Card Identification Forum

Years ago my son and I were opening packs of 1991 NBA Hoops and came across cards that went through the printers while red ink, yellow ink or both were missing from the backs of the cards. I tried to link to one example, card #281 here but I'm not sure it worked. With the red ink missing I now have two cards, one that's normal and one that's missing the card number, the Detroit Pistons in the basketball in the lower left corner and the red stripe behind the large "Detroit Pistons" at the top.

Along with this card I have cards 242 (Rick Adelman) and 242 (Cotton Fitzsimmons with the same issue. Card #284 (Indiana Pacers) I have missing the yellow ink on the back. Card 248 (Charles Barkley All Star) I have three ways... normal, missing yellow, missing yellow AND red. I have kept them in screw down holders over the years as something unique to look at. Would they have any value and should they be handled here as variations or just detailed card entries noting the missing ink?.

As printing errors they aren't documented here, but those are really great errors. I'm an error collector and can tell you that's quite a rare error. 

Thank you for the reply. I'll note the missing ink in a detailed entry. The Charles Barkley has really been a favorite. It's in a three card holder so when I hand it to people I don't warn them ahead of time. They see the fronts and basically say, "So? Lots of people have 3 cards of the same guy."  Then they flip the holder over and almost gasp when they see three different backs next to each other like that.

Very cool way to display that.

Thanks for sharing this. Could it be a test run that was accidentally mixed up with the real thing? Or maybe some bored factory worker did it on purpose on a Friday afternoon... I wonder how these things happen. Certainly nice to have something out of the ordinary.

Sometimes it is just a simple matter of one sheet of cards getting stuck to another sheet of cards as they go through the ink pressing for that color. Then later getting skipped for whatever quality control checks are made if any.