The Big Guns

Here we have what are arguably the most high-profile of reverse negative errors. These are the ones that most collectors generally know about when you mention reverse negatives. There’s not much to be said that hasn’t already been said these iconic pieces of cardboard. Despite the fact that rev negs exist in all sports, the most famous ones are all baseball since error collectors seem to be more in abundance for baseball cards than any other sport, as well as baseball cards being more pored over and documented than other type of sports card.

1957 Topps #20 Hank Aaron. This is an uncorrected error, or UER in price guide terms, meaning that the error was never fixed in the print run and there are no existing copies of a corrected version. The age of the set (true vintage, as you know, is eminently collectable), the player, and the error still make this a highly valuable card though.

                          

1969 Topps #209 Larry Haney. (pictured on left) Another UER, and dirt cheap. I include it in this list because it is very well documented compared to most other examples. You can easily pick one up for a dollar on eBay, or maybe less depending on the condition. Compare this to the ’68 Topps Larry Haney (pictured on right), which is the same photo but the correct version. The #25 on the guy in the background is backwards (looks like a weird #52) in the ’69 for one, but even without him you would be able to tell this card is reversed since Haney is left-handed in the picture. See this link to find out more about how rare left-handed catchers are: http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/612/where-are-the-lefty-catchers

1982 Fleer #576A John Littlefield. (error on left) This is one of the rarest of reverse negatives in the modern era and one of the most highly sought after. During the junk wax boom, the scarcity of this card (it was corrected very early in the print run, so error versions are in short supply) had Beckett listing it to upwards of $300. As I said in my previous post, it was not the type of card that you would find at any local card shop display or friend’s shoebox. Now you can pick up a copy on eBay for around $50-$60 raw. That’s still pretty decent for an era when most cards from the major sets have devalued so dramatically due to massive overprinting. Littlefield is pitching lefty in the error version, and righty in the corrected one.

1989 Upper Deck #357A Dale Murphy. (error on left) This one is iconic due to the popularity of the inaugural Upper Deck product, the relative rarity of the error version compared to everything else in the set, and how striking the error is due to the picture being a close up of his full uniform. Most reverses you have to look closely for because clues aren’t necessarily noticeable on first glance, but it is obvious immediately that the “Braves” on Murphy’s uniform doesn’t look right and putting it side by side with the corrected version makes for a cool visual. It is not hard to pick one up these days, but ungraded copies on eBay still fetch $20-$25 regularly since it is such a popular card and set.

1990 Donruss #33A Juan Gonzalez. (error on right) This is a great example due to the incongruity of Gonzalez batting lefty and the backwards #19 on his uniform. Gonzalez was a major star in the 90’s so when this error version of his Donruss rookie card was discovered, it became pretty popular for a while. It was discovered quickly though that the error is not exactly rare, meaning the card was corrected only later in the print run and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of the error version exist. I see this card all the time. Today you can grab one for mere pennies on COMC.

2007 Topps Update #312A Joba Chamberlain. (error on left) I admittedly don’t know as much about this one since I stopped collecting for an extended time during my teens and twenties, and 2007 fell right in the middle of this. I’m not really sure if this is a legitimate error or one of those gimmicky variation chase cards that companies throw in these days, like this year’s Mike Trout Donruss or the Jason Heyward Archives from a few years ago. It makes you a little suspicious since post-junk wax cards hardly ever contain reverse negatives (I have a post on the last twenties years coming up and it is not a big list). But I haven’t seen anything yet stating that it was produced intentionally. It’s a pretty neat card and doesn’t sell cheaply when it pops up online. The error version has him pitching lefty and the “N” in the Yankees logo is backwards. There will be more on studying team logos to discover errors in a later post, and Yankees cards figure heavily into it.