Help with a Blank back card

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Posted By: Mike S

Hi, I hope someone here can help me out! I have a Topps 1983 Al Oliver #420(I think)with a blank back. The front of the card looks normal, except there is a small box in the upper left corner that says NL-.331 batting average, that's it. The rest of the set has normal backs with card #'s and stats. Is this card valuable or not? I've looked everywhere I can think of on the net, and the only photo of this card looks just like a normal card in that set(no small box with BA). Any help or suggestions would be greatly aprecciated!

Thanks in advance!
Mike
mike.s@att.net

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Posted By: Richey

A lot of cards come out with errors, but genuine errors are what sells. I don't think it would be worth much...but who knows. BTW, this is a vintage card message board...1983 doesn't really qualify.

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Posted By: Hankron

I think it was a fine question for the board, especially as he was looking elsewhere on the net. Whether or not rare and unusual, almost no 1983 Al Oliver card is going to be worth loads of money-- though some collectors will no doubt place a premium on it over his regular card. So, consider it an unusual and scarce card-- but that's pretty much the end of it. Personally, if reselling the set, I would keep the blank back Oliver for and replace it in the set with his regular card.

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Posted By: Todd (nolemmings)

The "card" likely was cut from a 1983 Topps 1982 League Leaders sheet, described in the Standard catalogue as being blank backed and including:
Willie Wilson, Reggie Jackson/Gorman Thomas, Oliver (top right of sheet), Lamarr Hoyt, Steve Carlton, Dan Quisenberry, Dave Kingman and Bruce Sutter. The catalogue describes the league leader reference being in the upper left corner.

It seems likely your card was cut from the sheet, and should show signs of a different cut/trim along the left and bottom edges. Sadly, the entire sheet in great shape is only worth a couple of bucks, and I doubt individual "cards" would hold any value.

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Posted By: julie

the following year's regular card--except for a little box with a batting average in it? I think this sounds interesting--but I'm probably wrong. "Leader" cards are usually diferent from a player's regular card--or should I say always?

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Posted By: Paul

I remember the 1983 leader sheet. The cards had the same design as regular 1983's and, I believe, the same pictures. But there were a couple of players who tied for the league in one category. I think Reggie Jackson was one of them. Those two players each got half a card, so their cards look significantly different than their regular cards. I don't specifically remember the cards having the players' batting average (etc.) on the front, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Julie, these were different than your run of the mill league leader cards. Those usually have two players on each card, one from each league. These were uncut sheets that contained single-player cards of each league leader, and I do think they were the players' regular cards from the set.