A Pair of 2016 Topps Now Baseball Variations Surface
By Ryan Cracknell | Hobby Editor
It’s not very often in today’s hobby where errors get corrected after the fact. It’s even more rare that errors are created after the fact. Both have surfaced recently with a couple of 2016 Topps Now Baseball variations.
The first is your standard corrected error. Card #474 featured both Carlos Correa and Alex Rodriguez, commemorating the fact that they’re the only shortstops in history with a pair of 20-home run seasons before their 21st birthday.
The card that was sent out was an error. It pictured Mookie Betts and Nomar Garciaparra, mirroring card #483 in the print-on-demand set.
Topps has gone back and fixed the card, with collectors receiving the proper card with Correa and Rodriguez.
The other variation is a little more curious.
Back in July, Topps Now did a card of Josh Harrison for a walk-off triple. There weren’t any issues with the cards themselves. However, when they were sold, there was an error with the mock-up on the Topps website. He was named “John” Harrison on the image.
That led to a lawsuit from Law of Cards columnist, Paul Lesko who claimed that he bought the card for the error.
While the results of the lawsuit aren’t public, there’s now a 2016 Topps Now John Harrison card listed on eBay.
We’ve reached out to Topps to see if all those who ordered the Harrison will be receiving the error version, which would give it a print run of 319 cards.
Comments? Questions? Contact Ryan Cracknell on Twitter @tradercracks.
Another one maybe worth revisiting is #89 Ichiro. The card I got, and, according to Topps whom I reached out at the time, all 551 of the cards issued listed the number of base hits as 2,556. It should have been 2,956, and if you look at it on the website now it has the correct number.
So any other word on this John Harrison version and if original buyers will be getting it as well? Just wondering, as I have bought all the 2016 Topps Now and want to have a complete set. I did received corrected #474’s myself but they were from cards I had returned due to damage. I’ve not seen my original order totally replaced. Months ago I had sent back a few #163’s (The Juilo Teheran UCE on back) that were damaged and Topps sent me back the same card with the error (uncorrected) so it doesn’t seem to be standard practice to fix errors only on returned cards. Perhaps Topps ran a special printing for him…if so I will be a bit disappointed as I want at least one of each for my collection. No way I am paying $5K for a deliberately printed and quite possibly very short printed error card.
From what I understand, I believe the Harrisons will likely be sent to all who ordered. I contacted Topps but haven’t heard back. Because it was part of a lawsuit, possible they won’t be able to say anything publicly.
Well a second seller has popped up on eBay way lower so perhaps they are sending them to all the buyers. We will see I suppose…
As far as I know, topps only sent the “John” cards to people who purchased them very soon after their release on the website. Shortly after posting the card topps realized their mistake and changed the pictured card to say “josh”. Therefore they would only have to send the “John” cards to people who purchased while it still said “John”. This makes the card have an extremely short print run (although it is unknown). Based on what has happened on eBay, as there are only three left, it seems there are not going to be many more to surface and the price may only go up as collectors try to complete the sets while they still can.
It is speculation as to how many there are as Topps hasn’t confirmed whether some or all were reprinted. Because of the lawsuit, they may not be able to.
If all of them were reprinted don’t you think that more would have shown up on eBay by now though?
Not necessarily. There are only three versions of the corrected version posted right now as well. There are a handful of bulk sellers who could have small piles available. It’s possible that there’s a shorter supply of the error but the point is it’s speculation and potentially pricey speculation at that.
However none of those small piles have shown up on eBay, when all of the people that would have those small piles are dealers that sell through eBay. Also, you say that there are only three of the josh cards but that card was released months ago and everyone who wanted it already bought it then. That would result in the dealers being out of stock of the Josh card and them being in collectors sets already. In the almost month since the john card has surfaced there have been less than 10 show up. Way more than 10 of the Josh cards came up and sold within a month after it was for sale.
Until the print run of the error is confirmed, it’s speculation. Perhaps it is short printed. But if someone were to come along, see that it might be a short print, go spend lots of money on a copy thinking it’ll be worth something due to its scarcity and it turns out it’s not, that wouldn’t be a good thing. Again, it could be but it’s not publicly a certainty.
I agree with you that it is impossible to know how many there are until topps says something publicly.
Also, if you find anything out for sure can you let me know?