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

[lowpopper]

So do we have a finalized order of true rarity?

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by lowpopper

So do we have a finalized order of true rarity?

How sure are you that these even come from packs??

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by jacksoncoupage

How sure are you that these even come from packs??

I heard they all originated from Lenny like all the rare Ripken versions.

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I heard they all originated from Lenny like all the rare Ripken versions.

Im sad to say that this went over my head. Do tell!

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by jacksoncoupage

Im sad to say that this went over my head. Do tell!

A guy named Lenny had all the super rare Bill Ripkens. I can't remember his last name but he had some beyond amazing items. Sadly Covid took him.

[jp1216]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I heard they all originated from Lenny like all the rare Ripken versions.

Leonard Helicher (RIP) had a card business and took out ads in local papers. It lead to Fleer employees smuggling out cards to sell on the side. Yes, Lenny had quite a stash. Lots of rare items but none of them 'originated' with him. He bought/sold FF related items for many years. He is missed. Coming up on 2 years already....

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by jp1216

Leonard Helicher (RIP) had a card business and took out ads in local papers. It lead to Fleer employees smuggling out cards to sell on the side. Yes, Lenny had quite a stash. Lots of rare items but none of them 'originated' with him. He bought/sold FF related items for many years. He is missed. Coming up on 2 years already....

Originally Posted by bnorth

A guy named Lenny had all the super rare Bill Ripkens. I can't remember his last name but he had some beyond amazing items. Sadly Covid took him.

Wow, very fascinating! To keep up that interest for so many years is an accomplishment itself. But yes, a sad ending.

[steve5838]

Originally Posted by lowpopper

So do we have a finalized order of true rarity?

I have little doubt the clear (n0) and blue tint (b1) versions are the rarest ones. After that, I have no idea. I believe there are only 3 known cards of the n0 version and 5 known cards of the b1 version. If anyone out there has some n0 or b1 cards please shout out and we can update these numbers. Regardless I don't think final talleys will be high. Steve

[bnorth]

Here are the 3 different green scribble versions. Anybody else have all 3 versions?

[Hatorade]

There was a previous thread about these cards and someone mentioned the 1985 mother’s cookies cards that had the Marlboro ad edited from a couple of them. I wanted to include those images from Jack Murphy Stadium here since that has become part of the topics being discussed in this thread. Also pictured is a more modern card, of an old image, of Randy pictured in front of another almost complete image of a Marlboro ad. More info coming soon.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

There was a previous thread about these cards and someone mentioned the 1985 mother’s cookies cards that had the Marlboro ad edited from a couple of them. I wanted to include those images from Jack Murphy Stadium here since that has become part of the topics being discussed in this thread. Also pictured is a more modern card, of an old image, of Randy pictured in front of another almost complete image of a Marlboro ad. More info coming soon.

Those are cool, thanks for sharing.

[steve5838]

Originally Posted by hatorade

there was a previous thread about these cards and someone mentioned the 1985 mother’s cookies cards that had the marlboro ad edited from a couple of them. I wanted to include those images from jack murphy stadium here since that has become part of the topics being discussed in this thread. Also pictured is a more modern card, of an old image, of randy pictured in front of another almost complete image of a marlboro ad. More info coming soon.

That is really cool. Thanks for sharing the pictures. On a somewhat similar note, I cropped the Marlboro sign from the stadium picture on your FB page and pasted over top of it a cropped scan of the sign on the clear version. I could make the clear sign version look a little lighter by putting it under better light but I didn't. Anyway, then I increased the transparency little by little on the clear sign card picture. My idea was to make a GIF of this and maybe using other versions too but I haven't figured that out. Steve

rj4.JPG

[steve5838]

I wanted to circle back on the two light blue box stencil cards I referenced in post #249. I was able to get a few $50 PSA submissions and couldn't resist getting these slabbed. PSA just returned the cards. Overall nothing unexpected. PSA disagreed with me and both got the "Ad Partially Obscured" label.
Steve

rjblueboxdefault_fullcolor_clarity.jpgrjblueboxdefault2_fullcolor_clarity.jpg

[Hatorade]

What is usually a simple answer for 99.9% of cards is a problem too much of the time for PSA with the Marlboro error variations.

Let’s start with what should be an easy question. What is this card? Let’s say you own a 1989 Fleer Randy Johnson card and you ask yourself this simple question. According to PSA what is this card?

For pretty much any sports card ever produced you can answer this simple question by naming a few characteristics about the card. What player is on the card? What manufacturer produced the card? What year was the card produced? What is the card #? For the vast majority of cards ever made this will give you the answer for what card this is according to PSA.

Those questions don’t answer which of the above three variations the card is according to PSA. So what does PSA do to determine which of the versions they will label the card? Has anyone ever seen the definition of Ad on Scoreboard or Ad Partially Obscured or Ad Completely Blacked Out according to PSA? They’ve been using these labels for several years. With some of the biggest Marlboro collectors contributing to this thread I would think someone here could let me know the definition of each according to PSA?