What is the origin of Barry Bonds Open.Day ERR?

[RiceBondsMntna2Young]

Originally Posted by Mark17

I was a full time dealer back then and remember breaking 600 sets of those things. I found one Bonds error in 600 sets. But here's the thing - the set also had the regular variation too, and the regular one was in the proper sequence (sorting these sets was easy - they were always in the same order.)

So, my assumption was that it was intentional, and every so often one was added to a factory set just to create hype and spur sales - which it did.

I find this really hard to believe, probably in large part because I really don't want it to be true. However, if it was intentional, that would be really major news. But I mean, why would Donruss target a lukewarm prospect like Bonds, probably not even a top 10 rookie in the hobby at the time, to put on an error card? How would that goose sales?

There would have had to be hype over the card at the time the set was first released, presumably in spring of 1987. If Bonds fizzled out as a player, there wouldn't be any reason to chase the card by the time the collecting world became widely aware of the error. It could only have been a hot card a few years into Bonds' career, I would think.

@Mark17 Do you remember what year you busted 600? Did you bust to create inventory or because you were chasing the error? Do you remember how long after the set was released that it became the set with a lottery ticket inside?

I want to track down a few more folks who pulled the error themselves to corroborate this experience. It could've been a fluke. @dariushou's recollection suggests maybe it was.

I'm also curious about @HasselhoffsCheeseburger's question: are #162 and #163 found in different "stacks?"

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Dr. Beckett in the early years read ALL the letters as a way of keeping track of what collectors were interested in. By the time I got there, he was reading 1/2 to 1/3 in all the sports. And if he remembers, it would have been in a blurb back then. Wish I had a better answer for you,,, but that's what it is.

Thanks for that. I'd like to try and track down the first issue in which the card was noted in the price guide, as well as when when it was first mentioned in an article. Does anyone happen to have the entire run of 1987-1989 back issues handy?

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by RiceBondsMntna2Young

@Mark17 Do you remember what year you busted 600? Did you bust to create inventory or because you were chasing the error? Do you remember how long after the set was released that it became the set with a lottery ticket inside?

I want to track down a few more folks who pulled the error themselves to corroborate this experience. It could've been a fluke. @dariushou's recollection suggests maybe it was.

I'm also curious about @HasselhoffsCheeseburger's question: are #162 and #163 found in different "stacks?"

Thanks for that. I'd like to try and track down the first issue in which the card was noted in the price guide, as well as when when it was first mentioned in an article. Does anyone happen to have the entire run of 1987-1989 back issues handy?

It was in 1987 or 1988 I believe. My memory of it isn't the greatest because it was just another case break of what, as I recall, was a fairly unpopular set at the time. I'm pretty sure I got them very cheap. Unlike the 1987 Topps set, which was my main product (I must've broken over 500 vending cases of that stuff in 1987, not to mention all the 1987 "miswraps" and cut cases I broke in 1988,) the Opening Day set didn't include a lot of the popular rookies. I believe there were 15 factory sets per case, so 40 cases, and they were in some kind of plastic display box. Does that sound right? Anyway I knew about the variation and was keeping my eyes open for it. Like I said, the normal Barry Bonds card was also in that set, and it was in its normal sequence. Reading other peoples' posts, though, I can't say whether the correct Johnny Ray card was also present, since that would've been a common to me, and not worth sorting out. Maybe the error I found was there in place of the normal Ray card, making it an honest error.

So... either that card was randomly tossed in a set here and there to salt the mine, so to speak, or, perhaps more likely, it was actually a Johnny Ray error - and we in the hobby have always called it a Barry Bonds error because, well, Bonds is, and was, much more valuable (and a rookie card.)

In other words, Donruss didn't get the picture wrong - they got the player's name wrong.

As far as why/how an error/variation of a common guy can help sales, I recall the "C"raig Nettles 1981 Fleer going for $8.00 back then, and Fleer had a Littlefield error that went for some dough the next year. Relative scarcity was the key to creating an error card frenzy, and the Ray/Bonds OD card is definitely scarce.