1991 Topps Desert Shield cards…. Your thoughts?
 

** Your take… 1991 Topps Desert Shield cards **

I am starting to explore more modern HOF cards in my quest to have at least 1 “playing days” card of every HOF player.

I am intrigued by the Desert Shield version of the 1991 Topps set and thought some more experienced collectors of this set might share their knowledge and advice here.

I just picked up my first Desert Shield HOF card (Larry Walker) and would love to learn more. I don’t see myself buying the very expensive, very high end RC’s. But maybe a few here and there given the relative rarity of the subset (and the fact that I was active duty USAF during gulf war 1 it makes the set a bit more special)

Thoughts? Advice? (Adding a couple here just for visual impact!)

Ah interesting. I just visited my sister and brother in law down in Maryland. Both USAF. BIL retired now, but he was also active duty during the Gulf War, and he had a grocery bag full of hundreds of Desert Shield cards he wanted to show me.

He pulled out his Chipper Jones card, but unfortunately his grocery bag storage method didn't treat it very well. :(

incredibly cool set, just be careful with the raw ones when buying. there's an assload of fakes out there, and some are pretty difficult to differentiate (at least for an amateur such as myself).

Jeff,

Looks good. There appears to be a healthy market for DS cards. I am also surprised semi-star and star cards are still being bought even though the embossing was clearly reproduced after printing.

We have had a number of posts about detecting fake cards here and on other forums. The fakes have been getting better but it is difficult to reproduce the font and spacing of lettering.

It seems like whenever this same topic pops up the fakes get a little better. DM me if you want more info. Best of luck with your collection.

There are threads on Blowout about fakes. And yeah they get slabbed.

Sending pm


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Yes, that is true. Seemingly every time we discuss how the embossing has changed and what to look for, the fakers get better. That is why I really do not want to detail the changes in a public forum.

The basics remain the same as posted in the original threads

It is a cool set. I have a few including some counterfeits.

I do know if you look at a complete set with a loupe to make sure they are all real you will not want to see another for a while.:)

There are some great threads with visual comparisons, but I still get stumped by some that are identified as fakes - that's a big stumbling block when it comes to purchasing more. I've bought one so far, a PSA slab, and there are a few more cards I'd like to buy.

I was in 5th grade during the Gulf War. Our homeroom teacher got us involved by connecting each of us students a solider as a pen pal. I think I exchanged letters a couple of times with my soldier. I have the letter I received back from him. The Desert Shield cards kind of take me back to that time.

I bought several from a Marine at a card show in 1991. He had a load of them and packs that he brought back from the Gulf. He said that most of the Marines were not interested and happily traded them to the few guys like him who were.

Got a similar story from my Brother-In-Law. He's not really a collector himself, and he said he had a ton more but gave a bunch away to other guys he worked with who were fans of certain teams.