1989 Topps Alfredo Griffin Question
Jacerugger
Posts: 7 ✭
So, I recently went through some old cards of mine as my middle son is starting to get into trading cards and "investing" in purchasing individual cards. I have two Alfredo Griffin 1989 Topps cards and to my surprise, they are both different. They appear to be on different stock (the coloration is different on the back) and one them has a pink outline on the borders (the one with the different coloration on the back-I think it might be because of cardstock?) and the other is normal with the black outline border. I looked at a few sites online and googled to see if this is part of the error cards found in the 1989 set that has been documented online but I have not found anything. Does anyone know what this means with the pink outline as none of the other '89 cards I have, have the outline (no, it's not a pink marker tracing the line). It's pretty clear that it's a mistake card. Is it worth it to get them graded? Should I take them to a local card collector store? Can I post pictures here? First time here as I just joined once I found the error. Thanks in advance for any information that can be gleaned.
Comments
Please post photos, but it sounds like one of them is the “Tiffany” version, higher gloss on front and brighter back.
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Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
Regardless of the answer, because we are talking about 1988 Alfredo Griffin, you do NOT get them graded, as no one pays money for 1988 Alfredo Griffins. But as the previous poster stated, you might have a Tiffany version (would be VERY glossy on the front). I assume the picture is the same on each card and the card number is the same.... For 1988 there is a regular version and a TRADED set version..... The traded set version def has a different stock/back color.
Here are regular topps and tiffany topps side by side for 1988 regular set and Traded set......
The OP was talking '89, not '88, but '89 Tiffany backs are pinker then regular, but not sure what OP means by pink outline border.
Hah, not sure why I got caught up on 1988.... For the pink "border", maybe he is talking about the bad registration/ mis-aligment of the printing plates (in this case the magenta one) as shown on the right side of this PSA 10 that sold for a whopping $5 in 2017!
Wow, thanks for the feedback. I never received any notifications that someone responded! I apologize for not posting pics (duh, haha). I will do that now.
Here, you can see the magenta line under his name. In the attachment, when both cards are side by side, you can see the messed up one with Dodgers almost looking blurry compared to the regular one. I just thought it was strange. I'm sure it's worthless lol but hey you never know. I hope I didn't waste anyone's time!
Yeah, it just looks like bad registration. I was going through some 1982 Topps cards and thought I might have found a blackness card with a similar issue as yours. I then realized the registration was just off and that was that.
I'm new to the lingo with this, but what do you mean by "bad registration"? How do people determine which error on cards are deemed worthy and which aren't?
Misalignment of printing colors during the printing process.
Explained more in detail here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_registration
In your example the pink color is too low.
Extreme case:
There are some slight color differences with the 89 Topps, the extreme being a white letter Stubbs variation. Most of the Dodgers can be found with a variety of darker to lighter grey in the team name and the purple print can appear more reddish in some cases too.
Something to look for when you have 8-10 of each card to set side by side!
Thank you all for your time!
Like others mentioned already, this is what is referred to a plate shift or off-registration printing flaw.
Interestingly enough, Griffin's card can be found with a 1/2" magenta stripe in the white border area. I believe that he and Robin Ventura are the only two cards in the 1989 set with this variation.