Cards

		1	Nolan Ryan	Texas Rangers
		2	Nolan Ryan 5000K	New York Mets
		3	Nolan Ryan 5000K	California Angels
		4	Nolan Ryan 5000K	Houston Astros
		5	Nolan Ryan 5000K, UER	Texas Rangers
		6	Vince Coleman RB	St. Louis Cardinals
		7	Rickey Henderson RB	Oakland Athletics
		8	Cal Ripken RB	Baltimore Orioles
		9	Eric Plunk	New York Yankees
		10	Barry Larkin	Cincinnati Reds

• A card done in the 1990 Topps style of then-President George H. W. Bush also exists. Topps printed 100 cards of the President as a gift to the Commander in Chief. During his days at Yale, Bush played first base on the varsity baseball team and was team captain his Senior year. Over time, some these cards have made it into the secondary market and a few were pulled from packs. A photo in Topps Magazine from 1990 depicts President Bush being presented with a binder of these cards.
  
  In the Summer of 1990, White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, himself an avid card collector, appeared on The Tonight Show and traded a 1990 Topps George Bush card to Johnny Carson for a 1957 Topps Ernie Banks. In 2013, Governor Sununu submitted a Bush card to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) for grading; who then discovered a heretofore unknown variation.
  
  Whereas, all other Bush cards that had been previously graded by PSA had a rough surface -- not unlike a regular 1990 Topps card -- the card Governor Sununu submitted to PSA had a glossy coating on the front. All glossy cards were from the batch Topps gave directly to President Bush, who then gave a few to Governor Sununu. Former Topps CEO Arthur Shorin (who also possesses a glossy) confirmed in a press release that only 100 glossy cards were produced. It remains unclear why or how the non-glossy cards were produced or distributed; however, some collectors in 1990 reported pulling them from packs.
• The last regular-issue Topps set to offer the Glossy Send-In mail set after 8 consecutive years.
• Card #785 features the final Topps card of Hall of Famer Jim Rice.
• The "Batting Leaders" inserts were only included in 100-card blister packs sold at K-mart, making it a difficult set to complete.
• There were 13 cards that were printed without a strip of black in the final process, the most famous of which was the #414 Frank Thomas DP RC card where he had no name printed. The others were: John Hart #141, Kevin Tapani #227, Marcus Lawton #302, John Morris #383, Fred McGriff AS #385, Julio Franco AS #386, Carlton Fisk AS #392, Jeff Russell AS #395, Craig Biggio AS #404, Joe Magrane AS #406, Darrin Jackson #624, Jim Acker #728. These were all on the same sheet (all are orange border) and they missed a final black printing process which is seen in the thin black border around the colored frame. It is more evident in the AS cards that had a black and white in the background of the player photo. These are known as blackless variations and coveted by some collectors who will pay a tremendous amount of money. As of 2022, there are less than 1000 known in existence of each.

• BaseballCardPedia: 1990 Topps
• PSA Price Guide: 1990 Topps
• Sports Collectors Daily: 1987-1991 Topps Glossy Rookie Sets Required 100-Card Cello Pack Purchase
• Sports Collectors Daily: 1989, 1990 Topps Active Career Batting Leaders Sets are Rare Junk Wax Era G
• YouTube: 1990 Topps Box Opening (Jabs Family)

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