So It Begins...

After listening to David Wright (@LongFlyBall on Twitter) on last week's episode of Beckett Radio, I am hooked the 1991 Topps set.  Like any good, all-American 12-year old I had plenty of of these in 1991 but I am starting from scratch.

Much has been written about the errors, variations and glow backs.  I'm not going to post that here.  If you don't know and are interested, check out Junk Wax Gems and this article from tanmanbaseballfan.com.

My first purchase was a 500-count vending box off eBay.  It is also the first vending box I've ever purchased.

Starting from scratch and only taking glances at some of the information on the web, I didn't know too much about these.  I thought that the glow backs were rare but to my surprise the they accounted for more than 75% of the vending box.

The glances I've taken at online info has discussed the sheets, so I broke down the cards by sheet and whether or not they are glow backs.

***None of the cards were with the bold 40th Anniversary logo.***

It's possible I miscounted somewhere and that's how I ended up with 512.  Or maybe I got lucky.

My three favorite cards from the box are glow backs.  I will probably try to pick up all back variations of them (along with Will Clark).  Sorry for the off-center picture but I wasn't willing to take another.  I wanted to show a picture of the glow back, but I had no luck getting good pictures.

You may or may not have caught it in the chart above, but there was one card in the box that does not have a sheet designation for it.  It's also entirely possible that I am blind and missing something in my old age.  It's something that I will be looking more into.  It's a shame this card has a defect/marking on the back in the doubles column.

There's a final card I want to show from this box.  I'm sure I've seen it a million times and on it's own, it's just a cool picture.  It's having the knowledge of this and a card that would be produced later that makes me wonder if any player has ever had a more...shall we say, interesting...couple of pictures on their cards.  It is the only thing that I will probably ever know Oscar Azocar for.

Oscar Azocar 1991 Topps

Oscar Azocar 1993 Stadium Club

I ordered a couple more vending boxes today, so there will be more 1991 Topps analysis to come.