Card Identification Forum

Would appreciate some help folks. Have a Frank Thomas 1991(ish) baseball card with no brand or distributor name, no number either. Front is Thomas in batting stance, White Sox helmet/apparel; inset box has thin red side border lines & thin yellow top/bottom lines; the border is 1/4" medium green all the way around. Back has name + team + position at top / stats section shows 1989 Gulf Coast & Sarasota minor league + 1990 Birmingham minor league + 1990 White Sox 1st year results / bottom of back hilights CWS late season call-up and Auburn, SEC college facts. Thanks in advance for any identification info!

Looks like some homemade, or copycat, version of 1990 Topps design.

Thought of counterfeit, but style doesn't match any I can find in my collection (have 5,300 or so left, 80+% all betwn '88-'94); you're right that it resembles 1990 Topps - though it wouldn't have been very 'smart' to copy the back info from the year after the 90 sets were printed lol; + the green is primary solid whereas all Topps' regular sets that year had slimmer borders in assorted 2-tone pastels from colors of the basic rainbow. The Topps' inset trim lines were always side/top of 1 primary color & side/bottom of another (the red/yellow on my mystery card are parallel reds/yellows and thinner than the 'legit' cards - stock on the mystery actually better quality & sturdiness than the late80s, early 90s as well..

Oh well, will probably remain unsolved forever - just bugging me since it doesn't match anything else I've seen or remember. . thanks for the reply Sportzcommish!

Yeah, the colors don't match, but the basic template is there. There are unauthorized cards that are listed on the database and I believe one of the companies, Broder, does unauthorized cards, but to their credit doesn't copy designs.

Some snooping around the Internet led me to a Rickey ("Ricky") Henderson one as well. However, no more information. :(

Just looks like an unlicensed card to me. Possibly a Spring Training uniform? Maybe just a BP shirt? Early 90's had a ton of unlicensed stuff.

I believe these kinds of cards were called broder cards. They were unlicensed by sports (NBA, NFL etc.) They have no real value. Except to someone who collects a certain player. I remember them being given out at card shows around Boston when I first started collecting.