What is the origin of Frank Thomas NNOF?

[West]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

By the way, welcome aboard Mr West. Tell us what you know

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

Does anyone know when the 1990 Topps Thomas NO Name was first reported ? By chance I'm looking at a Oct, 1991 Beckett Monthly featuring Frank Thomas cards and there is no mention of it in the article or in the price guide.
If it was in packs etc. early in the production run it should have been reported in late 1989 or early 1990 in the hobby publications and later listed in price guides. I'll continue to check my publications.

I've been following this card as well as the other 13 blackless errors for quite a few years now. A common refrain heard in discussion of this error is that it is an "early print run error that was corrected quickly". I agree about the corrected quickly part, but I've yet to see concrete evidence that it was an early print run. The nearest evidence you would be able to find 27 years later would be anecdotal - a first hand account of a pack pulled Thomas NNOF shortly after the 1990 Topps release date. I've yet to see anyone come forward with such an account.

The rumors of an east coast distribution are very accurate as it seems 95% came from there, though I have seen a report of someone pulling the Thomas in Las Vegas.

I'll also say that the other 13 errors seem to be exceedingly rare as every year goes by and none of them surface. One would think that the Biggio and Carlton Fisk especially will gain quite a bit of value to registry collectors of those particular players as they are both a pop 3 or less on PSA. I know that the person - Joe (RookieWax on CU) - that pulled the 5 NNOFs in the Collector's Universe thread has at least 1 each of the blackless Biggio and Fisk that are BGS graded. I'm also aware of one other person, in 2014/2015, that got a Thomas NNOF, Biggio, Fisk, Hart, Morris and Russell out of 10 wax cases (that's 200 boxes for those counting). Those are the ONLY NNOF/blackless errors pack pulled out of all the 1990 Topps since 2009, that I'm aware of. "Rare" does not even begin to cover the odds. "Saucywombat" on CU has several of the blackless errors and Ross, the creator of the thread, has the Biggio at least.

I've been trying to find these cards either through buying unopened or hunting them down on any online marketplace. Buying unopened is probably the worst way to go about it, and has resulted in a massive amount of kindling for my woodstove.