1990 Bowman Error/Variation
LarkinCollector
Posts: 8,975 ✭✭✭✭✭
I'm nearly complete on the 1990 Bowman BB master set (based on the checklist at JWG here: Link) and since there are no pics there, I thought I'd start documenting them here with a few I received in my latest COMC order. Also, I've found a 4th variation of the Will Clark Art card not listed there. Some of these will fall into the RPD (recurring print defect category) while others are clearly design changes. If there are any not shown that anyone would like to see, let me know and I'll get scans of any that I have.
#128 John Franco with pink blotch on belt and corrected
#255 Cal Ripken Jr. with “BAI TiMOP” on back and corrected
#481 Ken Griffey Jr. with red dot on helmet and with dot airbrushed
All of the Art card inserts come in two flavors with either * or ** sheet codes on the back. The Gooden and Clark also have additional variations.
#NNO Will Clark ART (3) with ** on back, with ** but broken asterisk, with * on back - Additional 4th variation, with * on back shifted to right (or could be a ** with missing instead of broken first asterisk). I have not come across any of the other Art cards with a single asterisk centered under the 'IT' in 'CITY'
#128 John Franco with pink blotch on belt and corrected
#255 Cal Ripken Jr. with “BAI TiMOP” on back and corrected
#481 Ken Griffey Jr. with red dot on helmet and with dot airbrushed
All of the Art card inserts come in two flavors with either * or ** sheet codes on the back. The Gooden and Clark also have additional variations.
#NNO Will Clark ART (3) with ** on back, with ** but broken asterisk, with * on back - Additional 4th variation, with * on back shifted to right (or could be a ** with missing instead of broken first asterisk). I have not come across any of the other Art cards with a single asterisk centered under the 'IT' in 'CITY'
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#180 Gary Redus – most of “PITTSBURGH PIRATES” blacked out on back
#238 Matt Williams – airbrushed jersey; stats partially missing on back
#416 Randy Bush – “TWI S” on front
I have pictures available of anything else if interested - thanks!
<< <i>Thanks for the post - I am close to a master set myself but am still looking for the following. Any chance you have any of these?:
#180 Gary Redus – most of “PITTSBURGH PIRATES” blacked out on back
#238 Matt Williams – airbrushed jersey; stats partially missing on back
#416 Randy Bush – “TWI S” on front
I have pictures available of anything else if interested - thanks! >>
Those are three of the eight I still need to track down as well.
<< <i>How tough is that Griffey with the red dot? >>
It didn't seem to be too tough at the time, but I just checked COMC and none of the 38 examples there have it.
Congrats on near completion. I am a big Will Clark fan. Can you show the front of the card? I don't remember what that card looked like.
<< <i>Kyle,
Congrats on near completion. I am a big Will Clark fan. Can you show the front of the card? I don't remember what that card looked like. >>
Bump ...
Took a look at my old forgotten 1990 bowman factory set (already opened in 1990). Is this just a print error on big Frank or a variant? (Circle to the left of the W in White Sox).
Centering good enough on these 2 for a 10?
It's a print error, but if there are enough copies, sometimes those still get listed as ERR or VARs at least. I'll have to see if I can find one similar. It's pretty unique compared to most fisheyes, more of a word that begins with 'goat' and ends with 'se' (don't, and I can't stress this enough, don't do an Internet image search of this word).
Walker is centered a bit high, but might slide on the edge of 10 possibilities. From the pic, it appears to be tilted a couple degrees counterclockwise, and if so I wouldn't even try. Hendu a touch low, but within specs. I'm only judging centering on those two.
Print dot/fisheye on the Thomas. These are going to be variations now? If so the Sosa card has a big "glob" to the left of his ear on some cards and not on others.
Walker looks high, but I saw a Thomas listed that was a PSA 10 that looked pretty high, so you never know. Henderson looks very nice, as mentioned a touch low.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/709331/1990-topps-frank-thomas-nnof-revisited-introduction-to-my-theory 30k views, 1.2k comments on nothing more than print defects. Sometimes the hobby goes crazy over them, most of the time not. Who am I to judge? The Sosa is noted on the JWG link in the initial post ...
#312 Sammy Sosa (3) with night background and red ‘diamond’ next to ear, with night background
and ‘diamond’ airbrushed away, with day background
ETA: Since it's a HOFer RC, something catchy like 'Strawberry Donut' variation might catch on.
Call it the "Frank Thomas rookie effect".
what are the odds of finding the error Cal Ripken ( Bal Timop) and or does anyone know if any on ebay for grabs .
Educate me. What is this error and where on the card is it? Thank you
Scroll up.
I never saw this thread before. This is awesome. Kyle, are you at the point where you're breaking the set down yourself, looking for stuff and creating your own checklist, like what you did with '91 Bowman? My desire to rip '90 Bowman just went through the roof.
Arthur
These just look like crappy print runs for some of these cards but can definitely make for quite the chase for anyone looking for every variant. I’ll stick my Big Hurt in a card saver and file him away for a while. I think he would have a decent shot at a 10 without the print defect so I’ll wait it out a decade or so to see if that one will gather some variation momentum.
@ ReggieCleveland Thank you very much! I must have over looked it.
Thank you. Tibor
Pretty low, I'd guess it's somewhere in the 50-200 copies. There are a couple transitional copies where the black is just starting to bleed through on COMC from Rookies_n_Jerseys:
I haven't been able to find much else on this set, just the Will Clark Art Card above and a numbering error on JWGs list for Winfield (428 should be 432). 1991 Bowman is still my jam and probably need to update that thread with all my findings to get a master set to ~2k with all the sheet code and blacklight variations.
I just checked my 90 Bowman Ripken stash, 73 in all, not one variant. 😥😥
I'm not surprised, think I got lucky buying out a few of those 'pick ** cards to complete your set" type listings for card #s I knew had variants.
Are all of these "wax only?" Have you found any of them in factory sets?
Arthur
I haven't found any of the recurring print defects in factory sets, but haven't opened many to check either. The factory sets contained the most heavily airbrushed version of each of those cards, like the white shirt Matt Williams, where both white and grey could be found in wax depending how early in the print run they were: https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball/1990/Bowman_-_Base/238/Matt_Williams/1971115
What the heck, might as well rip another cello box of this today. I got this from the same source as another cello I ripped several months back, so it should be an early print run with pre-airbrush and #251 David Segui with bio info missing on back, but none of the super scarce recurring print defects.
Well, I think I can officially retire now ...
Not bad out of just the top right stack so far.
I would love to tear into '90 Bowman the way I've done '90 Donruss. I'm a bit jealous today. Post a lot of scans.
Arthur
At the rate I'm going, I'm not going to even get a chance to rip 1/4 of the box. Pretty sure this one was never searched for star/RC on top. From the bottom right stack ...
I wish I could get these to scan better, it's pretty easy to make out the last name through the red. Even a kilo on top isn't showing the "press" very well.
Oops, missed a Yount on back, oh well. From the right stacks, with a bit of commentary. You can see most of the versions on the copies on COMC right now ...
Grace can be found with or without a black line across his hand (thicker than a plate scratch). Interestingly, all the Tiffany versions I've seen have this black line, so I think it's something that must have happened pretty late.
The night/day should be pretty easy to identify as only the sky color changes.
For most of the airbrush, you'll see creases or pinstripes disappear or significantly fade on the uniform. Sometimes it's lightposts in the background or clouds.
Looks like the Franco pink splotch was pretty early in the print run.
I recall the Downing being tough to distinguish as they'd initially done some heavy airbrush and went back for a second round. I'll have to dig up a pair from my set to verify.
Sosa 'red diamond'/night in this box. The night w/o are the toughest to find IIRC. His jersey gets airbrushed pretty heavy in the day versions.
Bearse's pinstripe on the pants gets shorter in the airbrush along with some wrinkles removed.
Aldred's jersey changes from this grey to completely white in the airbrush.
A bunch more jerseys that get airbrushed, Davis is the only somewhat difficult to see, but a lot of the blue on the right turns white. Pinstripes start disappearing from the Brewers and Twins.
The Sax is somewhat interesting, there's just a weird triangular wedge that changes colors but never disappears completely. This one's the 'red' variety. Reminds me of the 1989 Topps Stan Jefferson.
Rickey's pants get ironed and Clorox'ed with the airbrush.
The red dot hasn't appeared on Griffey Jr. yet.
And finally, got a 'broken asterisk' ** of Clark (should have a Gooden missing the $110k line in this box somewhere too)
Sax is tough to make out in the full size, so here's a zoom ...
These both looked pretty gemmy on the first pass ...
And added another star on top pack from the top center stack (and missed an Ozzie back)
No star/HOFer/key RC on top packs from the bottom center stack, what a rip off!
Back in a bit ...
Well, I went into the dungeon to retrieve some searched 1990 Bowman boxes (4). I had pulled all the HOF players out last year. Made a list of the variations/errors so now with time to kill will see how many I can come up with. I pulled one sealed wax box to open just to keep it interesting as I go along.
I guess you're In4apound now
Good luck!
Is this an error/variation? Too much black ink.
It is, but not for that reason. It's the "purple clouds" with a plate shift.
What, wait, does that make it two errors? Does the too much black ink cause the "purple clouds"?
I have looked at a bunch of these lately and that's WAY too much black ink, not just a "shift". ?
Now you're just being obtuse, no one has ever claimed that every random printing issue is a variant. The hobby is littered with RECURRING printing issues that are widely collected and considered variants. Our host considers this a variant: https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-INK-VARIATION-BOTTOM-BASEBALL-GREEN-CENTERED-1961-TOPPS-RON-FAIRLY-492-PSA/114299859924
A few words of wisdom from the esteemed @bishop ...
It's a misaligned plate shift, see the halo around his hat too.
Oh wow. Never saw this thread before. I have a hand collated set of 1990 Bowman and the usual hundreds of duplicates in a box somewhere. Might be time to dig out that box and flip through my binder.
Kris
My 1971 Topps adventure - Davis Men in Black
MAYBE a bit tongue in cheek but NEVER obtuse.
I worked in the printing industry for 24 years and there is so much black ink on that card the "a" in "Bowman" is completely filled in. A "plate shift" (actually it would be a sheet shift) would not cause this effect. Several in that factory set had the same problem. Sheet might have gone through the black twice. Might have simply been too much black ink on the plate.
Not saying there's not other stuff going on as well.
Nah, I'm going to stick with OBTUSE as you continue to ignore the RECURRING part of the insanity. You've got my full name and address, I'll be happy to discuss this further in person
Huh?
(a) I didn't make the list, so whatever shade you might be throwing is at @jacksoncoupage or @junkwaxgems (see the link posted in the OP)
(b) It's something that's supposed to be fun to chase from a set that's sorely lacking in fun, and
(c) You're making a hassle about it :shrug;)
I honestly don't care about your background, since it seems you can't understand the simplicity of the word 'recurring' (bolded and italicized twice so far) vs. a one off. Find a run of them, get it published somewhere, and then we can talk. Otherwise, step outside the bar so we can continue this conversation
Capisce?
There are many things that I anticipated breaking up arguments over, but somehow the printing idiosyncrasies of 1990 Bowman cards did not make the list. An oversight on my part, for sure.
Let's keep it civil, gentlemen. Too much other stuff in the world right now to fret over.
This thread needs some Guitar Gawds playing Bohemian Rhapsody -
https://blabbermouth.net/news/brian-may-joins-nuno-bettencourt-steve-vai-zakk-wylde-yngwie-malmsteen-and-tosin-abasi-for-bohemian-rhapsody-jam-video/
This is a set I used to enjoy spending much time and money (even at $5 a box/set) researching until it became fairly clear exactly how the print runs worked and what recurring print defects existed and how easy or hard they are to locate.
I am fairly certain, though my research stopped around 2011-12, that you can pull both versions of airbrushing and sky types from factory sets. I also recall pulling the Segui error from one as well. There are two types of factory sets, I believe. Segui seems to be a late correction, even the Tiffany version is missing the bio.
While I’m not interested in having anyone’s shade directed at me, I’m even less interested in yet another explanation of RPDs and how they become legitimized as variations. It seems like every single junk era variation devolves into an old school Beckett definition vs. entirely open interpretation discussion.
And if my research, work and the information I’ve provided to the hobby on forums and JunKWaxGems (at no cost) is not useful to someone or found to be disagreeable, please ignore it. It is for a certain type of collector and has all been done out of a genuine passion for this era and the joy of finding new surprises in otherwise valueless products.
I was not arguing. Not sure what the big fuss is about. Was surprised and disappointed at the reaction.
Wasn't going to post on this thread any longer, but wanted to address the moderator's comment.
Opened a few packs and found this art cart with a big red fisheye in the middle of Clarks mitt.
Wanted to give a quick shoutout to LarkinCollector for this helpful thread highlighting all the print variations in 1990 Bowman. I am a Frank Thomas fan and was ripping a box of 1990 Bowman as part of my “I love the 80s” thread.” I had recalled this thread and looked at it prior to ripping the box to educate myself on the tougher variants. The box I ripped didn’t yield any of the errors mentioned, with the exception of the Gooden ART ** card with and without the “$110 thousand dollars” line. The bummer for me was that I didn’t pull a Thomas RC. So I dug a factory case out of storage so I could rip another box the next day in search of the Frank Thomas RC. The cool thing is that the case fresh box yielded these three variants discussed. I added the regular versions I pulled from the stand alone box I opened for reference. The Ripken, Redus print errors and single * Clark centered below CITY all came from the same box I pulled from the new case. I would love to learn from any experts on 1990 Bowman, so I can learn more about the variants....
Magenta Stripe Bottom Left
Darnell Coles #480
saucywombat@hotmail.com
I get really, really excited when I see this thread bumped.
Arthur