Topps pulled out the stops in 1991 - it was their 40th anniversary year and it featured a nice design with some unique photos, as well as a HUGE give-away of older Topps cards. Topps purchased three of each of their sets, 1952-1990, on the secondary market and offered one of each as a Grand Prize to some lucky collector. One of each was also awarded individually, and the cards from the remaining third were broken up and randomly inserted in to packs, with certificates for over-sized cards (1952-1956) and for any cards then valued at $50 or more. I busted several boxes both to build a complete set and to see whether I would be lucky enough to be able to find one of the thousands of cards available. I came up with nothing, but given my luck if I had found one it would have been a checklist from 1990. Conversations in card shops at the time went along the lines of "my sister's boyfriend's cousin's dentist in Utica found the Robin Yount rookie!", but I never did personally meet someone who had pulled anything, let alone won a set.
1991 featured the final use of wax wrappers, the final inclusion of gum in packs and the final use of the traditional cardboard stock as well. Taken with the 40th anniversary celebration, it serves as an appropriate mile marker on the road toward a newer sort of Topps baseball card.
After 1990's wild and crazy design, 1991 is a return to simplicity and it works very well. The player's image is surrounded by a double border, color-coded to correspond to his team. His name and position appear against the bottom border and the team's wordmark logo is set against a black banner in the lower right corner of the image. The Topps logo is incorporated into a larger "40 Years of Baseball" emblem in the upper left corner. The player's name and position can occasionally be difficult to read clearly due to it's small font size and its placement against a striated background.
Backs are printed in blue and pink against red and white (more on this farther below). Space permitting, a '1990 Monthly Scoreboard' appears which breaks down the player's offensive (or pitching) stats from 1990 by month.
"A" Sheet
"C" Sheet
"E" Sheet
"B" Sheet
"D" Sheet
"F" Sheet
6 different printing sheets each held 132 unique cards, for a complete set total of 792 cards.
Wax packs contained 15 cards (along with a stick of gum) and were priced at 50 cents each. Packs came 36 per box and boxes were packed 20 per case.
Each pack also contained either a Topps card from 1957-1990 or an entry card for the 1951-1991 complete set run monster drawing. Relatively few were issued entitling the finder to either a large card ('52'-'56), a card valued at $50 or more, or one of 40 complete sets.
Wrappers advertised the 40th anniversary give-aways and offered a no-purchase-necessary way to obtain a game card.
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At some point during production, Topps introduced heat-sealed cellophane wrappers. Both types were available throughout most of the year, but this was the swan song for wax paper wrappers, a standard part of the hobby experience stretching back to Topps' origins and even before with its hobby predecessors.
The bottom of each wax box contained one of four different panels of 4 uncut 'limited edition' cards. Card backs describe some event from the player's 1990 season.
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Again in 1991 Topps test marketed cello "wax" packs - identical in every way to regular wax packs but sealed in cellophane. Because of the cello, packs were slightly larger and were packed in larger boxes. Presumably, cases were slightly larger as well.
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Cello packs contained 34 cards and an entry card. Packs sold for 99 cents and were packed 24 per box.
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Larger cello hanger packs contained contained 40 cards and two entry cards. Packs were priced at $1.49 each and were packed 24 per box.
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So-called "Grocery Jumbos" contained 100 cards and three entry cards. Packs were shipped in cases of 24.
Topps again produced a glossy rookie set associated with these jumbo packs, but unlike in previous years, the set was available solely as a send-away offer. Pack backs contained a set checklist and indicated that the full set of 33 could be had for 17 proofs-of-purchase and $1.50 shipping, 10 proofs, $4 and $1.50 shipping, or 1 proof, $7.50 and $1.50 shipping.
Rack packs held 45 cards and one entry card. Packs carried no MSRP, and came 24 per box. Cases again held either 3 or 6 boxes.
As with the glossy rookies, the 1990 version of the Glossy All Stars were available only via mail in offer. Rack pack reverses included the set's checklist and an offer of one set for 17 proofs-of-purchase and $1.50 shipping, 10 proofs plus $2.50 and $1.50 shipping or 1 proof and $5.00 and $1.50 shipping.
The set contains 22 cards. 18 starters from the 1990 All Star game are featured, as well as each manager and the honorary captains. Cards have either the AL or NL shield on the front, as appropriate.
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Vending boxes again contained 500 cards and came packaged 24 per case.
Factory sets came either in a drab white box or in an illustrated, full color variety.
Of 792 total cards, 728 are basic player cards.
Included in the basic player card count are two subsets. Topps designated 6 young players as "Future Stars" and recognized the members of the previous season's All Star Rookie team with gold cups.
91 - Greg Colbrunn, Expos
114 - Lance Dickson, Cubs
211 - Brian Barnes, Expos
561 - Tim McIntosh, Brewers 587 - Jose Offerman, Dodgers
594 - Rich Garces, Twins
642 - Hal Morris, Reds 1B 432 - Delino DeShields, Expos 2B
756 - Jeff Huson, Rangers SS
461 - Robin Ventura, White Sox SS 329 - David Justice, Braves OF
339 - Larry Walker, Expos OF
368 - Felix Jose, Cardinals OF
165 - Sandy Alomar, Jr., Indians C
454 - Kevin Appier, Royals RHP
299 - Scott Radinsky, White Sox LHP
Cards 2-8 featured record breaking performances from the 1990 season. Card backs offer newspaper-like accounts of the events. Card #1 was again Nolan Ryan's basic player card.
Cards 386-407 are 'All Star' cards with the A.L. running from 386-396 and the N.L. from 397-407. Players appearing in this subset didn't necessarily appear on the rosters of either 1990 squad, but rather they seem to be Topps' selections for the best players at their positions in 1990.
A.L. and N.L. cards differ in the use of orange and green. Card backs provide the top performers, by league, in a variety of statistical categories, as well as a few brief season highlights of the subject.
Ten players taken in the first round of the June, 1990 amateur draft appear throughout the set. Backs detail their academic careers.
The set includes cards depicting the current managers of the 26 clubs. Card backs provide stats tracking the club's top 1990 performers.
The set includes 6 checklist cards which continue the God-awful trend started in 1990 of checklisting cards by team and subset rather than numerically as had been the tradition for three decades.
A full checklist of the 1991 set, including printable formats, can be found at the Trading Card Database HERE.
Hall of Famer Chipper Jones (333) makes his first appearance in the 1991 set, as do Tino Martinez (482) and Moises Alou (526).
No Hall of Famers take a bow in 1991, but Dave Parker (235), Mike Scott (240), Garry Templeton (253), Frank White (352), Rick Reuschel (422), Rick Dempsey (427), Chet Lemon (469) and Fred Lynn (586) do.
Topps again produced a 132-card boxed Traded set late in the season to reflect those players who had changed teams and rookies not included in the base set. Cards are numbered 1T-132T.
The set contains 125 basic player cards, including members of Team USA, the national collegiate team, as well as 6 managers and a checklist. Cards were printed on thinner, white card stock and were only available via dealers. Sets came packed in cases of 100.
Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell (4T) and Ivan Rodriguez (101T) make their debut in the set, as do Jason Giambi (45T) and Luis Gonzalez (48T).
Traded sets were also available in a full-color, illustrated box as well as via 7-card packs which came 36 per box. For some reason cards produced for distribution in packs were printed on more traditional gray stock.
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Boxed sets were accompanied by a small insert which served as a subscription form for Topps Magazine.
In 1991 Topps produced their final tiffany sets. Cards in each were printed on heavier, glossy white card stock.
Production occurred at Topps' facility in Ireland and each set was limited to 4,000 units.
Sets were only available via dealers.
Some of the most sought after and valuable baseball cards of their era are the 1991 Topps Desert Shield cards. These are regular 1991 Topps cards foil stamped with a gold Operation Desert Shield logo. Cards were meant to be distributed to U.S. troops in the Middle East serving as part of Operations Desert Shield and later Desert Storm. A fair amount are reported to have never left an air base in South Carolina.
Topps records indicate that 500 cases were produced, which would mean roughly 6,800 of each of the 792 cards. Regular wax wrappers and boxes were used.
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Perhaps not rising to a "WTF?" idea, but certainly worthy of a weary "why??" is the 1991 Micro set. Sold solely in factory set form, it is a reproduction of the entire set in tiny 1x1 3/8 inch size. Give credit where credit is due - on close examination the cards don't lose any sharpness or clarity in back or front because of reduced size.
It's hard to know where to begin when discussing the errors and variations which exist in the 1991 Topps set. Despite it being Topps' much-ballyhooed anniversary set, more variations can be found in this set than in any other produced by Topps. It is bad enough to make one wonder whether some were intentional in an attempt to goose interest as errors and variations have always been popular with a segment of the hobby.
It is probably best to begin with the 'dark logo' variations. Cards from sheets A and B can be found with either the usual light-colored Topps logo on the reverse or a much darker variety:
Also, ALL 792 cards can be found in a version where the red dye used on the reverse glows when exposed to black light. No images are provided here because under normal light no difference can be noted.
Beyond these basic production and design variations, there exist dozens of errors/variations having to do with the copyright lines on the back, incorrect or missing statistics, checklists providing incorrect card numbers, the positioning of trademarks on card fronts, and so forth.
For the purposes of this page I will present the most egregious/obvious and most popular among collectors.
Chris Hoiles (42) can be found with a white inner border, and the correct dark gray border.
Dennis Boyd (48) exists in three varieties - one with his wrist obscuring the corner of the anniversary banner, another with the red corner of the banner painted in and a another with the red corner and black border added.
Jose Gonzalez (279) was first printed erroneously with an image of Billy Bean (left) before being corrected.
Keith Comstock (337) was wrongly printed as a Cub before being corrected.
Mark Whiten (588) can be found with his hands extending beyond the border and corrected to stay inside.
Like Hoiles, Doug Drabek (685) was printed both with an incorrect white inner border and the correct dark gray border.
Topps included just one paint job in the 1991 set, Tommy Greene (486). He only appeared in 10 games with the Phillies in '90, yet somehow Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss and Score all managed to issue cards of him in their basic 1991 sets showing him in an actual Phillies uniform.
While the set features some very nice looking cards, too many have a grainy or otherwise less-than-clear image, likely due in part at least to Topps' continued use of traditional cardboard for their cards. Their competitors all used white, glossier stock. Topps would catch up in 1992.
