Newest Topps Gimmick Jeter

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

Gimmicks and errors are nothing new. Look at the later 1980's 1987 Topps, just a coincidence that two of the hotter players in the game, Mattingly and Gooden, somehow had the 'tm' missing from their All star cards, yet Dave Parker, Tony Bernazard, and Lance Parrish didn't? 1989 Fleer had the Billy Ripken error. Not only did it make it through multiple checks, it just happened to be the kid brother of baseball's Mister Rogers. 1989 UD, Sheffield was a highly touted rookie, and Dale Murphy was winding up a career may thought would lead to Cooperstown. Somehow they have error cards. 1986 Donruss Opening day, and Barry Bonds gets a photo swapped, 1990 UD, again a highly touted rookie in Ben McDonald and a living legend in Nolan Ryan have banners missing or team logos instead of the 'rookie' crest. 1990 Topps has another big rookie in Frank Thomas who oddly enough has cards surface missing his name. I am hard pressed to believe all of these hot at the time players had errors strictly 'by accident'. The hobby has changed from when it first started getting big. I remember other collectors stockpiling rookies back then. People today aren't going to shows looking for 50 base Topps/UD Tim Lincecum rookies. The manufacturers are publicly traded companies, shareholders expect profits, so they have to find ways to keep us buying. They can't count on us busting 10-15 boxes of Topps. They have to keep adding bells and whistles, and we soon get tired of the bells and whistles, so they have to try more and more things. Eventually the idea well goes dry, so they try things that worked in the past.
 
I still have never seen the difference in the Sheffield "error".

Regarding Thomas, I am still willing to believe that was some sort of printing error. Thomas was not one of the most touted rookies that year, so a purposeful error on that card doesn't make sense. It wasn't until later that the card got hot, when Thomas got hot.

Still, these are not even errors today. They are manipulation of the design. Bush and Mantle didn't accidentally find their way onto Jeters card. 82 Topps blackless, those make sense. There was a printing problem. Even the FF card could have slipped by. The corrections are what got crazy!
 
I still have never seen the difference in the Sheffield "error".

Regarding Thomas, I am still willing to believe that was some sort of printing error. Thomas was not one of the most touted rookies that year, so a purposeful error on that card doesn't make sense. It wasn't until later that the card got hot, when Thomas got hot.

Still, these are not even errors today. They are manipulation of the design. Bush and Mantle didn't accidentally find their way onto Jeters card. 82 Topps blackless, those make sense. There was a printing problem. Even the FF card could have slipped by. The corrections are what got crazy!

Sure they are a manipulation of the design, because these companies know if they do that, collectors will buy it. They'll grumble and grouse, but they will buy it. To me it's like the toy in a happy meal or cereal /Cracker Jack box. Something tossed in to bump demand. They'd be foolish NOT to do it. It's something more to chase, and collectors have shown time and again they WANT things to chase.

As for Thomas not being one of the more touted rookies, I'm going by sell prices in my BBC magazines from 1990, and he pretty much ranges from #1-3 in singles prices for rookies depending on set
 
Top