Little advice on a Frank Thomas NNOF

[ALR-bishop]

Ben--that is fascinating about the proofs. That would seem to indicate the error was there from the get go and could or should have been caught before the first print runs started... no ?

Steve -- you are my printer expert ?

[brob28]

In one of the threads I read a theory that there was a stray piece of cardstock that became stuck in the printer and covered up these sections of the card during the black run and either dislodged itself or was discovered and removed. I know very little about the printing process so I'd be curious if the printing experts think the theory holds water?

Out of curiosity I checked the population reports: PSA - 164 graded, SGC - 4 graded. Not too many.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Ben--that is fascinating about the proofs. That would seem to indicate the error was there from the get go and could or should have been caught before the first print runs started... no ?

Steve -- you are my printer expert ?

I am not a print expert but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once.

Proofs like variations have different meaning to different people. I never got pictures of the "Proofs" because of the price. I only found out about them because seller was trying to low ball be on around 500 different only known wrong back error pairs I had.

I would guess they were blank backs with finished fronts because only the black ink is missing not the black from blue, red, and yellow printed over each other to make black. So there would be no difference in the color progressive proofs till the final black stage of printing.

Some useless info. In that era Topps sold its scrap errors and misprints directly to dealers. From my understanding this was very common in the industry. Score in my understanding was the only company not to do this at least once in a while. I know Score did not and was asked by several dealers and myself on a regular basis to do it. I had several friends that worked for Score and they were serious about scrap being destroyed.

[ALR-bishop]

So they may have"just" been blank bank proofs of the regular card before any blank ink was used ?

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

So they may have"just" been blank bank proofs of the regular card before any blank ink was used ?

Hi Al, I am horrible at descriptions. They are the Thomas NNOF version according to the seller so they had to have been completely printing on the front otherwise there would be no difference between a regular color progressive proof(first 3 colors) and one taken from the short time the NNOF cards were being printed because the black ink is printed last. I might be remembering the color progressive part wrong and seller could have just been offering proofs(blank backs). Either way at $15,000 each I was passing.

[ALR-bishop]

See the link to the article/blog on the last page of this great thread. Good read for those interested in the Thomas and related 1990 missing black cards

http://forums.collectors.com/message...hreadid=709331

[brob28]

Great thread there Al. As I read that I realized that is where I heard the theory about the paper stock which was ruled out through the analysis in the thread. The link in BoB's article which is on one of the last pages of the thread is certainly interesting with the estimated cost and time to pull one from unopened wax.


http://www.bighurthof.com/#!1990-topps-variations/c1gda

[swarmee]

Bumping this thread, here's an interesting update. Topps has been making cards labeled "Cards your mom threw out" and in 2010 put out a reprint of the Frank Thomas NNOF. However, they only blanked out the name, not the rest of the areas that did not have the black ink applied. Figured it was interesting: