1989 Fleer Randy Johnson Marlboro Variations

sportscardtheory

How many different variations are there of this card? This guy is a first ballot Hall of Famer and I don't really understand why there is no variation list like the Ripken FF card has. Can we get a list going? I have seen or heard of around 6 or so legitimate variations. Post them if you got em'.

Marlboro Clearly Visible
Marlboro Blurry
Thick Black Box (no jokes, lol)
Thin Black Box
Green Box
Scribble Box
Blacked out with 4 White Dots

Any others you have seen? I think the Green Box is the hardest to find so far.

jacksoncoupage

There are at least 11 clearly-defined versions but I wouldn't be surprised if another 2-5 reveal themselves. In 2001 (maybe 2002) a customer who regularly sought oddities approached me about this variation and I have hunted for, cataloged and sold them ever since. The largest lot of differing types that I had one time was 9.

Since most of the differences are subtle to the powers-that-be, they have reduced them to the 3 simplified categories they use now. Unfortunately, this ignores some of the toughest correction attempts - the 'green tint' varieties.

As far as I have experienced in hunting for them, the order - from easiest to hardest to find goes something like this (keep in mind I am not listing plate/registry errors here):

Full blacked-out background.
Black "box" around sign - reddish tint.
Black "box" around sign - white circle visible (where cowboy hat is on sign).
Full blacked-out background, green "oval" or circle visible in blacked-out area.
Black "bar" through the word Marlboro on sign - reddish tint.
Marlboro sign visible, slightly darkened - reddish tint (previously though of as the 1st or "clearest" version).
Black "scribble" through the word Marlboro on sign - reddish tint.
Marlboro sign visible, slightly darkened - green tint.
Black "bar" through the word Marlboro on sign - green tint.
Black "scribble" through the word Marlboro on sign - green tint.
Marlboro sign visible, bright and clear.

I hope this helps, this bizarre variety is among my favorite cards ever produced!

sportscardtheory

Awesome, thanks! I forgot about the reddish tint ones and the green scribble ones. I have never seen the "clear" Marlboro one, ever.

sportscardtheory

Needless to say, I will be hording these until his HOF election day. This guy is one of the 5-10 best pitchers of ALL-TIME and I don't see why this card doesn't garner more attention.

richtree

Here's the earlier thread with some info and pics

1989 Fleer Randy Johnson Error

BugOnTheRug

Do all factory and hobby sets contain the basic blacked out version (the one at the top of your list)? Or are there variations within the factory sets?

jacksoncoupage

<< <i>Do all factory and hobby sets contain the basic blacked out version (the one at the top of your list)? Or are there variations within the factory sets? >>



Nothing is 100% with 1989 Fleer, but I'm 99.999% certain that you cannot pull any variety except the final correction out of factory sets. No variations exist in the glossy variety either.

sportscardtheory

I will try and do the same, but can everyone post all the different variations they have so we know exactly what we are looking for? I haven't even seen a handful of them and would love to.

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

Here's a few..

Not my cards anymore.
IIRC
Green tint Scribble
Red Tint Marlboro
Box in Box
Full Black

mtcards

I've been saving all my Johnsons (humor not intended) since I began busting Fleer boxes and saving the variations and from was alone, I have 5 different variations that I can see. Anyone have all of the variations in their posessions who could post the scans? Some of the "dot" and "oval" variations must be tough to get as I dont think I have ever seen any of those.

Barfvader

Sorry to say it's just not as RARE as this one.

billsnmets

I have opened tons of '89 Fleer, from wax boxes to cello and rack cases. I can assure all of you that the Johnsons are indeed very scarce. Jackson Coupage is correct, the green tint variations do seem to be the most difficult. There is a completely clear Johnson out there, I bought one on E-Bay, but it seems to be extremely scarce as I nor anyone I know, have ever seen another one. All of the Johnson varieties were corrected long before the Bill Ripken FF was corrected.

Also, it is my opinion that the Treadway card was not one of those errors that was corrected early in the run. I did hit a Treadway w/target in a wax box, and if I remember correctly, it had the black box Ripkens in it. I think the Treadway's with targets may have been printed on a few isolated runs perhaps in the middle of printing. It was not an error corrected extremely early in the run like the Johnsons.

I agree the Johnson and Treadway cards are way undervalued, as are some of the scarcer Bill Ripken versions. When you consider that Johnson is a future HOFer, a 300 game winner and has a perfect game to his credit, it's ridiculous that his error cards are valued so low.

swartz1

Can someone post the four dot version?

thanks

jacksoncoupage

<< <i>Can someone post the four dot version?

thanks >>



+1

This thread is the first I've heard of it.

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

I bet they're fisheyes.

BunchOBull

<< <i>I bet they're fisheyes. >>



Yeah, there are some crazy fisheye patterns across the blackout on that card.

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

...you lost me.

UltimateLineup

UltimateLineup

I'm crushed that I got rid of about 50 of these cards in the past without knowing about this

However, I forgot that I had gotten a hand set of 89 Fleer and checked the Randy out.
I'm not sure if this is common or not, but the marlboro is the visible one with the darkened red tint.

What I'm wondering tho... is it supposed to have a green line outlining the red tint?
The green fuzzy line goes from Randy's ear downward then across the bottom of the marlboro area and also has the same green scribbly line over the top of the first "o" in marlboro.

Is this normal for that version?

Would love to get more talk going about this card again. Fun stuff-

Hatorade

The Red Tints seem to have the most variety within them and you can see some different colors around the border of the Marlboro ad like what you mentioned. I've created a FB page dedicated to the 1989 Fleer Marlboro errors. I've got about 60 images of the error cards posted there now. I will be adding more content weekly, but there isn't a much else out there regarding the cards so I wanted to create a place for anything 1989 Fleer #381. Thanks.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/1989-Fleer-381-Randy-Johnson-Marlboro-Error-Cards/212732665465676