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

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

35 images in the No RC Album. I definitely have a few lined up in the wrong order of the sequence. I’m also not convinced these cards are only one version either, but these are the other fish shape that doesn’t have the red circle. This version of the fish also has lighter to darker spectrum situation occurring to them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rjmarl...57714668577038

Great green scribble cards. I remember when there were considered extremely rare. Even on eBay you could only find one listed about once a month at the most.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Great green scribble cards. I remember when there were considered extremely rare. Even on eBay you could only find one listed about once a month at the most.

Thanks Ben. They do seem to be a little more prevalent than once considered, but overall I would say they are still pretty rare, even amongst the different Marlboro versions. You still can’t find them in much volume these days.

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

Thanks Ben. They do seem to be a little more prevalent than once considered, but overall I would say they are still pretty rare, even amongst the different Marlboro versions. You still can’t find them in much volume these days.

Knowing that this card went through all of the changes that it did, arguably 12, minimum, all within 5-6 weeks of production time (January cases have the FF Ripken and full correction Randy), tells me that some versions must be even more limited than others. I stand by the bright green/scribble version and the visible Marlboro with green tint as two examples of rarer types.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by jacksoncoupage

Knowing that this card went through all of the changes that it did, arguably 12, minimum, all within 5-6 weeks of production time (January cases have the FF Ripken and full correction Randy), tells me that some versions must be even more limited than others. I stand by the bright green/scribble version and the visible Marlboro with green tint as two examples of rarer types.

Those are some very good points. Fleer sure needed lots of different attempts at covering the ad over that relatively short time frame. Any lightly tinted green card is very hard to track down. There are actually a few different green versions that are lightly tinted too. Most green cards though have darker tinting.

The fact that only 2 clear versions have shown up after 30 plus years makes me think they are the hardest card to find from the 80s. Seeing Steve’s clear card recently confirmed for me that the clear versions are lightly tinted blue cards and tracking down the blue cards with more tint is nearly impossible too. I’m definitely looking forward to any future discoveries people have with those cards and finding out more about them.

[steve5838]

Wow, Hatorade, you have an amazing collection. Thank you for sharing your pictures.

I agree that the clear version and blue tint are closely related. The blue bar intersecting RJ's head seems to have more overlap with the vertical grey bars above on these versions (and some of the clearer green versions).
I've wondered whether the first run(s) at the "green plant" produced the clear version. It seems they noticed the clear sign relatively quickly in the production process and made an initial "fix" of adding blue tint to the sign area. Since this didn't dull the clarity of the Marlboro letters (and perhaps drew even more attention to the sign) they moved on to "fix" the "fix" pretty quickly by apparently mixing yellow into the blue and then varying the proportions of yellow and blue to get darker greens. Of course I'm just guessing and others probably have better theories on this. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if another completely clear example is out there somewhere without the blue bar overlap apparent in the two known examples, perhaps coming from the "red plant". Steve

[Statfreak101]

Just opened the earliest box I've had the pleasure of opening tonight, from a sealed case. Without revealing too much, this date would definitely fit the "mid November" criteria.

This is what the result was...

https://ibb.co/2vk429G
https://ibb.co/2SY7Kqg
https://ibb.co/McnpgBX
https://ibb.co/WGNS0y3
https://ibb.co/DpNNb69

[steve5838]

Originally Posted by Statfreak101

Just opened the earliest box I've had the pleasure of opening tonight, from a sealed case. Without revealing too much, this date would definitely fit the "mid November" criteria.

This is what the result was...

https://ibb.co/2vk429G
https://ibb.co/2SY7Kqg
https://ibb.co/McnpgBX
https://ibb.co/WGNS0y3
https://ibb.co/DpNNb69

Congrats on the pickup. These look like some nice cards. I saw a reasonably priced sealed case of 83272 on eBay a couple months ago but missed out (it apparently sold in 20 minutes). Steve

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Statfreak101

Just opened the earliest box I've had the pleasure of opening tonight, from a sealed case. Without revealing too much, this date would definitely fit the "mid November" criteria.

This is what the result was...

https://ibb.co/2vk429G
https://ibb.co/2SY7Kqg
https://ibb.co/McnpgBX
https://ibb.co/WGNS0y3
https://ibb.co/DpNNb69

Nice cards.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

Thanks Ben. They do seem to be a little more prevalent than once considered, but overall I would say they are still pretty rare, even amongst the different Marlboro versions. You still can’t find them in much volume these days.

That is because a few of us own most of them.