(I admit I’ve never been a major Rush fan, though “Moving Pictures” was the theme music — thanks to a boom box in the back — to my bus rides home from school. But I’ve been kind of obsessed with news of the reunion tour. I heard last night’s show was pretty cool. Anyway, time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 370th in a series):
I received this Tom Seaver variation card from 1985 Donruss in a TCDB trade the other day. I usually don’t chase error cards for ’80s sets that I’m building. It depends — it’s kind of a case-by-case basis. But picturing a completely different player is a pretty big error. I couldn’t say no. That is Floyd Bannister on Tom Seaver’s card.
I already owned the corrected version of the card:
That’s a major flub actually. Tom Seaver is a huge name and had been in the limelight for nearly 20 years at this point. I can hear Topps chortling over four-year-old Donruss making such a goof. Or maybe it grumbled over the supposedly purposeful errors of Donruss and Fleer from this time.
I don’t know the details of this error, the time frame and all that — when was the error discovered? When was the correction issued? As I’ve said before, I paid very little mind to baseball cards in 1985 and bought only two or three packs of Donruss (I bought nothing for Fleer).
But I’ve always liked 1985 Donruss and getting this error card has given me the boost to finally chase down what I need to finish the set. It’s only seven cards. I’ve put most of the stragglers — some were gremlins (Luis DeLeon!!) — into my sportslot cart. And I’ll probably add one of the big three I need, either Clemens, Gooden or Puckett.
Those three are still causing me some angst — I should not be paying double-figures for a mid-1980s card!! But hopefully I’ll get over it because I want to get this done and out of my hair.
Now …
… Big Decisions.
Do I —
a) Put the Tom Seaver Floyd Bannister error card side-by-side with the actual Floyd Bannister card in the binder?
b) Put the Tom Seaver Floyd Bannister error card side-by-side with the correct Tom Seaver card in the binder?
c) Put the Tom Seaver Floyd Bannister error card in the back of the binder with any other variations (as I’ve done with some other sets).
P.S. I already know the answer. It’s “c”, unless I work up the energy to shift one-third of the set over one card to put the two Seavers next to each other.