentum is moving pretty good.

Here's a pic of bold logo backs vs. non-bold logo or faint (screened) logo backs:

Bio boxes on back can also be found in red or a faint pink but they have no distinct correlation to sheet codes like the 40 logo, it's just a random print abnormality. I chose not to include them on the master set list I created which I'll make available to everyone once I fine tune it a little.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by 4reals

I have put together both a complete glow set and a complete non-glow set without bold back logos. Bold back logos were found only on A & B sheets............This leads me to believe the glow back bold back cards are the most difficult to obtain.

Joe,

The DS set is different but you've mentioned an important point. Sheets A & B have the bold 40th Anniversary logos....and sheets C-F have the faint version of the same logo. However, the DS set is consistent with your comments above that the rarest cards come with a bold logo (ie sheets A and B); however the faint variation or non glowing back is the rarest in the DS set.

Oddly, I have a hybrid card which happens to be the Chipper Jones card which first spurred your initial email to me. It is a Sheet F card, like all Chipper Jones cards, with both glowing and non-glowing portions of the Anniversary logo.

Z Wheat

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

This is an absolutely fascinating thread. I didn't even know about the Bold back cards, nevermind the Glow back cards. Thanks to everyone for sharing the info.

[ALR-bishop]

Darn. Now Arthur knows.

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I'll forget in about 48 hours and then rediscover this thread in a year and bump it back up with a post eerily similar to my previous one.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by HasselhoffsCheeseburger

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I'll forget in about 48 hours and then rediscover this thread in a year and bump it back up with a post eerily similar to my previous one.

I do this as well. As an FYI Arthur, the sheet codes are detailed on the reverse of the card, near the copyright info...and read A-F.

Z Wheat