How to spot 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball Error Cards

With 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball releasing next week, collectors will be opening packs trying to find the error cards that mimic and parallel the errors made in the 1966 Topps Baseball release. Because these new Heritage error cards are unannounced, the hardest part, most of the time, is spotting them.

I was the first to spot one of these cards back in 2011. I did a post about it called Mysterious ARod 2011 Topps Heritage Card Surfaces on eBay. At the time the card was on its way to being sold for a little more than $10. That auction ended early. When it was understood to be an error mimic card it sold for more than $300.

So rather than wait until after the release of 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball, we have decided to provide for you a guide with a checklist of cards that could contain errors.  We've divided them into four categories, Hight Alert for cards that are almost guaranteed to have error variations, Possible Errors for cards that look like good candidates for error SSP cards, Longshots for cards that have an outside chance of being included as an SP and Conditional Longshots for cards that could have an error variation but depend on certain elements being present.

All of this is based on what we know about the original error cards from 1966, what we know about the 2015 Topps Heritage Checklist and how previous releases of Heritage have handled errors. Until these cards are discovered and confirmed, check these card numbers very carefully.

1966 Topps Baseball Error Cards Visual Checklist

It’s Free Dress Friday here on All About Cards. That means anything goes. So put on your casual clothes and let’s look at the lighter side of Trading Cards.

In the past two weeks when we introduced you to “Actual” Error Cards. Not player cards that contain errors but cards that contain player’s errors. We received some great feedback on that post, but it might be time to look at some real error cards. Yes, the ones that contain card errors.  

With 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball releasing next week, collectors will be looking at cards in the style of 1966 Topps Baseball. One really fun aspect of Heritage from year to year is discovering the unannounced error cards. These cards are SSPs and mimic the error cards from the year Heritage is honoring. Because these cards are unannounced, collectors slowly find these cards as packs are opened. 

The hardest part, most of the time, is spotting them. Many people race to get their cards up on eBay to try to take advantage of higher sales prices for being first to market. With Heritage this can be a costly error as some cards sell for the price of their normal base card counterparts.

I was the first to spot one of these cards back in 2011. I did a post about it called Mysterious ARod 2011 Topps Heritage Card Surfaces on eBay. At the time the card was on its way to being sold for a little more than $10. That auction was eventually ended early. When it was understood to be an error mimic card it sold for more than $300.

So for Free Dress Friday we will focus on the original errors from 1966. Later today I’ll give you my predictions for which cards will be error cards in 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball. (I got over 80% of them last time.) All of this will be followed up with a Complete Checklist for 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball this weekend and Complete Visual Checklists for the Throwback Uniform, Action Image, Color Swap and Error Mimic variations shortly after next week’s release.

Now let’s look at the original errors from 1966 Topps Baseball.

2015 Topps Series 1 Photo Variation Complete Visual Checklist

2015 Topps Series One Baseball Photo Variation cards are easier to spot than Sparkle Variations but only if you’ve seen the base version. Like Sparkles, it helps to find the code on the back of the card. This year that code ends with 901. In previous years it wasn’t tough to recognize a photo variation because they usually had a theme like pie in the face or foul ball. This year spotting a card takes a little more effort because there are a variety of themes including celebration, farewell, gatorade, pitchers that hit and bubble gum to name a few.

We did a complete visual checklist for 2015 Series 1 Baseball Sparkles yesterday. Today we give you this complete visual checklist for the 25 different Series One Photo Variations.

We will show you the base card and Photo variation for card #1, Derek Jeter, just as a comparison, but after that all you will see are Photo Variations. If you think you have an SP Photo Variation but you don’t it find here, it’s just a nice looking base card.

Here is our 2015 Topps Series 1 Photo Variation Complete Visual Checklist

Ted Kluszewski is on our Throw Back Thursday Vintage TBT Card for February 26, 2015

It’s time for another installment of Throw Back Thursday Vintage TBT Cards. The player on our card for today,  February 26, 2015, is Ted Kluszewski.

This is not his rookie card. You have to go back to 1949 Leaf for that. But this card was around well before my time so it works for me. This is as far as I can throwback Kluszewski from my PC.

2015 Topps Series 1 Sparkle Variation Complete Visual Checklist

For Topps Series One Baseball cards since the inclusion of Sparkle Variations in 2011, collectors have had a hard time spotting these sparkles? We admit, they are tough to recognize and at first we didn’t spot a card we pulled from a hobby pack this year’s 2015 Topps Series 1 Baseball. So how can you tell if you have a true sparkle? The only thing that helped us find it was to check the code on the back of the Sparkle card. This year that code ends with 903.

Upon further inspection we also noticed that 21 out of the 50 Sparkle SP variations include a shift in sides of the Topps logo, which we detailed in an earlier post.  We have done complete visual checklists in the past, showing you the key places to look on the card to find the Sparkles. 

We’ve decide to do another Complete Visual checklist for 2015 Series 1 Baseball Sparkles as they seem to be a bit smaller, perhaps tiny compared to other years, and seem harder to spot. We will also be doing one for the 25 Photo Variations later this week.

An asterisk has been put at the end of the player name on the checklist if that card is one of the 21 that have a Topps logo that shifts. This checklist is complete so if you think  you see a Sparkle on a card that you don’t find here, it’s just a natural light photographic reflection and not an actual sparkle.

Here is our 2015 Topps Series 1 Sparkle Variation Complete Visual Checklist

LeBron James Upper Deck Autograph Cards are our Hump Day Hits plus a Willie Mays Autograph update

It’s Wednesday so it’s time for another installment of Hump Day Hits. 

Before we get to the new cards for this week, here is a small update on a post we did two weeks ago when we covered Willie Mays Certified autograph cards. 

At the time we told you we had tracking the street values for his autograph cards and there seemed to be an upswing in prices. Not long after that post prices seemed to follow that trend as we saw certain autographs push to $300 and more. Well here is one card that ended in the day after our post, and there is no way we could have anticipated what would happen.

Zen Cards of the Day for February 24

Here are the Zen Cards of the Day. Let this theme take you to another place. Relax your ‘Monkey Mind” with these anchor words. Repeat over and over again.

2015 Topps Series One Baseball Sparkle Cards and The Curious Case of the Shifting Logos

Earlier today we asked you to play a childhood game of “one of these things” with four 2015 Topps Series 1 Baseball Trading Cards. We showed you these Ryan Braun cards and asked you “which one is different.”

We had full faith in you collectors and you did not disappoint. The vast majority of you nailed it, that the card on the lower left is different. But the interesting part of this exercise was what you told us makes the card different.  Allow me to explain.

One of these things is not like the others with 2015 Topps Series 1 Baseball Cards

Hello kids! Let's play a game with 2015 Topps Series One Baseball Cards that most of you will remember!

Oscars Frontrunners Certified Autograph Cards are the focus of Signature Sunday

When a show is watched by 43 million viewers, it is hard to ignore it’s impact so we would be remise if we didn’t make the Oscars the focus of this week’s Signature Sunday. Tonight gold statues will be handed out solidifying participants places in movie history. While plenty of categories will be awarded, most people are interested in the Awards given to the actors.

But most of the actors nominated tonight worked their way through the ranks to get to this moment, working on more mainstream projects. When that happens there tends to be a trading card or two that get signed  As it turns out this year the majority of the frontrunners for Oscar gold have certified autograph trading cards. Of those that do, the majority of them are Rittenhouse Archives cards.

So lets take a look at some of these autographs.