During the first 40 years of manufacturing baseball cards, Topps made its name with classic looking card designs that featured aesthetically pleasing borders. Though borders seem to be a thing of the past for recent Topps releases, they only created eight card designs over that first 40 years that didn’t have that classic baseball card look. Those years were 1962, ’68, ’70, ’71, ’75, ’86, ’87, and ’90.
While some of those designs are absolute icons (like ’68, ’75, and ’87), one of the features that always set Topps apart from other manufacturers was the classic baseball card stock border look. Other companies turned to flash as a way to compete. Fleer was using blues and grays, Donruss was using black, blue, red, and green, and Score was using every color in the rainbow. Yet Topps, more often than not, just put out a simple but great looking baseball card.
By the early ’90s, most companies had turned to completely off the wall designs to try and be different. Donruss was rolling out red in ’90, Fleer was yellow in ’91, and Score was running out of colors on the palette that hadn’t been used yet. Even Topps went with a colorful entry in 1990 with blue, orange, and green as primary border colors. While some companies were still using the classic border, like Up-per Deck, we exited the 1980s with a much different visual concept than we entered it.
After seeing all of the cards produced in 1990, I imagined at the time that we had seen the last of the classic border design from Topps. With three of the previous five releases being non-classic looking cards, I felt like Topps was moving away from what made them different during most of the ‘80s. Thankfully, I was wrong.
In 1991, Topps celebrated its 40th Anniversary by not only going back to the card stock border; but by creating what I consider to be another iconic design. Whether underrated or underappreciated, 1991 Topps is one of the least discussed great looking designs for me during the entire ’80s and ’90s. I do love some of the others during those years, but 1991 was just about perfect in my opinion.
The front of the cards had great photos that covered about 90 percent of the card. The white border around the outside of the photo also had two inset borders that were associated with the team colors in some way. The Chipper Jones displayed here included a blue border on the inside of the white border, and then a red border inside of that. The top left of the card had the Topps “40 Years of Baseball” banner and the bottom right had the team logo and player name. The player’s position was also on the bottom of the card.
The team names were in the same font and design as the logo on uniform. That is one of the oft over-looked parts of the card design to me. Topps had gotten away from using the team designed logos/fonts for most of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, with the exception of 1987. I can’t think of an-other design that used the team issued lettering. Some used the team colors but 1991 used the same lettering that was on the uniforms. It was a simple but fantastic inclusion in the set design.
The backs of the cards were red with dark blue lettering, which is a great combination. They are easy to read and include all years of the player’s career, plus a “1990 Monthly Scoreboard” that features a breakdown of key stats by month for the 1990 season. In classic Topps fashion, some of them had some great player “tidbits” as well. But the backs of the cards hold a lot more than just the standard red and blue lettering on gray card stock. More on that in a moment.
One of the staples of Topps was back in 1991 with the Topps All-Star Rookie Cup cards. These have always been fun for me. It has somewhat of a RC feel but it also only includes the players who performed well during their rookie season or were named to the year’s Topps Rookie Team.
The All-Star Cards had a bit of a cosmic design and differs from a lot of the All-Star inserts during that time period. I dig this design personally.
The Record Breaker subset was at the beginning of the checklist, beginning after Nolan Ryan at Card #1. These featured players who set certain records the season before. If you collected during the Junk Wax Era, you certainly know all about Kevin Maas!
While I have always enjoyed the design on 1991 Topps, I learned a lot more about the set from David Wright, when he appeared on The Fatpacks Podcast in Episode 1-12. In that episode, David (not the Mets David Wright but the @longflyball David Wright on Twitter) talked about all of the hidden variations from the set; the most interesting of which was the existence of “Glow Backs.” Somewhere in the Topps production facility, there were apparently a few batches of ink that made it onto the 191 Topps release that made the backs of the cards glow under a black light. You read that right, the backs of some of the 1991 Topps Baseball cards glow in a bright pink under a black light.
When it comes to these “Glow Backs,” they are not all created equal. There appears to be a “Glow Back” variation for each card in the set, based on my research. But along with the “Glow Backs,” there are also BOLD backs where the 40th Anniversary logo is bright and bold, and others where the logo is barely visible.
The black light variations are not all that can be found in the set. Without going into minute detail, there are several cards you can look for when opening 1991 Topps. Some of them even carry substantial value in comparison to other Junk Wax releases. The variations in the set include different colored borders, airbrush issues, incorrect photos, trademark and registration symbol issues, misspellings, and other errors.
There are three specific variations that are pretty difficult to find but are very sought after among collectors of 1991 Topps.
The first is Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd. Back in 1991, I never imagined that I would one day write about a relatively valuable Dennis Boyd card, but here we are. The variations of the “Oil Can” card are related to his hand. There is one where his hand is covering part of the 40th Anniversary logo. Then there is another with a pink flag where the 40th Anniversary logo is, instead of the standard red. Then there is one with a black line at the end of the pink flag. These are very minor issues but are all noticeable when you know what you are looking for.
hand over logo
pink tip on logo
Another rare variation in the set is of Doug Drabek. His cards are a little easier to spot. The two main variations are associated with the border color. One card has an inset white border (rare) and the other has an inset black border.
The final “big name” variation in the set is of Mark Whitten. Like the “Oil Can” card, his variations are related to his hand position on the card. In some variations, his hand is over the border (rare) and in others the border is over the hand. While there are many, many issues like these throughout the set, these are the most popular among collectors.
As I began to learn more about the set, I began a journey of building a master set of 1991 Topps that contains all of the variations and “Glow Backs.” I even added an additional column to the spreadsheet that included “Gum Stained” backs. I don’t know if all of the cards in the set will have the opportunity to carry a gum stain, based on collation. But I decided that if I was going to try and piece together every variation, I might as well include those, too.
The 1991 Topps set has a lot of history, within the base set and the special edition Desert Shield set. It is popular both in design and in relative scarcity of particular cards for the time frame. I purchased a box every few months to try and find those hidden treasures and to help build the set I am working on.
I knew when I began working on this project in 2017, that it wouldn’t be an easy task. And it has proven to be anything but. But while it has been time consuming and difficult, it has been a task that has been very rewarding for a col-lector that enjoys the Junk Wax Era and set building. I may never complete the master set, but I will certainly enjoy the process.
Have about 100,000 cards from late 80s to early 90s. Havent had time to go through all them. Have 9 b9xes of unopened wax packs from 89 I think.
For me, the rarest card was #426, Joe Grahe. It was the last card I needed for my set. I must have bought 200+ packs and shuffled through 40,000+ 91 Topps commons in every card shop and show in 2 states to find that card. There’s no reason why that card was so hard to find!
John, the rarest card is always the last one we are chasing! It can be so common but still be the toughest pull ever. I hope you eventually found it!
Bought this book of 1991 Topps cards from 1 to 792. Some missing but most all of the cards are there. What’s the worth other then memorabilia worth.
Not exactly rare, but I noticed while looking at a # 48 Boyd that under a magnifying glass, the Topps logo in the corner appears to be in 3D. All the cards in the packs I bought had the same issue. Again, not rare since they all appear to have it, but I’m sure someone will try to sell them as a variation.
You’re right John, someone will certainly add that to the “variations” list at some point. There were so many printing issues back then that it’s hard to catch everything. But finding a 3D Logo would have been amazing back in 1991!
I was given the 1991 Topps as a kid. No idea what to do with it as I don’t collect. It’s there a market for this?
Side note, I’m missing some, but I do have the #426 John mentions above.