1997 Topps Baseball Forum

Hey everyone,

A few months back I submitted an IR about the 200-207 Prospects subset that has versions with the backs (or fronts as you prefer) flipped. ComposerMike mentioned that these weren't listed as Vars b/c apparently they were just differences between the pack and factory set releases, which makes sense. However, having been working on gathering err/var info for all my Topps/DOnruss/UD master sets, I see where the 1987 Donruss flipped backs for instance actually are all listed as Vars. If that's the case, I wonder if I should submit a new IR making note of that, since this is basically the same deal? Or maybe a general note could be added to the set mentioning that those flipped backs exist (as was also done for the 87 Donruss listing) but only for Series 1? Thoughts?

1987 Donruss was by design.

There have been random 'flipped-back' cards seen in various products throughout the years. Those are not by design, and are printing glitches, which are not logged here (see the FAQ).

If this is the case that Topps intentionallty did that to be able to tell the difference bewteen the packed-out cards and the factory set cards, then we could add them. However, since we don't know, we won't be adding them. If you want, submit the info to the Trivia section.

Thanks for these notes, submitted a comment in Trivia. I know of other sets incl 1999 Topps and some of the recent Topps flagship releases where backs were flipped relative to the other cards in the set, but I'm not aware of any other releases besides '97 where the manufacturer created a "corrected" version as well?