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

[jp1216]

"The Pube" is one of the more interesting aspects. Clearly dating the non-corrected or fully corrected version(s). I still think what makes this card so neat is that nobody knew about it for years! It was a VERY early correction by Fleer.
That upper rectangle - is that simply a print offset of the blue border below? Still, very nice find! Here is another close up of the 'Clear' Marlboro.

[Athos01]

I have all those checklists with positions from 1989 Fleer too. They are impossible to find. There are 7 checklists in the set, and each checklist only has player positions listed on the front of the card, and not the back.

[Athos01]

Thanks for posting that bigger pic Jon!

[Athos01]

The Johnson Marlboro versions were fixed extremely early in Fleer's print run, certainly way before the FF was caught and the crazy corrections took hold.

I've seen 1989 Fleer with print codes dating back to mid-November 1988. My guess is the clear Johnson was corrected at least partially within a day of the first official print run. I too am curious as to why another "clear" version has not shown up yet. This card is far scarcer than the 1990 Topps Thomas NNOF, and that card is always in the news.

The Treadway target was not an early error contrary to popular opinion. This card along with the checklists with positions were random short-run "errors" and were not early errors that Fleer corrected.

[Hatorade]

Thanks for sharing the image of the clear version Kevin. That is a truly special card. Would you mind sharing how many of the Johnson errors you own? Have you come across any of the blue versions? They seem to be the 2nd rarest of the error variations. I’ve attached an image of Ben’s blue card he shared earlier.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

Thanks for sharing the image of the clear version Kevin. That is a truly special card. Would you mind sharing how many of the Johnson errors you own? Have you come across any of the blue versions? They seem to be the 2nd rarest of the error variations. I’ve attached an image of Ben’s blue card he shared earlier.

I got that blue card from COMC and am sure it was altered to be blue instead of green. It also has a very heavy layer of gloss on it compared to a normal 89 Fleer card.

[Hatorade]

I’ve seen 5 of the blues since I’ve been collecting the errors. Ben’s copy, 2 PSA 9’s I bought a few years ago(both pictured with a 2nd zoomed image of each), another card on Ebay that I missed around the same time that I purchased the 9’s and the 5th is a card I saw back in 2014 that I saw as a completed sale(also attached). They all seem legit. These versions are the easiest to read the letters in Marlboro that I’ve seen outside of Kevin’s clear card. The way that they are tinted doesn’t really fall in line with all the other versions though.

[Athos01]

Hey guys. I don't know exactly how many Johnson Marlboro-type errors I have, probably about 100 or so.

I only have the one "clear" sign version.

A version that doesn't get a lot of pub has a mid-level greenish filter placed over the entire sign. None of the words "Marlboro" nor the cowboy are obscured. There is just what looks like a green filter over the ad. Very, very tough version. It looks similar to the blue version shown above.

While I am sure the Ripken '89 Fleers have been faked from time to time, there are FF reprints, white scribble reprints, and white out fakes; however, I am pretty convinced that there are very few, if any, fake Randy Johnson Marlboro cards. This is not a card that people are getting rich off of.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by jp1216

"The Pube" is one of the more interesting aspects. Clearly dating the non-corrected or fully corrected version(s). I still think what makes this card so neat is that nobody knew about it for years! It was a VERY early correction by Fleer.
That upper rectangle - is that simply a print offset of the blue border below? Still, very nice find! Here is another close up of the 'Clear' Marlboro.

I really appreciate your feedback Jon. The blue line does appear to be at the same exact angle and width as the rectangle. I’m not very familiar with many of the intricacies of the printing process. Would just the portion that Andy circled show up with the offset and not the entire blue line? It looks like there is almost an area of white over spray surrounding the rectangle.