Well this analogy was broken over the summer when Steve over at 1975 Baseball Cards sent me a few to check out. After failing to convert my iPhone into a black light, I purchased one on Amazon for less than $10.
Since then, whenever I stumble across a 1991 Topps baseball card in my collection, I have to check to see if it's a glow back. I've actually found a bunch of Athletics... but nobody really cares about them, so I didn't bother to photograph them.
1991 Topps #333
On the other hand, I was pretty excited to find that one of my Chipper Jones rookie cards glowed in the dark:
Here's a look at the card back without the black light:
The other glow back I was pretty happy to find was this Tony Gwynn:
1991 Topps #180
It was actually sitting in my Gwynn binder the entire time. It took about 20 minutes of digging, but I eventually found a non-glow back to sit next to his cardboard counterpart:
Based on my personal findings, glow backs seem to be a little tougher to find. However these findings is based on a very small sample size, so I turn to you...
Are 1991 Topps Glow Backs truly rarer?
People on eBay seem to think so. The handful of Chipper glow backs have BIN prices in the $18 to $30 range, while his regular card can be picked up for under $3.
Even if they are rarer... I've read that Topps produced close to four million copies of each 1991 Topps baseball card. If that's true... than there are plenty of glow backs floating around our hobby to go around. And if you're a player collector like myself... it's always fun to find a variation you didn't know you had sitting in your collection.
As for discovering termites... I'm not looking forward to that day.
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
19 comments:
If I remember correctly, all the glow backs came from the factory sets, so all you'd have to do is go buy a factory set... and you'll have a whole glow back set.
That's neat, but is there any way to tell them apart without the blacklight?
I didn't even know they existed.
This is all the rage but I just can't get interested. There could be 400 of them sitting in my binder, but I don't care.
I'm with Night Owl on this one and if Jon's correct it seems like this is seems like happenstance that happened from a different printing and ink formula for the factory sets. Because this would have been huge if it was an announced parallel in 1991 at the hieght of the junk wax/speculation era. And like John I didn't even know this was a thing until you posted about it.
Hmm, I've never heard of this. Maybe I just don't pay attention.
Now I need to buy a black light. I did some research and it looks like the glow backs are just random. Not just from factory sets. I'll have to buy a hobby box and check it out.
This is news to me! I may have to dig my old black light from the attic and take a peek.
I have no idea if any of mine are or not . Hope to find out someday
I probably have a few of these sitting in my binders right now but personally I don't think it's worth the effort to find out.
I'm with Billy...pretty cool finds, but no way to tell them apart? Do they work like regular glow in the dark stuff or do you need the blacklight?
What the WHAT?!??
Ok, I've got a blacklight but no '91s. Figures.
I’m actually pretty facinated with these, but have no black light to check. The debate on if they they should be listed as variations is a unique one indeed.
My thoughts exactly. I think Sandberg has three cards in the set. I may have to track these down!
Jon - I read that somewhere myself, but wasn't 100% sure.
Billy Kingsley - I'm sure with a trained eye you could tell the shades apart, but my eyes suck.
John Miller - Glad to enlighten you on these glowing cards.
night owl - i didn't really care either... until i had a taste. it's just something different. something new.
cynicalbuddha - i'm sure this was just happenstance. can't imagine someone doing this on purpose and then not stirring up hype afterwards.
the lost collector - it took decades for me to learn about these. so many other things in our hobby to focus on
daniel wilson - thanks for the info. if i have any 1991 topps packs laying around, i'll experiment as well.
matt - it's a cool novelty if you're into this kind of thing. i enjoy finding new variations for my gwynn pc
sport card collectors - if you have a bunch of 91T laying around, i'm going to guess you have a few buried in your collection
nick - i think a lot of us have a few of these sitting in our binders. i have no interest in digging up 99% of them, but i was curious about my player pc's and the key rookie card
jafronius - sadly... you need a black light. well... at least i do. my eyes suck.
bru - lol
p-town tom - best of luck. maybe you'll find even more variations.
commishbob - no 91's? if you're ever in san jose, let me know and i'll fix that problem.
sumomenkoman - someone should dedicate their life to finding and documenting every single variation available out there. by the way... you can grab a black light on amazon for around $8
I have a whole stack of cards from a friend, and just found out about the glow backs looking for a different variation. I checked the ones in her stack... only 12 were NON-glow-backs (all from sheets C, D, and F), 6 were "super" glow-backs (these are exactly the same as the ones that have the "bold" logo on back, and all from sheet B), and ALL of the rest (about 250) are glow-backs. There is some variation in intensity to the glow, but there is no doubt about when you find a non-glow-back and when you find a super-glow-back. (Oddly enough, while the super-glow ones are the same ones with the bold logos on the back, the printing on the regular glow and non-glow look about the same. If anything, the non-glow version is printed a little bit darker.) - Paul from Anthem
I've gone through and since 1990 I've accumulated a great deal of super glowback legitimate error cards, I believe a hundred and twelve are within reach now , like the Tanaana, Larkin, uribe and many more but on all you can, while next to a non gback, quite easily see a difference but they are neat, I've known for some time but thank you for the post
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