1989 Fleer Randy Johnson #381 Marlboro Errors - 30 Years Later

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Athos01

I've always thought the "blue" version was more green in my opinion. It just seems to be a lighter shade of green without any black scribble obstruction, when compared to the version commonly labeled "green scribble". Or, turquoise as Ben says, I would agree with that too. I believe junkwaxgems.com shows pretty much all the different versions I've ever owned/seen, as does Steve's photo gallery.

For those interested, the Treadway targets were not early corrections, these appeared randomly relatively early after the Ripken was first corrected. These were not very early errors. I also do not believe the checklists with positions were extremely early errors. These also seem to be some random type variety, but I'm not sure what point they came in the print run. The Boggs is not terribly scarce, the version without the black dot on the reverse can be commonly found in later print runs, well after other errors were corrected.

If the bold part is true it is news to me. I have been hoarding them since I pack pulled one back in the day. I have only ever seen 11 total and own 7 of them.

Yes I know there are 2 on eBay. One is listed by a great guy but he prices things so high Deans pricing seems like a bargain basement giveaway box. The other seller more than doubled their price when I made what I consider a reasonable offer.

[Athos01]

Hi Ben, as I was mostly trying to open early runs, I mostly stayed away from the later print runs (if codes were known). I know I hit many Boggs, but I did not really place them aside as he wasn't someone I was looking for. Certainly, they are far scarcer without the print dot than with, but I know I have many of them sitting somewhere in my common bins. The same applies to Kevin Romine - his card was corrected very late in the print run, so there are far fewer corrected Romine's available than the original error showing Randy Kutcher batting.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Athos01

Hi Ben, as I was mostly trying to open early runs, I mostly stayed away from the later print runs (if codes were known). I know I hit many Boggs, but I did not really place them aside as he wasn't someone I was looking for. Certainly, they are far scarcer without the print dot than with, but I know I have many of them sitting somewhere in my common bins. The same applies to Kevin Romine - his card was corrected very late in the print run, so there are far fewer corrected Romine's available than the original error showing Randy Kutcher batting.

If you ever run across them please remember me.

[Athos01]

I most definitely will Ben, now that I know you're looking for these.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by steve5838

In person the background of the clear sign has a patchwork of subtle colors in it. It reminds me of some of the old laptop screens or even TVs. I agree there is some light distortion but believe it was part of the original photo of RJ in front of the sign and not after-the-fact tint. Maybe it has to do with the refresh rates of the older electronic billboard signage. I remember as a kid trying to take pictures of things on a TV or laptop and the pictures would show up with these strange color streams. This reminds me of that. To my eyes there is some light pinkish red, some yellowish white, and some bluish green. In the blue version the top of the cowboy's hat is part in and part out of the layer of blue tint. I don't see this on my clear one. In the clear version the entire cowboy's hat appears to me to be un-tinted. Even looking at the br2 one I posted on mySlabs (PSA #47414199) when you zoom in there is a distinct horizontal transition line that cuts across the top of the cowboy's hat that isn't there as far as I can see on the clear one. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be so that is why I put the pics up so you can judge for yourself. I hope this helps.

I really appreciate you following up. Attention to some of the other finer details with these cards goes a long way, so I was just hoping to get the best info possible.

Originally Posted by bnorth

To me it looks to have a few areas of red tint. I can't remember who but one of the owners of one sent me some great scans and I noticed the very small amount of red spots on it also.
I do know these card are next to impossible to get a great pic/scan of, at least for me any way.
As for being rare what is the current known blue tint count?

Originally Posted by Athos01

I've always thought the "blue" version was more green in my opinion. It just seems to be a lighter shade of green without any black scribble obstruction, when compared to the version commonly labeled "green scribble". Or, turquoise as Ben says, I would agree with that too. I believe junkwaxgems.com shows pretty much all the different versions I've ever owned/seen, as does Steve's photo gallery.

I see some red in there and maybe some slight other coloring as well and Steve also confirmed some of that. The Blues are definitely a turquoise/sea green kind of color and not completely blue. I do think it's likely that the majority of the obstructing of the ad that Fleer did on these cards was done on/or relating to the cyan plate in my humble opinion.

The blue count is right around 5 I think. I’ve included a couple more images of the blue box card I mentioned earlier. They aren’t the greatest quality, but in hand the card is almost a royal blue and yet with any decent source of light you can easily read the lettering in Marlboro as no editing is done specifically to the lettering like the other versions and there is no bubble.

Originally Posted by steve5838

He reached out to the person who posted the pic (a card shop owner) and found out "...it sounds like a guy brought in a collection from the 80s and 90s, and had 14 different 89 Fleer hand collated sets...and inside one of the sets was this card."
Steve

Does someone know if the shop owner pulled any other variations in the additional sets? If the sets all came from the same case, it would be interesting to see what else was in there.

[steve5838]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

Does someone know if the shop owner pulled any other variations in the additional sets? If the sets all came from the same case, it would be interesting to see what else was in there.

I was thinking the same thing and actually tracked down and reached out to the shop owner several days ago. Other than the clear one, the hand collated sets had four other cards where you could read the Marlboro sign. One was a "g1", one was a "rb2", and the other two were the "blue box" version that you own. I purchased the two "blue box" ones from him for $200 each ($400 total). I don't know whether this is a good deal or not (I don't think the cards will grade particularly high and will likely get the "Ad Partially Obscured" label) but I'm very happy with the purchase since I've been trying to track down this version for quite awhile. In case you're interested, I've attached two pictures of each card.

Steve

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by steve5838

I was thinking the same thing and actually tracked down and reached out to the shop owner several days ago. Other than the clear one, the hand collated sets had four other cards where you could read the Marlboro sign. One was a "g1", one was a "rb2", and the other two were the "blue box" version that you own. I purchased the two "blue box" ones from him for $200 each ($400 total). I don't know whether this is a good deal or not (I don't think the cards will grade particularly high and will likely get the "Ad Partially Obscured" label) but I'm very happy with the purchase since I've been trying to track down this version for quite awhile. In case you're interested, I've attached two pictures of each card.

Steve

Nice cards. I thought I had one of those but when it showed up it was a regular box. In hand do the look like the weird red box cards that you can also clearly see the word Marlboro? Just blue instead of red.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by steve5838

I was thinking the same thing and actually tracked down and reached out to the shop owner several days ago. Other than the clear one, the hand collated sets had four other cards where you could read the Marlboro sign. One was a "g1", one was a "rb2", and the other two were the "blue box" version that you own. I purchased the two "blue box" ones from him for $200 each ($400 total). I don't know whether this is a good deal or not (I don't think the cards will grade particularly high and will likely get the "Ad Partially Obscured" label) but I'm very happy with the purchase since I've been trying to track down this version for quite awhile. In case you're interested, I've attached two pictures of each card.Steve

Wow! Wow! Wow! You found 2!! Those are gorgeous cards and they more than likely came from the same case as that clear! That’s unreal. PSA’s labeling is wrong to start and then they apply the labels inconsistently, so you shouldn’t care too much about that. I’ll take one from you for $200 to ease your worries of over paying.

[Statfreak101]

Originally Posted by bnorth

If the bold part is true it is news to me. I have been hoarding them since I pack pulled one back in the day. I have only ever seen 11 total and own 7 of them.

Yes I know there are 2 on eBay. One is listed by a great guy but he prices things so high Deans pricing seems like a bargain basement giveaway box. The other seller more than doubled their price when I made what I consider a reasonable offer.

I have a Boggs no dot in the collection - every time I pull it to look at it, I think about offering it up to you.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Statfreak101

I have a Boggs no dot in the collection - every time I pull it to look at it, I think about offering it up to you.

Stop thinking and email me a pic and price.

[butchie_t]

What is this no dot variation of Wade Boggs? I need to know what it is I am rummaging for.

I have an unopened 1989 Fleer Cello Box I bought years ago, two of them actually. I opened one for the Ripken errors. Both boxes were advertised as error cellos. And they were. I never paid any attention to the RJ's when I opened them and have no idea now as to what version I had pulled from the box.

Does anyone have any mfg dates that they are aware of for the RJ Errors? The code on the box I have is 8611-A, not sure if that helps anyone, but there it is.

[Statfreak101]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

What is this no dot variation of Wade Boggs? I need to know what it is I am rummaging for.

I have an unopened 1989 Fleer Cello Box I bought years ago, two of them actually. I opened one for the Ripken errors. Both boxes were advertised as error cellos. And they were. I never paid any attention to the RJ's when I opened them and have no idea now as to what version I had pulled from the box.

Does anyone have any mfg dates that they are aware of for the RJ Errors? The code on the box I have is 8611-A, not sure if that helps anyone, but there it is.

That code isn't relevant to anything - the "code" that people reference is the code on the case that the boxes come from. Without knowing that, it is impossible to know if it is an error box or not...well, not completely impossible. There is something that can tell you if the chance is 0% or higher than that.

As far as the cello boxes - these were made later in the production run, so the number of errors that are found in cello boxes isn't near what they are in wax boxes. Racks & cellos did produce a few different versions of the RJ/Marlboro card, but not nearly as many as the wax.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by Statfreak101

That code isn't relevant to anything - the "code" that people reference is the code on the case that the boxes come from. Without knowing that, it is impossible to know if it is an error box or not...well, not completely impossible. There is something that can tell you if the chance is 0% or higher than that.

As far as the cello boxes - these were made later in the production run, so the number of errors that are found in cello boxes isn't near what they are in wax boxes. Racks & cellos did produce a few different versions of the RJ/Marlboro card, but not nearly as many as the wax.

Thanks for the info. Both boxes had the same code and I know I pulled Ripken FF errors. I will just have to be satisfied with that.

Cheers!

[hockeyhockey]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

What is this no dot variation of Wade Boggs? I need to know what it is I am rummaging for.

on the back of the boggs, next to "throws right" is a giant dot on almost all of the cards. i've never seen one without the dot, but sounds like ben has a handful of them.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by hockeyhockey

on the back of the boggs, next to "throws right" is a giant dot on almost all of the cards. i've never seen one without the dot, but sounds like ben has a handful of them.

I am a hoarder.

Card without dot is the rare version.

To keep it kinda on topic here is a 9 year old pic of the second clearest Marlboro version I paid $9 for at the time. Also that is one more cool thing about COMC. You can go back and see pics of every card you have ever bought there.

[jp1216]

Wade Boggs is Canadian?
Born in New Brunswick?
Very close to New England.
Who knew.....

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by hockeyhockey

on the back of the boggs, next to "throws right" is a giant dot on almost all of the cards. i've never seen one without the dot, but sounds like ben has a handful of them.

Thanks!