4 Expensive Baseball Card Printing Errors – Modern Edition

I previously shared 6 Expensive Baseball Card Printing Errors with a focus on vintage cards. This piece will focus on the same concept, baseball card printing errors, but with more modern cards. Here are four cards where both an error and corrected version exist in the post-war card market.

1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas (No Name on Front)

The 1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas No Name on Front card is one of the most famous cards in the hobby, period. Certainly, it’s one of the most important modern error cards and a must-have for collectors with large bankrolls. Frank was a superstar player when baseball card collecting was near its peak. He’s a Hall of Famer who retired with 521 home runs and a .301 batting average to go with two AL MVP awards. The printing hiccup has been speculated about, and no one has unraveled the mystery as well as the user BunchOBull on the Collector’s Universe message boards.

Essentially a piece of card-stock got in the way of the black printing dye of a few uncut sheets of cards, affecting about ten cards, with Frank Thomas being the most notable. 

The No Name on Front version has a PSA population of 289 (up from 207 in 2020) compared to 23,923 (up from 14,278) Name on Front variants. The last sale of a No Name on Front printing error, from PSA’s APR, was $5,049 for a PSA 4 on eBay, with PSA 8s going for well over $10k. Goldin sold a PSA 10 for $170k in December, 2022. In comparison, a PSA 10 of the 1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas card with his full name printed on the front, is around $65. PSA 8s of the Name on Front variant can be found for under $10, less than grading fees!

1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas No Name on Front
1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas Name on Front

1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken F**k Face

Fleer didn’t notice that the Bill Ripken card they released had an obscenity written on the bottom of the bat he was holding. It spelled out, “F**k FACE.” After the company became aware of the error, they released subsequent printings with the words obscured. First, they had a blob of what appeared to be Wite-Out, then a pen scribble, and finally a black square. Ripken admitted that he wrote the words on the bat to spot it easily as his batting practice bat. Ripken also believes that Fleer couldn’t have missed the error and suggested that they enhanced it to generate extra publicity.

You can read more about the five Bill Ripken #616 cards in my piece about how to pull the error from wax boxes.

1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken Black Box Over Error
1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken Black Scribble Over Error
1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken FF Error
1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken Scribbled Out In White
1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken Whited Out Vulgarity

1987 Donruss Opening Day #163 Barry Bonds (Johnny Ray)

The Donruss Opening Day set was made to focus on each team’s starters on the opening day of the MLB season. The 1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds card was initially printed with an image of Johnny Ray but was corrected pretty early in the printing process, making the error quite rare.

3,123 corrected Barry Bonds cards exist with PSA 8s selling for $10 and PSA 10s for ~$250. The Johnny Ray error has a total population of 172 (up from 135 five years ago) with PSA 8 copies selling for ~$800 and PSA 10s going for between $3k and $4k, but I did notice that Fanatics sold one for $8,550 in May, 2023, so they may be way higher, they’re just not that common (PSA 10 pop count of 14).

1987 Donruss Opening Day #163 Barry Bonds Johnny Ray Error
1987 Donruss Opening Day #163 Barry Bonds

1989 Upper Deck #357 Dale Murphy Reverse Negative

While the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr is the most iconic card in the set, the Dale Murphy may be the most infamous. A version with the image reversed was released. The error is more common in graded form only because the regular variant doesn’t command popularity. Upper Deck said about 2% of the cards have the error. And who knows if it was intentional, to create hype for the set, or not.

959 Reverse Negatives (a nearly doubling of the population in five years from 508) and only 547 corrected (up from 249 in 2020) variants are in the PSA population report. A regular PSA 10 sells for $35 while the reverse negative in GemMt condition sells for closer to $600.

1989 Upper Deck #357 Dale Murphy Reverse Negative
1989 Upper Deck #357 Dale Murphy

The collectibility and high prices of modern error cards mirror those from earlier in the post-war card era. Collectors continue to value errors that are unique, rare, and frankly, get engagement when shared online.

Happy collecting!

18 Awesome Early 1990s Baseball Cards to Collect

The early 1990s have a nostalgic place in my collecting soul since I stopped collecting cards somewhere around 1997 before returning to the hobby as an adult. Today, my collecting and hobby interest is focused more on post-war vintage vs. this late “junk” era, but there are some important cards from this time. Some stand out to me today because I remember their popularity at the time, others because of today’s market prices, and others just because of the player’s career performance. No matter the reason, here are 18 early 1990s baseball cards that came to my mind that you might be interested in adding to your collection.

1990 Leaf #300 Frank Thomas

1990 Leaf #300 Frank Thomas

At its release, all the kids in my neighborhood wanted to get these Leaf cards, which we treated as a premium release at the time. I think I focus on the Frank Thomas card from this set today because our family had moved to Chicago, and he became the decade’s premier player.

1990 Score #697 Bo Jackson

1990 Score #697 Bo Jackson

Bo Jackson’s accolades across multiple sports led him to be considered one of the best athletes of all time. He was incredibly popular in the hobby, and this photo is simply iconic.

1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas

1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas

I think I focus on this card more as an adult because of what I said earlier about Frank’s performance on the field, and as a hobby historian today, the story of the No Name on Front card brings a lot of attention to 1990 Topps as a set.

1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas No Name on Front

1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas No Name on Front

The No Name on Front 1990 Topps Frank Thomas card is a bucket list card for a ton of collectors.

1990 Topps #USA1 George Bush

1990 Topps #USA1 George Bush

We now believe there are two versions of this card: glossy-coated cards that Topps gave to President Bush and ones without the coating that Topps probably didn’t intend for public release. Cards were peaking at this time, so the card got a lot of attention, and it still demands incredible prices today.

1991 Topps #333 Chipper Jones

1991 Topps #333 Chipper Jones

Chipper didn’t play much until 1995, so I think my inclusion of this card is based on the popularity of the 1991 Chipper Jones cards today and my memories of watching every Braves game on TV.

1991 Upper Deck #SP1 Michael Jordan

1991 Upper Deck #SP1 Michael Jordan

I mean…yeah, of course.

1991 Upper Deck #SP2 Ryan/Henderson

1991 Upper Deck #SP2 Ryan/Henderson

Upper Deck did a great job making exciting cards, and this Nolan Ryan and Rickey Henderson card captured a fantastic day in baseball history.

1992 Bowman #302 Mariano Rivera

1992 Bowman #302 Mariano Rivera

1992 Bowman was super popular when it was released, but the Rivera card being on this list is more a result of his career accolades than my younger collecting journeys.

1992 Donruss Elite Cal Ripken Jr.

1992 Donruss Elite Cal Ripken Jr.

I’ve written a lot about Cal Ripken Jr. in the past; add this one to the bucket list.

1992 Fleer #712 Frank Thomas

1992 Fleer #712 Frank Thomas

If you collected cards during the junk era, you absolutely knew about this card.

1992 Fleer Update #U-92 Mike Piazza

1992 Fleer Update #U-92 Mike Piazza

I’ve included the Fleer Update Piazza rookie card on this list due to its popularity today, which is in a tight race with his 1992 Bowman card. But I think, as kids, we all preferred his 1992 Topps Stadium Club card.

1992 Upper Deck #SP3 Deion Sanders 

1992 Upper Deck #SP3 Deion Sanders 

Another multi-sport superstar, Deion Sanders was a high performer on two fields and has continued to be relevant in sports as a commentator, public figure, and coach. Upper Deck did a great job on this 1992 Upper Deck card, blending football and baseball together.

1993 SP #279 Derek Jeter

1993 SP #279 Derek Jeter

Today, this is Jeter’s most desirable rookie card, and high-grade variants dwarf most sales of cards from this era. 

1993 Topps #98 Derek Jeter

1993 Topps #98 Derek Jeter

Derek Jeter is one of the most popular baseball players of all time, and Topps is the most celebrated brand, so I feel like this card has to be included on any list of great 1990s baseball cards, though I prefer his Pinnacle rookie card.

1994 SP #15 Alex Rodriguez Foil Die-Cut

1994 SP #15 Alex Rodriguez Foil Die-Cut

Alex Rodriguez was a monster when he came into the majors, and this card was a beast when it first came on the market and was a quick addition to many top 100 baseball cards of all-time lists.

1994 Upper Deck Mantle/Griffey Jr. Autograph

1994 Upper Deck Mantle/Griffey Jr. Autograph

In the days before there were more inserts and specialty cards in sets than base cards, any insert/chase was popular. I think this card may be underrated (despite high prices) when you couple Mantle and Griffey with the way cards were made and printed in the first half of the 1990s.

1995 Pinnacle #128 Ken Griffey Jr.

1995 Pinnacle #128 Ken Griffey Jr.

Who didn’t laugh and get a kick out of the Griffey bubble gum bubble card?

Are there any key early 1990s baseball cards that stand out to you that I may have missed? Let me know in the comments; happy collecting!