Has anyone heard of The Cal Ripken F U card??
 

I was told there is an error card of Cal and on his bat it has spelled out F U has anyone seen this card or have a scan?? Sorry not very vintage. Thank u in advance.

Jim, go to Google, do a search for "1989 Fleer Ripken" and then when you see the linked results appear, don't click any of them and instead, click on the "Images" link. You'll have more photos of this card than you'll know what to do with.

Incidentally, I do this anytime I want to know what a specific card looks like. Works for even the obscure stuff in our hobby!

That would be billy ripken...not cal.

Used to have this card. It is Billy Ripken. If I ever get all of my stuff unpacked, will post a scan. Believe it said f@ck face.

Fleer employees got fired over this back in 1989. The President of the company was so upset that he stepped down after this card came out.

Hard to believe there is someone in this hobby that has never heard of or seen this card. I must have had a million of them...I chased down all the variations of it I could get my hands on too.

Funny. I had 100 lot of them once. Couldn't get a $1 a piece for them. Sold them all for about $65 I think.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me this was the card that started the "chase card" trend that continues to this day.
I think the card companies saw the excitement this card created and figured they could boost sales by creating "rare" cards.
Today opening a pack of cards is just legal gambling.

There were a few "chase cards" in 1989. The Ripken was one of them but the Upper Deck Dale Murphy Reverse Negative was also very popular and with Upper Decks first issue cards with fancy holograms on them and the Griffey rookies. It was fun while it lasted. Now its just a waste of time and money to chase anything new.

When Fleer and Donruss issued their first sets in 1981, long before 1989, they made a ton of errors, many corrected, and that was what started the "chase card" pehenomenon, not the Ripken card.

+1
I thought the exact same thing when I saw the post.

I also remember the Gary Sheffield 1989 Upper Deck rookie where the "SS" poition designation was upside down and was considered a rare error card. haha

Here is the site that is dedicated to the card and its many variations . . . .


http://www.billripken.com/

I have a F U Jim Manos card.

That website is actually mine. Reminds me that it needs work.... The FF card has always been a central part of my collection. Not for value, but for the story itself.

The first chase cards were those skip numbered cards in the vintage sets that never existed and kept the kids chasing the ghost to complete their sets.

Dan lets see!!!

Dan
 

You are hysterical. Dan is definitely my favorite net54 poster.

Billy and the People's Court
 

When this card was at the height of its value, it was the subject of a lawsuit between two kids on "The People's Court". While examining the card, Judge Wapner stated that he couldn't understand why a Billy Ripken card could be worth so much and that "his brother is much more famous". Rusty the bailiff walked over, pointed to the relevant part of the card and whispered something to Wapner. Wapner's eyebrows went up, he exclaimed "Oh!" and the case proceeded. :)

The card that really set off the chase card craze was the 1990 Upper Deck Heros Reggie Jackson Auto card.