1989 Fleer Randy Johnson #381 Marlboro Errors - 30 Years Later

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by steve5838

Thanks! My guess is that this is the no tint at all version. In person I can't see any tint on mine over the sign. I think the sign background isn't completely white due to some shadowing (or distortion due to sunlight or changing image) on the LCD (or whatever it is) screen. However, up close I don't see any film of tint color over the sign like there is on the other versions. I think the rectangle around the sign where the color goes from dark red or off white to black just defines the dimensions of the LCD screen.

In post #87 you have a very sharp closeup image of the your clear version next to a blue version. It almost appears that there is some very light blueish tinting in that image over the white part of the ad. Some of the other photos of the other clear cards seem to show some light discoloration in that area too. That isn't evident with the card in hand?

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

In post #87 you have a very sharp closeup image of the your clear version next to a blue version. It almost appears that there is some very light blueish tinting in that image over the white part of the ad. Some of the other photos of the other clear cards seem to show some light discoloration in that area too. That isn't evident with the card in hand?

To me it looks to have a few areas of red tint. I can't remember who but one of the owners of one sent me some great scans and I noticed the very small amount of red spots on it also.

I do know these card are next to impossible to get a great pic/scan of, at least for me any way.

As for being rare what is the current known blue tint count?

Back when I was hoarding them the green scribbles seemed to be the rarest. Now there seems to be a lot more of them around. To me there was 3 different green scribble versions. I think I came up with around 18-20 different versions total. The only new one I have seen since then is the blue tint.

The 89 Fleer set had some great errors. The Boggs no dot is my favorite and seems to be in the silly rare category.

[steve5838]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

In post #87 you have a very sharp closeup image of the your clear version next to a blue version. It almost appears that there is some very light blueish tinting in that image over the white part of the ad. Some of the other photos of the other clear cards seem to show some light discoloration in that area too. That isn't evident with the card in hand?

I don't know if all of the pictures show up clearly enough on this site. So you can better see my clear card I just posted a pic on mySlabs. For reference I also posted one of my blue ones. I like that site because it lets you have very high definition images. I'm not seriously in the market to sell either of these at any reasonable price (and I know you have higher graded blue ones that I do) but the site makes you include some price for a card to show up.

Here is the link to cards I have up (I'm not sure how to get a link for one particular card):
myslabs.to/woodstock2

In person the background of the clear sign has a patchwork of subtle colors in it. It reminds me of some of the old laptop screens or even TVs. I agree there is some light distortion but believe it was part of the original photo of RJ in front of the sign and not after-the-fact tint. Maybe it has to do with the refresh rates of the older electronic billboard signage. I remember as a kid trying to take pictures of things on a TV or laptop and the pictures would show up with these strange color streams. This reminds me of that. To my eyes there is some light pinkish red, some yellowish white, and some bluish green. In the blue version the top of the cowboy's hat is part in and part out of the layer of blue tint. I don't see this on my clear one. In the clear version the entire cowboy's hat appears to me to be un-tinted. Even looking at the br2 one I posted on mySlabs (PSA #47414199) when you zoom in there is a distinct horizontal transition line that cuts across the top of the cowboy's hat that isn't there as far as I can see on the clear one. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be so that is why I put the pics up so you can judge for yourself. I hope this helps.

[Frankish]

This is a fascinating thread!

To be honest, I've relegated most of cards from this era to boxes for my son to sort through or even donated. But it's great to see this serious research and attention to these cards. I absolutely love it. Good work!

[Statfreak101]

Steve, in regards to the blue tint version - how noticeable is/was this card/tint to the naked eye before you really dissected it and noticed the difference in tint?

I only ask because I have a mountain of these and want to know if I need to go through them to see.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Statfreak101

Steve, in regards to the blue tint version - how noticeable is/was this card/tint to the naked eye before you really dissected it and noticed the difference in tint?

I only ask because I have a mountain of these and want to know if I need to go through them to see.

I have owned one and believe it might be the one Steve owns. The blue really sticks out. Actually it looks turquoise to me but there is no way you will confuse the blue card with a green tint.

[steve5838]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I have owned one and believe it might be the one Steve owns. The blue really sticks out. Actually it looks turquoise to me but there is no way you will confuse the blue card with a green tint.

I agree with Ben. It is pretty obvious unless you are ripping packs in a room without much light. Of course lighting on some eBay pics makes it difficult to tell for sure.. My rule of thumb for differentiating green vs blue versions beyond tint color, is in the blue version the cowboy is not obscured and there is no bubble.

[Athos01]

I've always thought the "blue" version was more green in my opinion. It just seems to be a lighter shade of green without any black scribble obstruction, when compared to the version commonly labeled "green scribble". Or, turquoise as Ben says, I would agree with that too. I believe junkwaxgems.com shows pretty much all the different versions I've ever owned/seen, as does Steve's photo gallery.

For those interested, the Treadway targets were not early corrections, these appeared randomly relatively early after the Ripken was first corrected. These were not very early errors. I also do not believe the checklists with positions were extremely early errors. These also seem to be some random type variety, but I'm not sure what point they came in the print run. The Boggs is not terribly scarce, the version without the black dot on the reverse can be commonly found in later print runs, well after other errors were corrected.